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Maine Samplers Part 1V Emmy by Connie Jordan Green |
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Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1992 Summary: When Emmy Mourfield's father gets hurt in the coal mines, he is no longer able to support the family either financially or emotionally. Emmy and the rest of her family must work together in order to keep their company home and to put food on the table. But Emmy also tries to keep the family together despite her father's inability to cope with his physical handicaps. Level: RL: 3 IL: 4-6 grades Themes Family cooperation & coping with loss of income and possible loss of home Activities: 1. Music was an important element of the Mourfelds' lives. Because coal mining was such a vital part of our country's history, composers have written songs about this industry. Find some songs written about mining such as "I'm Proud to be a Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Sixteen Tons." Perform these songs for a school assembly, parents' night etc. The banjo was especially an integral part of their lives. Research the history of the banjo and include in your performance the information that you've collected by playing recorded banjo music, by displaying a banjo you have made out of household materials, or by locating a banjo and learning to play a folk song on that instrument. Compare and contrast the tuning, the style and the parts of a banjo with a guitar. 2. Find two or three biographies of people from the early 1900's. One example might be A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary or perhaps Milton Meltzer's Starting From Home, A Writer's Beginning. Compare and contrast Emmy and her family with the people from the biographies you have chosen to read using questions such as: are the settings in Emmy authentic? Are the characters believable? Are the foods the same as what Emmy's family ate and were they prepared the same way? 3. Think how your life would change if your father or mother lost a job. List some ways in which you could earn money or help your family. Write to local businesses to find out if they would hire you. If not, why? If yes, what would you need to know in order to be employed there? Go to your library and find how to write a resume. Then make one for yourself. Find out the laws in your city and state regarding starting a small business. Begin by going or writing to your city hall, library and the Small Business Administration. 4. Emmy's mother canned food to help feed the family throughout the cold winter months. Find some recipes on how to can food and have the class prepare one of those recipes. Then store your canned goods in a safe place and eat it in the winter. Make a wall chart showing the sicknesses or diseases that a person could be subjected to due to the consumption of poorly canned food. Make a batch of biscuits as Emmy so often does. 5. Visit a local shelter and volunteer your time helping the homeless. If you volunteer on a regular basis, keep a journal of your experiences and feelings about the shelter and the people who are living there. If you visit a shelter once, write a short piece about your observations and reactions. Keep in touch with one person at the shelter to find out what happens to him. Does he find a home, a job, etc.? 6. Write to some companies such as Comprehensive Rehabilitation Association in Bangor or the unemployment office in your area to find out what happens when someone gets hurt on the job. How does she go about getting back to work? Who pays for the disability paychecks? What other resources are available to her? 7. Mr. Peterson told Emmy's Ma that due to company rules the Mourfields would have to move because Pa didn't work in the mines any more. That is just one of the many reasons the miners and their families were in favor of organizing a union. Research the history of unions and then find a local company or school that has a union. Talk to the union representative, the employees and the management about the pros and cons of having a union in their company or school. Are unions today fighting for the same concerns as unions in the past? Hold a debate to present your findings. 8. Include in your research the subject of landlord laws to see if indeed Mr. Peterson had the right to evict the Mourfields. Do laws vary from state to state or town to town? What recourse do tenants have? What problems do landlords run into? 9. Emmy and the other characters in the book have distinct personalities. Choose a character from Emmy and web the personality traits that character possesses. (See the diagram on the next page.) Caption the web with a sentence or two about why you chose this person. Then make a web of your perception of your own traits. Compare and contrast your two webs. Ask a friend to look at your webs with a constructively critical eye? After you have received feedback, make a final copy of your webs.
10. Green makes excellent use of sensory detail. One of the ways she appeals to the sense of sight can be seen in the following sentence: "Dirt was plentiful around the mining town, most of it was black with coal dust that when it was wet it looked like good, rich chocolate " (p 16.). While reading Emmy make a list of phrases and sentences appealing to each of the five senses. After you have read the book and found at least one descriptive sentence for each of the five senses, use your examples to compose an original poem. 11. Why do you think baseball was so important to Everett? Research the history of the sport. During a physical education class organize a baseball game and incorporate some of the original rules used in the sport. Resources: Homelessness
Unions:
Physical Handicaps:
Prejudice:
Coal and Coal Mining:
Baseball:
Music
Prepared by Denise S. Gerow, UM student, Children's Literature |
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