Author: Karen Hesse
Copyright: 1999
Publisher: Scholastic Inc,
Publishing City: New York, New York
Reading Level:
-- Grade Level Equivalent: 5.1
-- Lexile: 660L
--Interest Level 3-7
Captivating.
Verse.
Perseverance.
Grief.
Great Depression.
Genre: Poetry, Historical Fiction
Delivery Suggestions: Read a-loud, small group
When Billie Jo’s mother dies in an accident she takes on even more responsibilities to help her family survive the years of the dust-bowl and the depression. Billie Jo lives in the Oklahoma Panhandle during the middle of the dust bowl. Her one joy is to play the piano, but after the accident her hands are badly burned. After the death of her mother and baby brother, Billie Jo and her father become strangers living under the same roof. Will Billie Jo and her father be able to repair their relationship? This book is told in a poem cycle.
Helpful Links and Teaching Strategies:
Electronic Resources:
Before, During, and After Reading Strategies:
Devastating – highly destructive or damaging
Bleak – lacking vegetation and exposed to the elements
Civil – courteous and polite
Scowling- frown in an angry or bad-tempered way
Plugger – rural workers who live a typical working-class American lifestyle
Spindly – long or tall and thin
Gripe – a complaint, especially a trivial one
Feuding – taking part in a prolonged quarrel or conflict
Writing Activity: Students will create their own poems based on themes presented in the book.
Copyright: 1999
Publisher: Scholastic Inc,
Publishing City: New York, New York
Reading Level:
-- Grade Level Equivalent: 5.1
-- Lexile: 660L
--Interest Level 3-7
Captivating.
Verse.
Perseverance.
Grief.
Great Depression.
Genre: Poetry, Historical Fiction
Delivery Suggestions: Read a-loud, small group
When Billie Jo’s mother dies in an accident she takes on even more responsibilities to help her family survive the years of the dust-bowl and the depression. Billie Jo lives in the Oklahoma Panhandle during the middle of the dust bowl. Her one joy is to play the piano, but after the accident her hands are badly burned. After the death of her mother and baby brother, Billie Jo and her father become strangers living under the same roof. Will Billie Jo and her father be able to repair their relationship? This book is told in a poem cycle.
Helpful Links and Teaching Strategies:
Electronic Resources:
- The Great Depression https://kidsconnect.com/history/great-depression/ This website contains information and facts that are assessable to kids. Students can gain background knowledge from this site.
- Blabberize: Students can record themselves reading the poem that they have written.
Before, During, and After Reading Strategies:
- Before Reading: Students will be introduced to words from throughout the text, including but not limited to the vocabulary words from below. Students will then conduct a word splash, where they write a story using the vocabulary from the text. This introduces the children to the meanings of the words, as well as allows for a fun "after reading" to compare if anything they said actually happened through using the similar vocabulary.
- During Reading: Have students keep a journal. Have them answer what has happened in the text so far, as well as note any key details. Allow students to write, draw, or a combination of the two within the journal in order to allow for them to fully express the meaning of the story for them.
- After Reading: Expert Jigsaw, allow students to first meet in a group discussing the same key questions about the text, then have the students mix with others who had different questions and discuss all the questions relating to the text.
- Use this book to teach:
- Elements of Poetry
- Social studies and the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression
- Historical Fiction
Devastating – highly destructive or damaging
Bleak – lacking vegetation and exposed to the elements
Civil – courteous and polite
Scowling- frown in an angry or bad-tempered way
Plugger – rural workers who live a typical working-class American lifestyle
Spindly – long or tall and thin
Gripe – a complaint, especially a trivial one
Feuding – taking part in a prolonged quarrel or conflict
Writing Activity: Students will create their own poems based on themes presented in the book.