0i-12 Walk Two Moons 825321 - Glencoe/McGraw-Hill

1 Study GuideforWalk TwoMoonsby Sharon CreechTHEGLENCOELITERATURELIBRARYiiCopyr ight The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce materialcontained herein on the condition that such material be reproduced only for classroom use; and be pro-vided to students, teachers, and families without charge; and be used solely in conjunction with other reproduction, for use or sale, is prohibited without written permission of the all inquiries to:Glencoe/McGraw-Hill8787 Orion PlaceColumbus, OH 43240 ISBN 0-07- 825321 -7 Printed in the United States of America1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 045 05 04 03 02 01 Glencoe/McGraw-HillPhoto CreditPage 13: Courtesy HarperCollinsTo the TeacherThe Glencoe Literature Librarypresents full-length novels, nonfiction, and plays boundtogether with shorter selections of various genres that relate by theme or topic to themain reading. Each work in the Libraryhas a two-part Study Guide that contains avariety of resources for both you and your students.

2 Use the Guide to plan yourinstruction of the work and enrich your classroom For the Teacheryou will find these timesaving instruction aids: About the Work:pertinent background information on the work, including acharacter list, a plot synopsis, key themes, and an annotated bibliography Media Links:annotated listings of audio, visual, electronic, and print resourcesrelated to the work Teaching Options:high-interest activities for introducing the work andindividualizing instructions Assessment Options:alternative assessment activities for greater flexibility inevaluating students understanding of the work Options for Using Related Readings:suggested approaches to the Related Readingsincluded with the work Answer Keyand Assessment Rubrics:detailed answers to all questions and readingactivities and evaluation for alternative assessment activitiesFor the Studentconsists of these reproducible blackline masters: Meet the Author:a lively overview of the author s life Introducing the Work:background information that provides a meaningful contextin which to read the work Before You Readand Responding pages:pre- and post-reading questions and activities Active Reading:graphic organizers for students to complete as they read Test:a comprehensive two-part test of the workNOTE:This novel focuses on the concerns of many contemporar y readers.

3 Certain words, references,or situations may offend some the TeacherAbout the Work2 Character List2 Synopsis2 Major Themes in the Novel3 Approaches to Teaching the Novel3 Further Reading for the Teacher3 Media Links4 Teaching Options5 Options for Motivating Students5 Meeting Individual Needs6 Assessment Options7 Options for Using Related Readings8 Answer Key10 Assessment Rubrics12 For the StudentMeet Sharon Creech13 Introducing the Novel14 Chapters 1 11 Before You Read16 Active Reading17 Responding18 Chapters 12 22 Before You Read20 Active Reading21 Responding22 Chapters 23 33 Before You Read24 Active Reading25 Responding26 Chapters 34 44 Before You Read28 Active Reading29 Responding30 Related Reading Blackline Masters32 All My Relations by Linda Hogan32fromPa-ha-sa-pah or The Black Hills of South Dakota by Rev. Peter Rosen33the little horse is newlY by E. E. Cummings34 The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow34 Five Rounds by Lorenzo Baca35 Celebration by Alonzo Lopez35 moon by Chaim Potok36Te s t37 ContentsCopyright The McGraw-Hill Companies, TWO MOONSBYSHARON CREECHS udden death and the grieving process arenot subjects that lend themselves to walk Two Moons , however, SharonCreech addresses a child s profound sense ofloss in a novel that is often richly funny.

4 Ina voice that is homespun and true,Salamanca ( Sal ) Hiddle, Creech s thir-teen-year-old narrator, captures the peculiarbehavior of family and friends as she travelswest, following the journey her mother tookbefore losing her life in a bus accident. Onlyat the journey s end is Sal fully able toaccept the finality of her mother s only at the novel s end does the readergrasp the significance of the relationshipsbetween the characters and the incidentsthat occur along the way. Published in 1994,this poignant, comic novel the author ssecond book for young adults won the1995 Newbery will immediately respond toSal s quirky observations and colorful , however, that the novel is rich withidioms and regional colloquialisms that mayprove especially challenging for less-profi-cient students and English-language also that the story s numerous flash-backs and use of the frame technique maychallenge this population as well. CHARACTER LISTS alamanca Tree Hiddle,the thirteen-year-old narrator who cannot accept hermother s death until she retraces her stepson a journey to IdahoMr.

5 Hiddle,Sal s grief-stricken father Gram Hiddle,Sal s exuberant, eccentricgrandmother who dies on the trip to IdahoGramps Hiddle,Sal s colorful grandfatherand Gram s devoted husband who drives hiswife and Sal on the journey westMargaret Cadaver,Mr. Hiddle s friend andconfidante who was Sal s mother s seatmateduring the bus accident that claimed her life Phoebe Winterbottom,Sal s imaginativefriend whose mother, under strange circum-stances, leaves her family Mr. Birkway,Margaret Cadaver s brotherwho is Sal s and Phoebe s English teacherMrs. Winterbottom,Phoebe s respectablemother who keeps a secret about her pastfrom her family SYNOPSISFor reasons that are unclear to Sal Hiddle,her mother left the family farm in Kentuckyfor Lewiston, Idaho, and did not return. Sal sgrief-stricken father rents out the farm thatSal loves and uproots her to Euclid, Ohio, asuburb of Cleveland. Sal hates her new homeand cannot accept her father s disturbingrelationship with red-haired MargaretCadaver, a nurse who has persuaded to move to Ohio for work.

