Monday: Pages 3-51 in Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

Opening Activity or Journal (Level of Bloom's Taxonomy: Comprehension; TEKS 7.15A). Describe a time when you overcame a challenge or solved a problem.

Vocabulary (TEKS 7.6A-C):
Panhandle (pg. 4)
supremely (pg. 14)
foundation (pg. 15)
secondhand (pg. 19)
maggoty (pg. 29)
drought (pg. 31)

Activities (TEKS 7.12B&E): Review the title and author of the book. Discuss generally what you know about the book and what you'd like to know. Discuss poetry as an overall expression. Discuss rhyming poems versus non-rhyming poems. Have students read pages 3-51. Discuss the poem on page 13. Turn the page sideways and discuss what the poem looks like (piano keys). Discuss how the poem’s subject matter relates to what the poem looks like. Have students write their own picture poem (TEKS 7.12K). (examples: a poem about a tree, shaped like a tree; a poem about a balloon, shaped like a balloon, etc.)

Tuesday: Pages 55-114

Opening Activity or Journal (Level of Bloom's: Analysis; TEKS 7.11B). What does Billie Jo think of her situation? Compare that with what you think about her situation.

Vocabulary: (TEKS 7.6A-C)
Arizona (pg. 59)
desperate (pg. 61)
floorboards (pg. 63)
Guymon (pg. 67)
kerosene (pg. 71)
Russian (pg. 102)

Activities (TEKS 7.10J): Discuss the journal from the day. Discuss why the answers to the journals are opinions, not facts, and discuss the difference between fact and opinion. Have students read pages 55-114. Have students list 5 facts and 5 opinions found in Out of the Dust (fact example: Billie Jo lives on a farm; opinion example: Billie Jo hates everything about living on a farm). Have them cut each statement out. Have them mix up their statements and present each one to the class. Have the class vote on whether the statement is a fact or an opinion, and have the student put the statement in a jar labeled "fact," or a jar labeled "opinion."

Wednesday: Field trip to the Discovery Center

Thursday: Pages 115-171

Opening Activity or Journal (Bloom's: Synthesis; TEKS: 7.12H): How would Out of the Dust be different if it were written from Billie Jo's father's perspective? From her mother's perspective?

Vocabulary (TEKS 7.6A-C)
Cimarron River (pg. 125)
performing (pg. 127)
straddled (pg. 143)
ghostly (pg. 164)
ignitions (pg. 165)

Activities (7.23A-D; 7.12H): Have students read pages 115-171. Evaluate the film from yesterday's field trip. Discuss the difference in point of view on the Dust Bowl - the narrator of the film's point of view vs. Billie Jo's. Have students write a poetry entry or diary entry from either Mad Dog's (pgs. 91-93) or Livie's (pgs. 8-9) point of view. (Example: Livie left the Panhandle during the Dust Bowl, so her point of view would possibly be more understanding than Billie Jo's, since she didn't have to endure it as long. Maybe her diary entry would talk about her journey to California instead.)

Friday: Pages 172-227

Opening Activity or Journal (Bloom's: Synthesis; TEKS: 7.10H). Will Billie Jo ever get "out of the dust"? What does that title mean?

Vocabulary (TEKS 7.6A-C):
drenching (pg. 178)
brontosaurus (pg. 188)
tumbleweed (pg. 202)
certainty (pg. 221)
intentions (pg. 224)
sorghum (pg. 226)

Activities (TEKS 7.13C, or 7.12F&G): Discuss how Billie Jo has changed throughout the book. Label a classroom wall "Beginning", another wall "Middle" and another wall "End." Divide the class into three groups. Have one group discuss the changes in the plot of the book from beginning to middle to end. Have another group discuss how Billie Jo has changed from beginning to middle to end. Have the last group discuss how Billie Jo's relationship with her father has changed from beginning to middle to end. Have each group describe how each aspect of the book was at each point in time. Have each group post their examples on the appropriate wall.

(Example: Billie Jo called her father "Daddy" at the beginning of the book, so the group that deals with Billie Jo's relationship with her father would post "called him Daddy" on the wall labeled "Beginning." They would post "called him My Father" on the wall labeled "Middle." They would post "called him Daddy again" on the wall labeled "End." This would show one way Billie Jo's relationship with her father changed throughout the book.)