The Youngest Mountain Man by Gary Kelley
Teacher's Guide
Under Construction
Teacher's guide Introduction
Gary Kelley
This Teacher's Guide is
designed to allow middle grade teachers, and parents, to use
The Youngest
Mountain Man in three ways:
-as a teacher-read
historical fiction story, with added comments.
-as a social studies high-interest text. Though this is historical
fiction the survival, fur trade, and facts about Indian culture are
accurate.
-as a language arts novel study, complete with comprehension and
literary questions.
The Teacher's Discussion Guides for
each chapter give you questions to ask students as you, or they, read each
chapter. Some vocabulary words are included, as are literary devices your
students may learn.
The Literary Devices Practice Sheet, and poster, are included to provide you
with a lesson on literary devices before you begin to read the book so
students can watch for them. Most students will gain an understanding of the
literary devices by the end of the book because of this review. I'd suggest
leaving the poster up in the classroom as a reminder so students can point
out literary devices as they find them in other readings, or in
conversation.
The Study Quiz for each chapter can be used in several ways. You can copy
and distribute it before you read the chapter so students may answer
questions as you read each chapter aloud. (Questions are mostly in
chronological order for each chapter.) You may distribute the questions to
students and provide student copies of the book so they can answer questions
as an "open book" assignment. Or you can use the questions as a test after
you have read the chapter. An answer key has been provided.
Idioms.
The language of the mountain men was rich in
idioms, those colorful phrases like, "You're pulling my leg," which don't
mean what they say. There are two reasons for this. Many idioms were brought
to the west by pioneers who emigrated from the hills of Kentucky and
Tennessee where a large part of their communication was in the form of
inherited idioms. To them an idiom like, "He'll do to ride the river with,"
said more about a person's character in one phrase than you could tell in an
entire conversation. In a time when you had to size up a stranger quickly,
if someone said, "You can set your clock by him." it meant that he was
punctual, but even more important, that you could count on him no matter
what.
Other idioms were work related. "Keep your powder dry," actually meant what
it said because wet gunpowder would not fire in a flintlock rifle. But it
also meant be prepared, because your life could depend on it. "Up to Green
River," one of the most often used idioms meant anything done all the way,
wholeheartedly, the best it could be done. It came from the manufacturer's
mark on Green River knives which was near the handle. If a knife were
stabbed into something up to the Green River mark on the blade it was all
the way in.
You can have some lively discussions with students involving idioms.
Unfortunately, the "joy stick generation" is not familiar with many of the
idioms which add richness to our language.