6 Sal refusesto believe that her mother will never summer, Gram and GrampsHiddle, Sal s paternal grandparents, take heron a six-day car trip from Euclid toLewiston, Idaho. Sal s goal is to reach theirdestination on Sal s mother s birthday. Thetrio travels westward, retracing the routetaken by Sal s mother. To pass the time, Sal recalls the eventsthat preceded her mother s departure and atGram s insistence, narrates a tale of her expe-riences in Euclid that past year. At the heartof the story is Sal s friend Phoebe Winter-bottom s grief over her mother s sudden disap-pearance. The imaginative Phoebe insists thather mother has been kidnapped by a s loss parallels Sal s loss, andPhoebe s story brings Sal s into sharperfocus. The mystery is solved when Phoebe smother returns home with the lunatic ason whom she gave up for adoption yearsbefore and whom her family has not beentold s story does not have a similar happyending. Gram is dying of a stroke, and SalAbout the Work2 For the TeacherWalk Two Moons Study Guidehas driven herself to Lewiston to visit thescene of her mother s reader finally understands that Sal smother, who had suffered from an identitycrisis, had set out for Idaho to find the bus in which she was ridingcareened off the road in Lewiston, all of thepassengers died except for MargaretCadaver, the last person to have seen Sal smother journey ends, Gram s body is sentback to Kentucky for burial, and Gramps,Sal, and her father return to their belovedfarm in Kentucky.

7 MAJOR THEMES IN THE NOVELS everal themes run through walk prominent ones are the errorof prejudging, the maturation process as ajourney, and the interconnectedness of error of novel s title isderived from the adage, Don t judge a manuntil you ve walked two Moons in his moc-casins. The error of prejudging is conveyedby Sal s determination to dislike MargaretCadaver without really knowing the truthabout her. In chapter 4, Sal says, Somehowit was easier to deal with Margaret if therewere reasons not to like her, and I definitelydid not want to like her. The maturation process as a beginning of the novel, Sal describes herdislike of her new environment and cannotunderstand why her father uprooted her fromher beloved Kentucky. By the end of thenovel, Sal appreciates what she has learnedfrom Phoebe and her family. In chapter 44,she says, Phoebe and her family helped me,I think. They helped me to think about andunderstand my own mother. The interconnectedness of Sal thenatural world possesses a spirit that can healher wounds.

8 On her way west, she prays tothe trees for her mother s return. Sal trea-sures the idea that her mother s spirit hasreturned to nature. In chapter 42, she tellsthe sheriff, She isn t actually gone at s singing in the trees. APPROACHES TO TEACHINGTHE NOVEL Teach walk Two Moonswith a focus on theframe, or story-within-a-story, that the main plot concerns Sal sjourney west and her ultimate acceptanceof her mother s death. This plot is theframe for the parallel story that Sal tellsher grandparents about her friend Phoebe smother s disappearance. Invite students toidentify parallel situations in each story,and ask them to consider why these simi-larities are important. Teach the novel with a focus on the com-ing-of-age genre. Explain that coming-of-age novels are those in which charactersexperience conflicts that force them tomake decisions that lead to their students to recall and describe com-ing-of-age stories that they have read orseen on TV or in the movies. Teach the novel with a focus on the first-person point of view.

9 Point out thatin a story narrated from the first-personpoint of view, the narrator is one of thecharacters, referred to as I. The readerexperiences events through that character seyes. Students should consider the narra-tor s relationship to the other charactersand whether the narrator s interpretationof events and of other characters motiva-tions is reliable. FURTHER READING FOR THETEACHER Newbery Medal Acceptance by SharonCreech and Sharon Creech by Lyle , Horn Book, July/August 1995. In heracceptance speech Creech discusses theorigins of walk Two Moons . An affection-ate profile of the author by her husband,Lyle D. Rigg, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Two Moons Study GuideFor the Teacher3 Videos The following videos may help students better understand the characters, cultural context,theme, and setting of the novel. The Education of Little Tree(1997, 112 minutes), rated PG; a coming-of age story about anorphaned Cherokee who is raised and tutored by his grandparents in the Smoky Mountains ofthe 1930s and meets difficulties after he is forced to attend the Notched Gap Indian School.

10 Homecoming(1996), with Anne Bancroft; rated PG; a drama about a family of four childrenwho are deserted by their mother and who are reluctantly taken in by their stern grandmother. Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills of South Dakota (30 minutes), explores sites visited by Salon her journey, including the following paintings can be used to engage students in a discussion about the status ofthe Native American people in society, past and present. American Progressby John Gast, 1872, shows an idealized Spirit of Progress floating overa plain filled with advancing wagons, trains, and parties on foot, while Indians and buffaloflee before them. Buffalo Road III Choicesby contemporary Native American artist G. Peter Jemison, illustrates, in the style of a collage, the choices that today s Native Americans must makebetween the traditional and modern ways of life. walk Two Moons , read by Kate Harper, presents the complete novel on four cassettes. Anabridged version, read by Mary Stuart Masterson, is also available on interested in learning about Yellowstone National Park can visit The TotalYellowstone Pageat site provides a wide variety of information from geysers and service stations to the latest wolf sightings.