Least Tern > English Class > MS Fiction

The House of Dies Drear

by Virginia Hamilton

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This study guide was created for Middle School
by Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain

Reading Questions | Related Web Sites & Other Resources | Vocabulary | Character & Concept maps | For the Teacher

click triangle sections below to follow links

Reading Questions ~ By clicking the triangle, you will find reading & discussion questions and short writing topics for each section of the novel. These are meant for teachers and for students reading the novel independently. Students reading the novel in class should use the following links to a different set of questions:
                       

Chapters 1-3
Chapters 4-7
Chapters 12-19 - Take home quiz

Reading Exercises:
Cloze Reading #1 - Harriet Tubman
Cloze Reading #2 - Dies Drear Chapter 3
Reading Passage #1 - Underground RR
Reading Passage #2 - Frederick Douglass
Reading Passage #3 - Puddin'head Wilson by Mark Twain

Writing Assignments related to reading - to be completed after the book has been completed.

Two Assignments : The first contrasts Alice's fall into the rabbit hole with Thomas's fall into the tunnel. The second is a creative assignment describing a dream.

Additional synthesis assignments: Themes, Motives, Conflicts, Secrets

Character and Concept Maps ~ Click the triangle to study or print the character & concept maps made 6th grade students. Students reading the novel independently should complete one of the additional exercises.

Related Web Sites ~ Click the triangle to find links to web sites and other resources which will help you to learn more about the author, the novel, and the historical background of the story.

Vocabulary ~ Click the triangle to find a word list for the book, by chapter and page.

These Vocabulary and Detail crosswords can be completed online or printed and completed by hand.

Drear Vocabulary Crossword, Chapters 1-3
Drear Vocabulary 1-29 - Matching Exercise
Vocabulary test #1 - retake it! (a Word .doc file)

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Related Web Sites & Other Resources
It is recommended that you start a web search at:  www.google.com

Virginia Hamilton ~

Biography - and resources
Virginia Hamilton homepage

Historical Background ~ Do your research in Encarta for the keywords in red. All of these topics can be searched online. You might select BJ Pinchbeck as your starting point, rather than a search engine. If you do not know how to do a multimedia search in Encarta, please find out before you begin.

Slavery in the United States:

• Primary documents from the Avalon Project
• The Encyclopedia of Slavery - short articles on people and general topics
• This Collection Connection from the American Memory collection at the Library of Congress focuses on the African-American Experience in Ohio. It contains background information that will enrich your reading of the novel.

A timeline of Black History

Underground Railroad:

• North Star
• good map from National Geographic
• another map

Elijah Anderson - Use Edit-find to locate the information about Elijah Anderson on this Kentucky's Underground Railroad page.

Harriet Tubman - see also the general links above

• a profile and interactive quiz
• an interactive page on Harriet Tubman

The Civil Rights Movement in the United States - Voices of the Civil Rights Era

Life in America in the time of Dies Drear - see United States History, Sectional Rivalries in the Encarta and follow the general links to Slavery topics above.

Abolitionists

• A short introduction to the antislavery movement with links to further information and biographies
• from About.com, links to short biographies and other topics

The French Renaissance - see France, Renaissance in Encarta and the links under Objects below.

About the Novel ~ Web links are underlined~ Do your research in Encarta for the keywords in red.

Make a map of the drive from Asheville, NC to BlueField, WV, then to Yellow Springs, OH - Blue Ridge Parkway

Architectural features ~ what the house might have looked like

Animals ~ bobwhite quail - picture and call, gerfalcon or gyrfalcon or falcon

Plants ~ mullein weed and a picture, Ohio trees, hyacinth, fern, catalpa tree, chicory

Natural phenomena ~ limestone, mineral springs, stalactites and stalagmites in Ohio Caverns, and another photo, resin

