The development of classroom materials that provide interesting and motivating resources for students can become an overwhelming and time consuming task. I have selected the book Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson and developed simple Internet challenge activities to encourage research skill development and a love of reading in Middle Grades students.

At the Middle Grades about 20 percent of our students have not mastered the skill of reading. Their difficulty is painfully obvious when they try to read out loud. These children will often stop and start, mispronouncing some words and skipping others entirely. The first casualty is self esteem. These children soon grow ashamed as they struggle with a skill their classmates have mastered. Children with reading problems are kept from exploring science, history, literature, mathematics and the wealth of information that is presented in print. (Isabelle Y. Liberman, Donald Shankweiler, and Alvin M. Liberman. Phonology and reading Disabilities Solving the Reading Puzzle.)

Reading is a learning tool for making sense of everyday life. The incorporation of various types of reading materials and activities helps to strengthen reading skills and motivate students to read more. By using various books, maps, newspapers, magazines, brochures and charts we can introduce our students to new information.

Fever 1793 provides us the opportunity to bring content area, historical fiction, to life for our students. Children are able to view yesterday’s world and compare and contrast the past to the present. The setting of the story provides historical and geographical information. The story has conflict situations providing us glimpses into cultural, economic and political issues.

Fever 1793 easily integrates not only social studies but science into the classroom.

August 1793. Fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook is ambitious, adventurous, and sick to death of listening to her mother. Mattie has plans of her own. She wants to turn the Cook Coffeehouse into the finest business in Philadelphia, the capital of the new United States.

Use the August 1793 worksheet to introduce students to life in historic Philadelphia. Many students will learn that this was our nation’s first capital. This worksheet does require the use of the Internet. If your school does not have Internet access you can use a software program such as SiteSnagger to download the files and give your students the feel of surfing without leaving your computer.

Next I use the Fever vocabulary worksheet to introduce new vocabulary to students. Words such as bedchamber and victuals that they may not have used in the past.

We have looked at the many important historical events that occurred in Philadelphia during the late 1700’s. Now we will look at Yellow Fever. See worksheet Fever 2.

Using the worksheet Yellow Fever students are introduced to information about the disease and how it is spread. Using the worksheet College of Physicians you can generate a great deal of class discussion about the doctor’s treatment practices of this time frame.

The story Fever 1793 offers a variety of ways to introduce both reading and historical fiction into the classroom. Other sites for information about this time see http://www.pbs.org and learn how many black Americans helped our nation through this difficult time. Simply search for Yellow Fever and you will get a detailed list of sites with more information.
http://www.pbs.org/search/search_results.html?neighborhood=%23&q=Yellow+Fever&btnG.x=10&btnG.y=12

Additional classroom activities can be generated by using the worksheet 1790 and the HistoryChannel.com to gather information about the years 1790-1799.

For Georgia QCC standards see the worksheet Fever QCC’s.

These activities will provide a thematic unit using the integration of social studies, science and technology to challenge and bring on board the reading challenged student.

You may download (2.4MB) and view a PowerPoint presentation on the ideas represented in this article.