classroom resources – the springsweet

the springsweet.com

The Springsweet
By Saundra Mitchell
Harcourt Children's Books
ISBN-13: 978-0547608426
Publication Date: 04/17/2012
thespringsweet.com

Resources for the Classroom

As an educator, you know your students best. As an

author, I believe one of the best ways to learn is to play
with the material. To save you time, I've created some
standard classroom tools for The Springsweet, including
vocabulary lists and writing prompts.

But I also welcome you and your students to remix, rewrite, sequelize, prequelize, adapt
or expand on the text- reading and writing is what builds readers and writers!

Obligatory legal note: this permission extends only to classroom or private, non-
profit use. It does not transfer any rights, including, but not limited to, foreign rights,
translation, theatrical, production, radio, digital or print rights.

For rights purchase information, please contact Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich
Literary Management, One Union Square West, Suite 904, New York, NY 10003, (212)
627-9100.

Free School Visits

I am always excited to participate in your classroom- and always aware of how tight a
school's budget can be. I am available for traditional school visits for a fee (reduced in
Indiana,) but I'm also available for remote school visits of 30 minutes for free.

All you need is a computer with Internet access, a microphone, and a copy of the free
Skype software available at http://www.skype.com. I have the same software and a
webcam, so your students will be able to hear and see me- and ask me questions in real
time, just like they would in a physical visit.

For more information, please stop by my website at www.saundramitchell.com.

THE SPRINGSWEET ~ Teacher's Guide

You are free to copy, use, and re-use this guide.
You may not publish, repackage or sell this guide.
 classroom resources – the springsweet
the springsweet.com

Vocabulary List ~ The Springsweet, Chapter by Chapter

Chapter One Chapter Nine

sideboard, muslin, guise, dissipated, ire, expectation, perturbed, lithe, interjection
shanty, pristine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Two tantalizing, agog, chivalry, quail, geyser
gossamer, valance, befitting, artifice, imp,
convulsion, commotion, disheveled, Chapter Eleven
embellished, grizzled, yoked conspire, indiscretion, rectify,
circumnavigation
Chapter Three
infidelity, expectorate, quavering, scruples, Chapter Twelve
reclamation, trundled, buckboard, feral, naïf, dandy, compromise, frolic, scry, ninny,
utilitarian, stalwart, unencumbered, preternatural, salacious, extricate, scullery,
bedraggled confound, prudent

Chapter Four Chapter Thirteen

sodden, muzzle, brazenly, boudoir, jackanapes, gall, affront, vibrato, cheroot,
rhapsodize, flounce, bluster, charlatan, vexing, respite
dowser, extol, emulate, repute,
embellishments, cambric, tintype, animosity Chapter Fourteen
intimation, desolation, aggrandize,
Chapter Five nefarious, dissemble
yoke, tentative, chicory
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Six mottled, burgeoning, dumbfounded
composure, atone, discomfit, wastrel,
temperamental, spinster, deter, quelling, Chapter Sixteen
clarity, lowing, geist, phantasm, primordial, rivulet, kaleidoscope, enunciate
impressionable, impetuous
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Seven thwart, cajole, simplicity, pungent,
reverberate, remonstrate, effluvia, tremor, effervescent, restive, frippery
guile, phaeton, invigorating, dollops,
insinuation, affinity, ascertain Chapter Eighteen
infernal, apocalyptic, unrelenting, jounce,
Chapter Eight totter
manifest, inclination, propriety, aplomb,
doggerel, effected, dissuade, malignant, Chapter Nineteen
anarchy, diversion, malcontent enormity, visceral, audacity

THE SPRINGSWEET ~ Teacher's Guide

You are free to copy, use, and re-use this guide.
You may not publish, repackage or sell this guide.
 classroom resources – the springsweet
the springsweet.com

Writing Prompts ~ Writers are Readers, and Readers are Writers

Critical Thinking

• Do you think Zora did the right thing when she and the other stage passengers
were robbed? Why or why not?
• What do you think it would be like to live in a soddy? What do you think it would
be like to make your own soap and carry water from a well each day?
• Do you think it was romantic or unreasonable for Theo to follow Zora to
Oklahoma territory? Why?
• What do you think of Zora's decision to get to know Emerson instead of acting on
her attraction?
• Do you agree with Birdie's statement "If the destination doesn't matter, how is it
anything but running away?"

Fiction Prompts

• Tell the story of someone else at the Sugarcane Ball.

• Change one of Zora's decisions: what if she hadn't gone out west? What if she had
chosen to become a mail-order bride?
• Tell us what kind of person Louella might be in ten years.
• Write what happened at the barn raising dance from Emerson or Theo's point of
view.
• Write about another way Zora or Emerson could use their gifts.

Exploring The Springsweet's History

• Who was Nellie Bly?

• ... "Buffalo" Bill Cody?
• ... Annie Oakley?
• ... Christina Rossetti?
• Who were the Dalton Gang?
• What was a Land Run?
• Who are the Arapaho?
• What is a Sooner?

THE SPRINGSWEET ~ Teacher's Guide

You are free to copy, use, and re-use this guide.
You may not publish, repackage or sell this guide.
 classroom resources – the springsweet
the springsweet.com

Reading List ~ Good Books, Related Books

Fiction

• Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder

• The Revenant – Sonia Gensler
• Wildthorn – Jane Eagland
• The Gemma Doyle Trilogy – Libba Bray
• Hattie Big Sky – Kirby Lawson
• The Devil's Paintbox – Victoria McKernan
• Gabriel's Story – David Anthony Durham
• Tuck Everlasting – Natalie Babbitt
• Born Wicked – Jessica Spotswood
• Fever 1793 – Laurie Halse Anderson
• Texas Gothic – Rosemary Clement Moore

Non-Fiction

• Hearts West: True Stories of Mail-Order Brides on the Frontier – Chris Enss
• Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails – Kenneth L.
Holmes, Ed.
• Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier – Joanna Stratton
• Children of the West: Family Life on the Frontier – Cathy Luchetti
• The Lakota Ghost Dance of 1890 – Rani-Henrik Andersson
• Pioneer Women: The Lives of Women on the Frontier – Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith
• The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories –
Barbara M. Walker and Garth Williams
• The Black West – William Loren Katz
• In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the West – Quintard Taylor

THE SPRINGSWEET ~ Teacher's Guide

You are free to copy, use, and re-use this guide.
You may not publish, repackage or sell this guide.