Background Info for Out of the Dust

Since this is my first year teaching a section of eighth grade ELA (another teacher is teaching the other two sections), my book list was pretty much set.  In some ways this restriction is frustrating, but in other ways, I am glad.  It can be a little easier planning.  Secondly, I don't know that I would have picked up and read the book Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Author Bio).  I am not as strong at teaching poetry as I would like to be, nor did the topic of the Dust Bowl seem that interesting.  This book is now one of my favorites to teach; I love this text for so many reasons.

I did two different mini lessons to "set up" this novel.  The first was to explore what students thought were elements of the genres "novels," "poems," and "journals."  They made a list on the board, and I photographed this list to review at the end of this text.  Throughout the novel I have referenced many important details of each genre, without being too obvious.  I am curious to see how the students will classify this text after tomorrow's novel review.

The second mini lesson I did to set up the novel was to provide the students with some background knowledge about the Dust Bowl.  My students would not have understood and/or enjoyed this novel as much if we did not discuss the scope of the Dust Bowl and how pervasive it was to every day life.  This information will also preview what they will be learning later this year in their history class.  We orally did a KWL chart during the class period.  After talking about what they THOUGHT the Dust Bowl was, I had the students do simple "research" to uncover more details.  I had about fifteen random books from the library (adult and children's nonfiction) in addition to a laptop for each table.  The groups had to discover a minimum of ten facts about the Dust Bowl.  They then needed to select their top three favorite facts for a board outside our classroom.  They wrote these facts on "dust bunnies" (their term--they were SUPPOSED to look like clouds of dust)--facts written on brown paper bags in semi-random shapes of clouds.  Their top details could not duplicate any other group's.  Students gave a short presentation of their findings.

After this was complete, I assigned the students a short, two-page non-fiction comprehension assignment summarizing the Dust Bowl.  I used a worksheet I printed from EdHelper (I like this website as an inexpensive way--approx. $20/yr--to get me a basic teaching package the first time I teach a novel.  I've been able to get materials such as quizzes and tests for most of the novels I teach in 7th and 8th grade.  I adjust them as I go).

Visuals.  I showed pictures of the Dust Bowl from the Library of Congress website (click HERE).  The next day we engaged in the Interactive Dust Bowl on the PBS website (click HERE).  I had watched the Burns documentary on PBS to get ready to teach this novel; if I were teaching both history and ELA, I would definately purchase it.

Catechism ties.  I love teaching this novel in a Catholic school.  There are so many examples of Christian charity from people who have so little to give.  There are also many examples of characters providing human dignity.  This novel gives some of those poignant Steinbeck moments, but at a level appropriate for junior high students.

Author Information.  I could not find a website maintained by Karen Hesse.  Link to a YouTube video for her 2009 novel (HERE) Brooklyn Bridge.  Scholastic has some biographical information, too (HERE) as does the Children's Literature Network (HERE).  The latter lists and gives short summaries of other books by Hesse.