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Story Summary:
Twelve-year-old Tim Meeker must deal with family conflict as his father and brother choose opposite sides in the American Revolution. Tim's father, a Connecticut tavern-keeper, thinks the colonists have some legitimate complaints against England but nothing serious enough to cause war. His brother, Sam, whom Tim idolizes, decides to join the rebel army and returns home from college wearing a rebel uniform, increasing tension in the family. Tim's ambivalence between his father's loyalty to the English crown and his brother's soldier patriotism is reflected in the shifting loyalties of his home town. When his father is captured by cattle thieves, Tim takes on adult responsibilities helping his mother run the family tavern. As the war continues, Tim sees the bitter social and economic consequences it causes, even among those who try to remain neutral. Eventually Tim loses both his father and his brother to the war. The author concludes with an epilogue set fifty years later in which he tells the reader that the story is a memorial to his brother and all those who died to make the colonies a free country.
View activities list for this Bookfolio.
Read-aloud Recommendation: Chapter IV, pages 46-60
| My Brother Sam Is Dead - Independent Activities |
Skills ? |
| 1.
A Conflict Web
(Mapping story conflicts)
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| 2.
Another Family's Story
(Creating a new set of characters)
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W
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| 3.
Movie Poster
(Drawing an ad)
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D
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| 4.
What's in a Name?
(Making a semantic map)
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D
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| 5.
Another Way?
(Writing an essay)
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S
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| 6.
Games Children Played
(Researching a topic)
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| My Brother Sam Is Dead - Group Activities |
Skills ? |
| 1.
Two Wars, Two Boys
(Comparing two books)
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, S
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| 2.
Another Ending
(Writing a new ending)
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S
, W
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| 3.
The Tide Turns
(Researching a topic)
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R
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| 4.
In Our Own Words
(Writing a summary)
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| 5.
Women With a Cause
(Writing a report)
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| 6.
"Let's Talk About..."
(Discussing the story)
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L
, S
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 All
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BookfolioPLUS - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Each BookfolioPLUS includes the Reading Guide (Chapter-by-Chapter Questions) and Bookfolio (Independent Activities, Group Activities,
and Multiple Choice Questions.)
Each Reading Guide contains a story summary, list of other books by the
author, book awards won by the book, and related websites as well as the following resources for your use in
your classroom.
The Reading Guide is designed to offer you many choices in using its contents. As with all our online resources, the contents and its design reflect input from classroom teachers who participated in their development. The following describes each section and teacher recommended choices.
Introducing the book: This section can be used to acquaint students with the story, the author, or the illustrator, to open a discussion that capitalizes on students’ prior knowledge, and/or to motivate student interest. While it is important to accomplish any one or more of the components above, it is more important to get them into the book as soon as their interest is peaked.
Ongoing activity: This activity is optional. It is designed to highlight an important feature of the book. Often this is based on the characters, the plot, the setting, the author’s craft, the illustrator, and any other literary element that students will be asked to observe throughout their reading of the book. The last question in each reading assignment focuses their attention on this feature. The Culminating Activity provides a follow-up to this activity.
Vocabulary: The vocabulary words for this list are sequenced according to their occurrence in the story. You can add words to the list or delete words according to your students’ needs. Page references are provided in the reading guide for your convenience. Space is available on the student guide should you prefer to add page references. When working with groups, you might encourage students to use context clues as well as picture clues where relevant for word meanings before using a dictionary, or integrate the words into your vocabulary program.
Discussion Guide: The discussion guide for each reading assignment can be used in a variety of instructional settings. You may choose to have students use the questions to guide them while reading or you might use them when you meet with your students after they have read the selection. A Student Guide version is available should you choose to have students use them as a guide in preparing for a group discussion. You may also choose to assign some of the questions, or add/edit questions in the space below the box. Finally, you might choose to assign just the ongoing activity and its related question (the last question for each assignment) to those students who do not require the question guide and benefit most from working independently. The instructional options are numerous.
Note: Possible responses and/or answer keys are not included as the questions, many of which are open-ended, are designed to encourage a variety of responses. The intent of the questions is to guide the students toward a more interactive and engaging discussion of the story and its many views. Such a discussion is taken to a higher level when the teacher is also an active participant. Questions that generate a more literal response are included when necessary to help lead students toward a subsequent question that requires a more inferential response and/or a higher level of literary appreciation.
Related Bookfolio Activities: Correlations to activities in the Bookfolio are provided as a convenience for those who are using the Bookfolio.
Culminating Activity: This activity is a follow-up to the Ongoing Activity. It may take the form of a group discussion or group collaboration; or it may require an independent or group written response. After having read the book, students have the opportunity to revisit the book from a specific perspective, oftentimes with a focus on a literary element or feature unique to the title.
Student Guide Overview
The most important purpose for the Student Guide is to save you time by providing students with a hands-on guide, or a set of questions, to prepare for a group discussion. The vocabulary list for each reading assignment is also included. They could use the write-on lines to answer questions, take notes, respond to the last question and/or the On-going Activity, or write their own questions. Likewise students can personalize the vocabulary list by adding more words of their choice from the selection. Page references for the vocabulary words are not included on the Student Guide page, however you can add them if you feel they are necessary. Students will need to continue their work on additional paper if there is not enough space on the worksheet.
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