A Literature Unit for Rifles for Watie: Curriculum Connections, Vocabulary, Critical Thinking, Unit Tests, Cooperative Learning: Teacher Created Materials, TCM 413 [Paperback]

Harold Keith (Author), Michael Shepherd (Author), Patricia L. Miriani (Editor), Sue Fullam (Illustrator), Keith Vasconcelles (Illustrator), Teacher Created Materials (Technical Editor), Harold Verne Keith (Collaborator)

Book Description

This resource is directly related to its literature equivalent and filled with a variety of cross-curricular lessons to do before, during, and after reading the book. This reproducible book presents an exciting approach to teaching well-known literature! It includes sample plans, author information, vocabulary building ideas, cross-curriculum activities, sectional activities and quizzes, unit tests, and many ideas for culminating and extending the novel.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This full-length junior novel should hold a place with the best Civil War fiction for young people. The fighting takes place in the West. . . . A young farm boy joins the Union forces, becomes a scout, and thus temporarily part of Stand Watie's Cherokee Rebels. There is suspense in the telling and many a colorful character." -- "H." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Harold Keith grew up near the Cherokee country he describes in Rifles for Watie.A native Oklahoman, he was edu-cated at Northwestern State Teachers College at Alva and at the University of Oklahoma.

While traveling in eastern Oklahoma doing research on his master's thesis in history, Mr. Keith found a great deal of fresh material about the Civil War in the Indian country. Deciding he might someday write a historical novel, he interviewed twenty--two Civil War veterans then living in Oklahoma and Arkansas; much of the background of Rifles for Watiecame from the note-books he filled at that time. The actual writing of this book took five years.

Since 1930, the author has been sports publicity director at the University of Oklahoma. He is married and has a son and daughter.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 52 pages
• Publisher: Teacher Created Materials; 1st edition (November 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557344132
• ISBN-13: 978-1557344137
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,308,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular Historical Fiction, June 26, 2004

By 

D. Mikels "It's always Happy Hour here" (Skunk Holler) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rifles for Watie (Paperback)

I first read this delightful novel in 1968 or 1969. It continues to be one of my favorite books. Historian and former OU sports information director Harold Keith actually makes history "fun" for teenagers with this award-winning tale, as RIFLES FOR WAITIE gives readers a full account of the brutal Civil War campaign in the Indian Territories of the frontier.

At the heart of Keith's story is young Jeff Bussey, who joins a regiment of Kansas volunteers as a 16-year-old, idealistic adventure seeker. Jeff's idealism is short-lived once he confronts the horrors and barbarism of war; it is replaced by disillusionment, bitterness, fear. Although written in the Fifties, Keith cuts no corners in portraying the brutality of the Civil War in Oklahoma Territory; the reader can smell the smoke, hear the deafening roar of cannon, feel the bullets whistle past. And as young Jeff matures. . .becomes a battle-hardened survivor. . .he is sent on an assignment behind enemy lines--only to discover the men he is fighting are just like him: cold, tired, hungry, and ready to go home.

Wonderfully written and flawlessly paced, RIFLES FOR WAITIE is an absorbing read. Highly recommended for teenagers or history buffs wanting to learn more about the Civil War in Oklahoma.
--D. Mikels

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A terrific civil war tale of finding your true self., November 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rifles for Watie (Paperback)

Jeff, a 16 year-old Kansas farmer, is drawn into the Civil War when a group of Bushwackers attacks his farm. Along the way and path of war, he picks up new friends, good values, and many challenges. We liked this book because it really showed what the Civil War was all about (besides slavary) from a first hand detailed view.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as I remembered -- but ..., December 15, 2005

By 

Edison McIntyre (Durham, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rifles for Watie (Paperback)

I actually went back and re-read "Rifles for Watie" several months ago, more than 40 years after I had first encountered it. (It won the 1958 Newberry Award for children's literature and was a hot item in my elementary school library.) In reading the book as an adult, I was disappointed in the episodic construction of Harold Keith's narrative. He makes some big leaps as he jumps along through the Civil War; in some cases, several months pass between one chapter and the next. This weakens the development of the characters, in particular the youthful focus of the book, Jeff Bussey. At the end of the novel, despite his four years of experience as a combat soldier, spy, and lover, there is little sense that this teenager matures or changes. Even without war, and even sequestered in college, most kids do a fair amount of growing up between ages 18 and 22. At the end of a terrible war, Jeff seems to be as callow and even innocent as he was in his recruit days.

This failing, however, probably won't matter to the young audience for whom Keith was writing back in the 1950s. The book reflects the sensibilities of that era, especially in the equal regard in which Keith holds the supporters of both the Union and the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis Bussey, a Union soldier (named by his father after a respected Mexican War comrade from Mississippi!), learns to like and respect his Confederate adversaries, and he falls in love with a Rebel girl. The only real villain in the story is a Union officer. Even in the 21st century, younger readers (ages 8-14) will likely identify with Jeff and his perspective on the events of the 1860s. They also will enjoy Keith's colorful description of battles and soldiering, as well as the more sober scenes of the war's cruelty and destruction.

When "Rifles for Watie" was first published, it revealed to many Americans, including a lot of Civil War scholars, that the conflict had been irrepressible west of the Mississippi as well as in the East. Keith doesn't really deal with all the causes and ramifications of the war in the Indian Territory, and a search of the amazon.com website reveals many more recent scholarly books about the subject. But for readers young and old, "Rifles for Watie" still can be a painless introduction to the topic -- for all of that episodic narrative, it's still a Good Read.