Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1991
Summary: Based on the life of a young girl wh ose family tended a lighthouse off the English coast in the 1830's, Grace helps rescue survivors of the Forfarshire during a violent storm. This selfless act leads to fame and fortune. Grace must also suffer the accusations that she performed the deed for her personal gain.
Level: RL: 6 - 8 IL: 6 -12
Activities:
1a. Opposite the copyright page is a map noting the geographic locations cited in the text. Nevertheless, there is no indication of the country where the reader can find these locations. Use a geographical dictionary and gazetteer to gather information on the locations noted on the map and identify the country. Then locate that country in an atlas. Locate the geographical region that forms the setting for the novel on the map. The map at the beginning of Grace is less detailed because it was designed for a British audience familiar with the geography of Great Britain. Draw a map with the details helpful to American readers.
b. Classify the types of information found in a geographical dictionary, gazetteer and atlas. Which was the most helpful in supplying information on the setting of Grace? Explain.
2a. Grace contains a number of navigational/nautical terms and words and idioms used in 19th century Great Britain. Create a glossary for the novel by using a computer database. Consider the following:
- How can I classify the words and phrases included in my database?
- What are idioms? How can I recognize the idioms used in the novel?
- What are archaic terms? How can I identify the archaic terms used in the novel?
- Should I include annotations for unusual sentence structures from the novel?
- What different types of dictionaries will help me gather information on words included in my glossary?
- What is a "field" in a database? What fields should be included in each entry?
- How should these fields for each entry be arranged?
- How should the entries forming the database be arranged?
b. Write an "instruction manual" explaining how to create a database. Include graphics and helpful hints. Have your classmates evaluate the database using the criteria below:
Use the information from the evaluations to make revisions in your manual. Then use a desktop publishing program to "publish" your manual. Keep copies near the classroom and library computers. Also ask your librarian to place a copy in the vertical file.
3a. Before reading Grace, gather information on heroes and heroism. First create your own definition of these terms. Compare your definitions to those in a dictionary. Then survey ten classmates. What are their definitions of these terms?
b. Describe Grace Darling's heroic acts. List 3 or 4 adjectives that can be used to describe her actions. Being recognized as a heroine has its rewards as well as its negative consequences. What positive things happen as a result of Grace's fame? In contrast, why do some members of community resent Grace? How does the fact that Grace is female contribute to the negative feelings? What impact does this have on Grace?
c. Compare and contrast Grace and Abbie Burgess, a Maine heroine. (See resources below.) How are their stories and actions similar and/or different? Based on the investigations, what makes Grace Darling and Abbie Burgess heroines? Do they fit the definitions created in 3a? If necessary, revise your definition.
d. Analyze how the media portrays heroism. Do tabloid news show heroes such as those found Current Affair and Hard Copy have the same qualities as the heroes covered on the evening news or selected for such awards as the Nobel Peace Prize? Do movie heroes created by actors such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger meet the definition of a hero as illustrated in the stories of Grace Darling and Abbie Burgess? Draw conclusions based on your analysis and present your findings in the form of a visual aid such as a chart, webbing diagram, HyperCard presentation, etc.
e. Have the students in your class brainstorm a list of people who qualify as modern day heroes. Select one from the list and develop a character sketch of this person. Be sure to support the dominant characteristic of this hero/heroine by referring to his/her actions and words.
4a. According to Kenneth L. Donelson and Alleen Pace Nilsen in Literature for Today's Young Adults (see references below), historical novels "should be historically accurate and steeped in the sense of time and place. . . . We should recognize totems and taboos, food, clothing, vocations, leisures, customs, smells, religions, literature, all that goes to make one time and one place unique from another." Divide your class into teams of three or four students. Assign each team several of the items noted above. Then have members of the team find sections in the text that provide information about their assigned items. Make sure to cite page numbers.Have each group summarize what they learned from these passages and present the information to the class. Include a visual aid in each presentation. [Hint: Social hierarchy and class structure might be included as "totems." One social taboo might be associated with gender, especially females who demonstrate heroic behavior or take on challenges usually reserved for men.]
Grace gives the reader insight into the lives of a lighthouse keeper and his family. What jobs do the various members of the Darling family perform at the lighthouse? Include Grace, her mother and father, and her brother Brooks. How are the members of the family who live on the mainland employed. Include Grace's sister Thomasin and brother George.
Who are the Crewe Trinity Brethren? What role do they play in operating the lighthouses? Cite passages where this information is located. Be sure to include page numbers. Ask your librarian to order Lighthouses: Their Architecture, History and Archaelology by Douglas B. Hague and Rosemary Christie (see resources below) from interlibrary loan. Read the chapter "British Lighthouse Administration" and pages on Trinity House noted in the index. Evaluate Paton's presentation of historical information on lighthouses. Is her information complete and accurate? Did she give too much, too little, or just enough information? Support your view by citing examples from the novel.
According to Donelson and Nilsen, one characteristic of a good historical novel is "evidence that even across great time spans people share similar emotions." Compare and contrast the life of the Darling family with families who lived in Maine lighthouses (see resources below). What similarities and differences do you see? To what extent do your observations support the above quote?
b. Read the "Author's Note" on pages 254 - 256 of Grace. In your opinion did Jill Paton Walsh do a good job researching the life and times of Grace Darling? What primary sources did she use? How did she incorporate these sources into the text of her novel? What secondary sources did she use? How did she evaluate the validity or accuracy of the secondary sources?
