Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!
Publication Information
Author:  Schlitz, Laura Amy	Illustrator:  Byrd, Robert
Title:  Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!	Date:  2007
Publisher:  Candlewick Press	City:  Cambridge, MA
ISBN, paperback:  978-0-7636-1578-9	ISBN, hardback:
Recommended audience:
ABE/ABLE:   Yes	ESOL:
Family:	Young Adult:   Yes
Picture:   Yes
General Information:
Book Type(s):    poetry, historical fiction
HSE Descriptor(s):    social studies
Summary:
This Newberry Award winner gives voice to residents of a medieval English village circa 1255. Poems in monologue form interspersed with explanatory passages bring the village to life. The book includes a map locating the characters in the village and an interesting forward in which the author gives her reasons for writing the book. This book is also available in an audio version.
Teaching Ideas:
In the forward, the author explains that she wanted to dramatize medieval life with sufficient roles for her entire class. What an invitation for Readers' Theater! The book can also be used in a text set on the Middle Ages, which can be generated on the Eureka! database. The book can be read in any order, which may please students. Readers may want to summarize the information about Medieval England by writing paragraphs or essays or drawing pictures. Students can select one of the voices and write a copy change poem in that format about more modern culture or a family member The prose passages invite readers to do more research on the issues of the prejudice against Jews, on falconry, about pilgrimages, on surfs and freedom, and about the Crusades. Since the book includes sidenotes on special vocabulary, students might enjoy creating a glossary of all the medieval terms. Using the strategy Unsent Letters, student could correspond with a favorite character. A Venn diagram would facilitate a then and now comparison of village life in 1255 and ours today.
Teaching Strategies:
Copy Change    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/copy_change.pdf
Reader's Theater    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/readers_theater.pdf
Sketch to Stretch    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/sketch_stretch.pdf
Venn Diagrams    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/venn_diagrams.pdf
Unsent Letters    http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/unsent_letters.pdf
Keywords: select any link below for a list of resources which also have that keyword
Social Studies > anthropology > daily life Geography > locations > countries > England History > time period > 13th Century History > time period > Middle Ages Communities > rural > villages Social Studies > anthropology > cultures > cultural customs Communities > historical Work > historical Literature and Language > poetry History > time period > Middle Ages > Crusades

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