A Year Down Yonder

"Mary Alice is less than thrilled with the arrangement. Grandma's hickville farming community couldn't be more different from Chicago if it tried.."

When her father loses his job, life in Chicago isn't at all what it used to be for young Mary-Alice. The Great Depression has brought a negativity to the city unlike anything she has ever seen. Her parents decide it is best for her to move down South with Grandma Dowdel until they can return things back to normal. Hesitant to Grandma's ways Mary-Alice wants nothing to do with the idea but leaves Chicago to satisfy the wants of her parents. However, after a while she learns that living with Grandma sure has its benefits.

Websites

• When looking for ways to enhance the learning associated with reading A Year Down Yonder, teachers may consult this website. It offers ideas on how to incorporate this subject into other content areas and gives ideas for activities you might do in your own classroom. You may also wish to share some of the commentary from the author with your class
• An author study gives in depth information about the author's life. Students can learn about the ways in which he is just like anyone else and perhaps the motivation behind the majority of his stories.

Vocabulary

As I read I found a whole bunch of higher level vocabulary. Here is a list of terms that you may wish to review with your students before or as they are reading the story.

• antimacassar
• aristocracy
• bias
• confederate
• dervish
• forage
• forlorn
• invocation
• jonquil
• privy
• rapscallion
• repertoire
• variegated

Reading Activities

Before Reading

Give students a copy of the book. Have them look at the cover, the summary given of the book and perhaps the chapters. How much can they uncover about the book in doing this? What do they feel this book might be about?

During Reading

While reading A Year Down Yonder show your students some of Dorothea Lange's photographs from the Great Depression. Have them write a short essay on how it might have felt to live during that time. How do the pictures help them to sculpt this understanding?

After Reading

Once you have completed the story, pose this question to your class. Grandma Dowdel never seems to shows affection. How do you know that she loves her grandchildren? Have them write in depth answers comparing Grandma Dowdel to someone that they might know. They can also illustrate their answers with a depiction of how they envision Grandma.