"This teacher's guide gives many wonderful suggestions of how to integrate subjects with the historical content of this novel. . .[and] suggests questions that challenge higher level thinking."—Susan Elliott, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Quinnipiac University; Literacy and Curriculum Development This guide is for Dorothea Jensen's award-winning (Literary Classics, Purple Dragonfly, eLit Awards, etc.) historical novel for young readers, A Buss from Lafayette. It contains bulletin board ideas, vocabulary exercises, varied student handouts, puzzles, games, reading comprehension quizzes, discussion questions, and both individual and class projects. Its cross-curricular activities include language arts/reading, social studies, mathematics, health/safety, art, music, dance, drama, recipes, and suggestions for real and virtual field trips. A full answer key is provided.
The main topics covered are the American Revolution, Lafayette's role in our War of Independence, Lafayette's Farewell Tour of America in 1824-5, and everyday life and customs in rural America in the 1820s.
Dorothea Jensen is proud to be one of a very few people who has boarded a pirate ship and attacked a Viking vessel manned by real Vikings wearing horns and furs. She was born in Boston, but grew up in Chillicothe, Illinois, site of the Viking adventure. She then earned a BA in English from Carleton College and an MA in Secondary Education from the University of New Mexico. She has served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South America, taught middle and high school English, tutored refugees in ESL, written grant proposals for various arts organizations, written a play performed in Noh style, and raised three children. Her first historical novel for young readers, THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM, has been used in classrooms for many years as an enrichment resource for kids studying the American Revolution. Her next novel, A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE, is set in 1825 in the small town in New Hampshire where she has lived since 1991. Dorothea also writes modern Christmas stories in verse. Modeled on the 19th century classic poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas", these award-winning Santa's Izzy Elves story poems feature decidedly 21st century elves savvy in modern technology.
At a book signing several weeks ago, I met a young woman who homeschools her two daughters. When I told her about Bublish and the kind of background information it is possible for authors to write about via this website, she immediately got it. "It's just like X-ray on Prime Video," she observed. This struck me as a singularly apt comparison. Like Prime Video's X-Ray, Bublish makes it possible for viewers/readers to learn a great deal about the "cast", the characters, the costuming,' trivia' and other background information about a story. The more I thought about what this woman (who also had the perspicuity to buy copies of both A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE and THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM) said, the more I realized that this is exactly the kind of information authors are able to post and readers are able to access on the Bublish website. Kudos to this clever young mom for figuring it all out in a nanosecond!
Book Excerpt
A Buss From Lafayette Teacher’s Guide
Clara Hargraves, a witty, spunky, fourteen-year-old girl, has a couple of big problems: she has a new stepmother (who used to be her old maid schoolteacher aunt), and she has red hair (which means she is constantly teased). During the last week of June 1825, her small New Hampshire town is abuzz about the Revolutionary War hero Lafayette’s visit to the state. What she learns about him and from him just might show Clara that her problems are not quite so terrible after all.
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