Obtain a copy of Abbie Burgess' letter describing the events of January 1856. (See Robert Thayer Sterling, Lighthouses of the Maine Coast in the resource section below.) Compare and contrast Abbie's version of the events with the equivalent sections of the three historical novels based on her heroic acts (see resources). Which book is the most historically accurate in light of Abbie's letter? How much artistic freedom does each author take when writing about historical events? In your opinion, to what extent is it acceptable to go beyond the factual information to create a character or develop a scene? Work with your classmates to develop a criteria for judging historical fiction. Compare your criteria with the criteria presented in the Donelson and Nilsen textbook.
5. Grace Darling died of consumption, a disease known today as tuberculosis. What were the symptoms and treatments for people with consumption during the 19th century? To answer this question, use Grace and other resources found in your library.
Once thought to be under control, today tuberculosis is a major health problem. What is the cause of the recurrence of this disease? How is it being treated today? What can be done to protect yourself from this illness? To obtain information on this topic, interview your school nurse, health teacher, and/or doctor. Find out what is being done in Maine to track and prevent the spread of this disease by writing letter to appropriate state and local health departments and organizations. Hint: Use The Maine Register to find names and addresses.
6a. Trace the changes in lighthouse technology from early fire towers to today's automated lighthouses. Summarize your findings in the form of a timeline or HyperCard program. Explain the effect each improvement in technology had on navigation and transportation. Note: The chapter "Illumination and Fog Signals" in Lighthouses: Their Architecture, History and Archaelogy by Douglas B. Hague and Rosemary Christie is an excellent source of information on older technologies. For current articles on lighthouse automation, consult the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature and/or an electronic magazine index.
b. FOR MIDDLE, JUNIOR HIGH OR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: Ask your librarian to order Communications: Technology Education - Mathematics and Science Interface Project edited by Kenneth L. Smith (ERIC document, ED341572) on microfiche from the Information Exchange. Activities focus on the laws of refraction and the use of prisms and reflectors. This curriculum guide also reveals how scientists have developed light sources and used projection to maximize the potential of lighthouses. Select several activities from this guide and work with a partner to complete them.
c. FOR ALL GRADE LEVELS: Ask your librarian to order How Do People Use Lighthouses and Navigational Charts? A Marine Education Infusion Unit developed by the University of Maine College of Education and available on microfiche from the Information Exchange (ERIC document, ED211374). Activities include recognizing lighthouse characteristics, reading navigational charts and understanding navigational symbols, writing lighthouse poetry, determining longitude and latitute, and keeping a lighthouse logbook. It also has study questions for Abbie Burgess: Lighhouse Heroine by Dorothy Holder Jones and Rugh Sexton Sargent. Select several activities from this guide and work with a partner to complete them.
d. FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS: Many lighthouses are classified as historical landmarks. Learn how Project CAPE is preserving the Cape Hatteras lighthouse and its history. Have your librarian order the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Project CAPE Teaching Module by Bonnie K. Temple on microfiche (ERIC Document, ED214792) from the Information Exchange. Have your teacher help you use the activities in this guide to learn more about lighthouses.
Resources
Lighthouse Heroine Abbie Burgess
Jones, Dorothy Holder and Ruth Sexton Sargent. Abbie Burgess: Lighthouse Heroine. Down East Press. Another story of Maine's lighthouse heroine. This book is written for students in grades 5 - 8.
Olson, Arielle North. The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter. Little, Brown and Company, 1987. Based on an actual incident that took place at the Matinicus Rock Lighthouse, this picture book is the story of a young girl keeps the lights burning while her father is stranded on the mainland.
Roop, Connie and Peter. Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie. Carolrhoda Books, 1985. Based on the same incident related in The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter, this picture book is more thoroughly researched. It is suitable for children in the primary grades while Olson's book is meant for the intermediate grades. Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie, a Reading Rainbow selection, is also available on audiocassette through Live Oak Media.
Autobiographies of Mainers Who Lived and Worked in Lighthouses
Small, Constance Scovill. The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife. University of Maine Press, 1986. Connie Small shares her twenty-eight years of experiences living in Maine
lighthouses.
Wass, Philmore B. Lighthouse in My Life. Down East Books, 1987. Wass's family spent twenty-one years attending the Libby Island light. This book reveals the special life of a lighthouse keeper and his family.
Books About Maine Lighthouses
Sterling, Robert Thayer. Lighthouses of the Maine Coast and the Men Who Keep Them. Stephen Daye Press, 1935. Written by an assistant keeper of the Portland Head Light, this book describes the "romance and routine" of running a lighthouse, has interviews with lighthouse keepers, and gives brief histories of numerous Maine lighthouses. Included in the section on the Matinicus Rock lighthouse is a letter from Abbie Burgess recounting her experience during the storm of 1856. It is also filed with photos of lighthouses and their keepers, and contains diagrams of the interior of a lighthouse and primitive devises used to light the way at the beginning of the 18th century. A gem of a book.
Model Lesson Plans Available on Microfiche Through the Information Exchange
(See activity 6 for details on content.)
Butzow, John W. and others. How Do People Use Lighthouses and Navigational Charts? A Marine Education Infusion Unit. University of Maine, 1980. ERIC Document, ED211374.
Smith, Kenneth L. (ed.). Communications: Technology Education-Mathematics and Science Interface Project. Maryland Department of Education, 1988. ERIC Document, ED341572.
Temple, Bonnie K. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse: Project CAPE Teaching Module. Dare County Board of Education, 1982. ERIC Document, ED 214792.
Evaluating Historical Fiction
Donelson, Kenneth L. and Alleen Pace Nilsen. Literature for Today's Young Adults. Scott, Foresman and Company, 1989. The authors present an excellent criteria for evaluating historical fiction which can be shared with students. See pages 169 - 170.
Prepared by Marilyn Joyce, Stearns High School, Millinocket
