A Buss From Lafayette Teacher’s Guide

Education & Reference

synopsis

Synopsis

"This teacher's guide gives many wonderful suggestions of how to integrate subjects with the historical content of this novel.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.

bio

Author Biography

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.

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Author Insight

Time Travel

This activity from the Teacher's Guide points to some of the most important reasons I wrote A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE. These are: 1) to bring historical events alive for young (or old) readers, and 2) to help them connect with fictional or real characters from another time. As I know from my own girlhood reading (in closets, mostly), accurate historical fiction (and I strive to make mine as accurate as possible) is an EXCELLENT portal to the past.

Book Excerpt

A Buss From Lafayette Teacher’s Guide

Time Travel

In the story, some things that are part of Clara’s daily living (such as curtsying and bowing and paying a bill with strawberry preserves) are quite different from our modern lives. Imagine you could be teleported to 1825. What would you find to be similar and different between Clara’s era and yours? The section in the center of the diagram is for experiences that you think are common to both time periods.

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Dorothea Graham Jensen

A Buss From Lafayette Teacher’s Guide

Synopsis

Author Biography

Author Insight

Time Travel

Book Excerpt

A Buss From Lafayette Teacher’s Guide

Comment on this Bubble