Objects from the novel ~ Mr. Pluto's buggy, a bellows - see Forging in Encarta, a captain's chair, Greek cross, monk's cloth, stovepipe hat, high-button shoes, Pesty's bonnet, totem pole, French Renaissance furniture & art - see Interior Design/Red Drawing Room and Reception Room - see also Furniture/French Baroque and here for a desk similar to that in the novel, Persian carpets - see Rugs and Carpets, hand blown glass and also illustrations, penicillin, natural medicines, picket fence, turpentine

Other ~ topics in red can easily be researched in Encarta ~ Internet links are underlined

• Go Down Moses (lyrics) & other hymns - see Gospel Music and Hymns

• Baptist religion, Methodism and African Methodist Episcopal Church, Presbyterian

• Tuscarora, Algonquin, Mohegan

• We Wear the Mask - see Paul Laurence Dunbar - & other poems

• Stage makeup

• Pluto, god of the Underworld

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Vocabulary by chapter & page
(all page numbers are for the Aladdin Paperbacks edition, 1968)

You are required to know spelling, pronunciation and the stressed syllable for each word.
You must be able to define the word as it is used in the novel.  You may copy the definition from your dictionary.
You must write your own sentence for each word.

	Chapter 4		Chapter 5		Chapter 6		Chapter 7
47	serene	61	solemn, gaping	78	jowls	83	menacing, threshold
54	sod	62	brackish	80	rounder	85	cordial, shifty
58	forlorn	63	varicolored			86	pose
59	hew	68	commotion, crestfallen			87	hobble
		71	meander, pry			88	specter
		72	furrows

	Chapter 8		Chapter 9		Chapter 10
99	varnished	108	hoecakes	127	refuge, stifled, runagate
100	ajar	113	progression	132	hawk-eyed, shrewd, feign, disinterest
101	clammy, cumbersome	116	accumulate, intruder	133	to gauge, standoffish
104	stealthily, ornate, parlor, lapse	117	confide	134	clannish, frayed
105	vapor, to skirt, metallic	119	fondly	135	lulled
		120	tulle	137	congregation
		121	endure, sinister	139	drone
		122	incline	140	sheer, malice, grave
				142	bemused, milled around

	Chapter 11		Chapter 12		Chapter 13
146	aloofness	164	sprawling	174	hillock
148	dispense with, garret, glumly	167	tread	175	sconce
150	vicious	169	dread	176	eerie, scoundrel, recoil
158	meander			178	forge,
160	rednecks

	Chapter 14		Chapter 15		Chapter 16
184	sentinel, stupendous, cavern	202	awe	215	anguish
185	veneered	203	obsessed, fanatical	218	reprimand
186	tapestries, fleetingly, amassed	204	heritage, zeal	223	peeved
187	interspersed, prism	206	mortal, plunder, whim	224	uproariously
188	hues, winch, murky, convulsively	207	prophet	225	in unison
189	curator, oblong	208	venture
190	ledger, barter, dumbly, vaguely	210	vandal
192	ruse, legacy
194	rasp
195	probe, withering
196	phantasm

	Chapter 17		Chapter 18		Chapter 19
226	shroud	246	phosphorus	267	vaulted
228	cherish, squatter	247	gossamer	268	inventory
229	premonition	248	menacingly	272	legacy
231	inkling, dank	249	to fidget
240	bushel, splendor, remote	251	prospect, apparition, grim
241	legitimate, steadfastness	254	stealthily
		258	translucent, muffled, husky
		259	specter, tormentor
		260	malice

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For the Teacher:

These materials were produced for a 6th grade laptop classroom. They assume familiarity with Internet searching and downloading, the availability of an online or CD encyclopedia (Encarta is specified, but any one will do), and word processing skills. Concept and Character Mapping can be done in Word, AW, on paper or in any other medium. If you have Inspiration, however, it is the best.

This novel follows nicely after Alice in Wonderland and nicely precedes Haroun.

The reading questions, study questions, take home quiz, and writing assignment may be printed or downloaded and adapted.

Tests for the novel are available to teachers. Please contact Least Tern.

Least Tern

Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain 5/12/03