Novel Study

Character Sketcher

Your job as a Character Sketcher is to identify a character’s actions (traits) and explain or prove these traits, identify the character’s goal (what the character wants to do or accomplish), identify the problem and solution in the reading, and complete a sketch or illustration of the character.

You need to be aware that the character traits you will choose will be implied character traits, meaning…they are not directly stated in the passage. You really want to use descriptive words for your character traits. You do not want to use words like good, bad, nice, and mean.

Sometimes the solution to your character’s problem will not be in the section of the book that you are reading. In this case, you will need to come up with a possible solution for your character’s problem. When you begin artistically representing your character, try to use any physical descriptions from the text to help you. Your “artistic impression” needs to be on a separate sheet of paper. Here’s an example of how your Character Sketcher may look:

Character Name ______________________________

Implied Character Traits (3)

trait __________________ p. ____ par. ____

explanation of trait

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

trait _______________ p. _____ par. ____

explanation of trait

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. trait _______________ p. _____ par. ____

explanation of trait

__________________________________________________________________

Character Goal:

__________________’s goal is to

________________________________________________________________________

Problem:

__________________‘s problem is

________________________________________________________________________

Solution or Possible Solution: __________________________________________

My Hands

Billie Jo’s hands were a very important characteristic of her body. She could do many things with her hands that made her the character that she was. Trace both your left and right hands on the piece of paper. In each finger, label a characteristic or trait of Billie Jo. Be unique and descriptive. You can use any type of description to completely describe Billie Jo.

Break a leg!

In your assigned small group, choose a scene from the book that you think is important to the story of Billie Jo and her family. Organize your thoughts below in the outline and create a dialog and script that will best demonstrate this part of the book. Make sure everyone has a part, use props and dress-up clothes as needed. All groups will perform for the class!

Scene: ____________________________

Characters: _______________________ ______________________

_______________________ ______________________

_______________________ _______________________

Props: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dress-Up Clothes: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Important aspect of this scene (what is it showing?): __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Important dialog among characters that needs to be included:

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Multimedia Resources

Text Box: Features interviews with witnesses and remarkable archival film footage and photographs. Tells the heart-wrenching story of people who endured a series of almost Biblical scourges, from drought and famine to a plague of jackrabbits. I will use a clip of this film as a background builder in my unit.

Surviving the Dust Bowl

Steward/Gazit Productions, Inc.

PBS Home Video, 1998

Text Box: Americans struggling with the Great Depression. Portrays their dreams of peace and prosperity; fleeing of the “Dust Bowl” to find work in industries or other farms. How the FDR’s New Deal changed America forever. I will use a clip of this film as a background builder in my unit. The Great Depression:

Arsenal of Democracy

Blackside Productions, Inc.

PBS Home Video, 1993

Text Box: Excerpts from newspaper clippings, archival letters, and other documents noting the economic time of the 1930’s . I will use clips from this to build background on President Roosevelt.

The Speeches Collection: FDR

MPI Home Video

1987-1990

Text Box: A story of the Joad Family and their migration to California from their Dust Bowl farm in Oklahoma in the 1930’s. I will use this as a background builder in my unit to show an example of family life during this time.

The Grapes of Wrath

Fox Video

1996

Text Box: A documentary that compiles news clips from the 1930’s to chronicle the entire decade of The Great Depression. Series of clips of FDR. I would use clips from this film to build background information.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Documentary 1975

www.carolhurst.com/titles/outofthedust.html

This site includes a review of the book, activities, related books and internet sites. I used this source to give me ideas on related activities and books.

www.ala.org/ala/booklinksbucket/outdust.htm

This site includes a review of the book and discussion questions for sections of the book as well as related literature to research. I used this source for related literature for my unit.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl

This website give ample information on the Dust Bowl. It includes maps, timeline, interviews, and teacher resources. This site also coincides with the PBS film Surviving the Dust Bowl. I used this site for ideas of activities in my unit as well as an internet source for my students to use in their Internet activity.

www.plc.vic.edu.au/library/outdust/dust.htm

This site is excellent for teachers! It breaks the book into areas of content. Focuses on theme, history, interviews, etc. It includes great activity ideas, pictures, and related literature. I used this site as ideas for my unit activities.

http://www.nashville.k12.tn.us/CurriculumAwards/PercyPriest/Out_of_the_Dust.html

This is an excellent teacher site for using this novel. It includes discussion questions, internet websites, assessment, project ideas, tools, etc. I used this site to get ideas for my activities.

