Length--92 pagesGenre--Historical Fiction
Lexile--770
Activities
- Plot graph as read
- Journal entries--voice, perspective, empathy (Sarny, Nightjohn, Mammy, slave, master)
- What would you sacrifice? (real or fiction)
- Poem with emotions (book generated)
- Research--underground railroad, slave owner, slavery, Civil War, causes, origins of slavery, plantations, crops, middle passage
- Letter to Gary Paulsen:
Gary Paulsen
c/o Children's Publicity
1745 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
Lexicon:
Hx Fiction
Plot
Exposition (setting, characters, conflict)
Sarny Nightjohn, Old Waller, Delie, Mammy
rising action
climax
falling action
resolution
Narrator--Sarny
protagonist
point of view
perspective
colloquial/dialect--ain't, I be dumb, Call them dog droppings or horse crap; The dogs be mean 46,
grammar
voice
mood
contraction
schema
context (figure out the words pg 28 sassafras--don't have to know everything to understand "calabash gourd" pg 29)
see below
Vocabulary--breeders, quarters, corn-shuck pallets, addled 42, cower 53, gaggle 55, extremity 74,
Discussion
What people are willing to sacrifice to be able to read/write
superstition--beliefs, anthropology, tradition, culture, diversity
symbol--"what does it mean? pg 38
simile/metaphor--"Made me think of thunder long ways off, moving in a summer sky (metaphorical)." pg 39
myth p 50
identity--culture, heritage, name--last name of master, derogatory labels--
crackers 57 (WOP, N, redneck, WASP, chink, etc.)
http://eq.uen.org/emedia/items/cbaaad47-6d5a-ce07-95b5-4f8c6507cfe3/1/
cartoon about the civil War
http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/freemovies/civilwar/