http://wneo.org/WebQuests/TeacherWebQuests/dustbowl/dustbowl.htm

This is a great webquest for students to complete on this novel. I did not use this site, only thought it would be a great resource.

http://www.eduscapes.com/newbery/98a.html

This site gives the summary of the book, teacher resources for activities, links to information on the Dust Bowl, discussion questions, classroom connections, movies, and other historical information.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html

This site comes from the Library of Congress. It has great links to further research on this time in American History. I did not use this site, only thought it would be a great resource.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/99/dust/intro.html

This website includes curriculum guides and lesson plans for teachers when using this novel in the classroom. It is a great site for getting ideas on discussion questions and activities. I used this site for activity ideas for my unit.

http://www.bcps.org/offices/lis/models/outofthedust/

This site is a teacher’s guide to creating a research project for the novel Out of the Dust. It includes great links to ideas. It has the book sectioned out and a rubric for assessing. I did not use this site, only thought it was a good resource.

http://web.syr.edu/~etjanick/hesseactivity.htm

This is a site for suggested response activities for students as individuals, small group or whole group. I used this site as a source for activity ideas.

http://www.familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,22-15323,00.html

This site has activities, quizzes and fun information for students to use for this book! I did not use this site, but thought it was a good resource.

Unit Books

Fiction

Text Box: As a great wall of dust moves across their drought-stricken farm, a family's distress is relieved by a young man called Drylongso, who literally blows into their lives with the storm. This book discusses dust storms that affect farm life for an African American family in the 1970’s west of the Mississippi. The book is based on the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s.

DryLongso

Tony Johnston

Robert Duncan (illus)

1994, Penguin Group

Text Box: A depiction of the lives of ordinary people striving to preserve their humanity in the face of social and economic desperation. A family moves to California to find land to farm. It captures the horrors of the Great Depression as it probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America.

Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck

2003, Viking Press

Text Box: A family seeks work during the Great Depression as potato diggers in Idaho. This story links to family trials and tribulations that Billie Jo and her family experience during these hard times in America. Potato: A Tale from the

Great Depression

Kate Lied

Lisa C. Ernst (illus)

1997, Publisher’s

Group West

Text Box: Eleven-year old Annie and her friend Violet tell the hardships endured by their families when dust storms, drought, and the Great Depression hit rural Oklahoma. This novel coincides directly with Billie Jo in Out of the Dust. It includes themes of friendship, courage, and dreams. Treasures of the Dust

Tracey Porter

1997, Harper-Collins

Publishers

Non-Fiction

Text Box: Describes the plight of the migrant workers who traveled from the Dust Bowl to California during the Depression and were forced to live in a federal labor camp and discusses the school that was built for their children. Includes photographs taken during this period of American history. Children of the

Dust Bowl

Jerry Stanley

1992, Crown

Publishers, Inc.

Text Box: An account of history written by a small girl in diary entries. It portrays family, economic, farming, popular culture, and contemporary issues of the Great Depression time. The events mentioned really happened and can be directly related to Out of the Dust in this sense.

Rose’s Journal

Marissa Moss

(author/illus)

2001, Harcourt, Inc.

Text Box: Describes the economic and environmental conditions that led to the Great Depression and the horrific dust storms that drove people from their homes westward during the 1930’s. Describes family life, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and includes photographs.

Driven from the Land

Milton Meltzer

2000, Benchmark Bks.

Text Box: Retelling of the “twin disasters”, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in the 1930’s. There was a cycle of unemployment, poverty, and despair that effected every man, woman, and child. Focuses on struggle of survival and the role of the Federal Government. Includes actually photographs.

Dust to Eat

Michael Cooper

2004, Clarion Books

Text Box: Introduces the lives of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor, distant cousins who married in 1905 and helped guide the country during the Great Depression, Dust Bowl, and World War II. This was the President of the USA during Billie Jo’s Dust Bowl experience.

Franklin & Eleanor

Cheryl Harness

(author/illus)

1992, Crown

Publishers, Inc.

Text Box: This author highlights the trials and tribulations of the people of America in the 1930’s. He discusses how Americans kept a positive outlook on life, new programs like the New Deal by FDR, and the Dust Bowl. This book displays the tremendous work that American accomplished to push through the economic disaster.

The Great Depression

In American History

David K. Fremon

1997, Enslow

Publishers, Inc.