The Bean Trees

There's a whole invisible system for helping out the plant you'd never guess was there...It's just the same as with people.

Reading Schedule By Friday, March 4th, have read through the end of Chapter 2. By Friday, March 11th, have read through the end of Chapter 5. By Wednesday, March 23rd, have read through the end of Chapter 7. By Tuesday, March 29th, have read through the end of Chapter 9. By Friday, April 1st, have read through the end of Chapter 11. By Friday, April 8th, have read through the end of Chapter 14.

By Friday, April 15th, have finished the book.

Class Handouts for the Novel:

Chapter Questions, with allusions and references, for Chapters 1 through 4.
Chapter Questions, with allusions and references, for Chapters 5 through 10.
A fill-in-the-blank handout that reviews the plot points of Chapters 1 through 7.
Here's a chart that has passages from the book, and asks you to say whether they're symbols, representations of larger ideas, or just observations about life.
As a review for the test, a list of excerpts for you to ponder.

Research Project--Handouts and Internet Resources...

Here's the Research Assignment, which gives the rules and regulations for your research about a topic related to The Bean Trees.
The Research Assignment planning page, to get started on the project.
The handout with questions about how well you are Using The Internet to do research.
A sample Works Cited page to show you the MLA form I want you to use.

NOTE: I do not necessarily endorse or agree with the views expressed in any of the sites listed below! If a site appears here, it's because it either has information that may be of use, or a point of view to agree or disagree with.

ANOTHER NOTE: I expect you to do your own Internet research. Use Google, Yahoo, AltaVista, and other search engines and web directories. Use Encarta and other online encyclopedias. Use GaleNet (see below) for controversial social issues like child abuse and adoption. Use your own mind, curiosity, and research skills. Do not depend only on these sites; it's just a selection of sites on the topic I found browsing around.

Click HERE to access GaleNet, to find articles on controversial social issues like child abuse and adoption. (You need a password. I am not posting the password here; you need to get it from me or the librarian at school.)
When you get into GaleNet, click on the OPPOSING VIEWPOINTS RESOURCE CENTER to see topics and articles related to many of these issues.

Cherokee Nation:

One of the best places to start is Ken Martin's History of the Cherokee site.
The official site of the Cherokee Nation, based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, has a culture page with lots of links to information you can use.
It might take a while to go through all the links about Cherokee Indians on this page from the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, but it might be worth it to see the information.
The "Trail of Tears" is recounted in a site dedicated to North Georgia, one of the places from where the Cherokee were evicted and forcibly moved.
A short history of the Trail of Tears.
This site about the Trail of Tears tells the story with quotations from people of the time.
Another site dedicated to the Trail of Tears, with lots of links to more information.

Native American Indians:

This well-designed page is called simply American Indians, and has categories such as Legends, Religion, Art, and Society.
The Yahoo Directory Page about Native Americans has categories to click on including Arts, History, Sports, Music, and more.
The NativeTech page has information about arts and crafts, games and cooking, tools and beads, pottery, and other art work from Native American tribes, especially of the North American Northeast.
Native North America has an entry for nearly every tribe in North America. There's no way to cover all these tribes in one presentation, but click around and see which ones interest you the most. From Minnesota State University.

Guatemalan Civil War and the Sanctuary Movement:

A brief history of the conflict is at the On War site.
A very brief timeline of the war.
"The Civil War and Human Rights Violations in Guatemala 1960-1966," from the University of Helsinki, in Finland.
Another example of the terrors of the war was the Massacre at Río Negro.
Here's a page that links information in The Bean Trees with the history of the Sanctuary movement in the United States, people who tried to help Guatemalan refugees.
What is the Sanctuary Movement doing today?

Teen Pregnancy:

Maybe you can start by Testing Your Knowledge about teen pregnancy, at the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
Three different photo essays explore the issue, giving it a human face.
One of the Web's nicest documentary sites, The Musarium, tells some Life Stories of teen mothers.
The Planned Parenthood fact sheet on teen pregnancy is one of several on their site with lots of information on the topic.
A lot more facts and statistics, with charts, about teen pregnancy in the U.S., from the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
The Women's Health Channel teen pregancy page has topics such as "Health Risks to the Baby" and "Other Consequences".
The About.com Teen Pregnancy Page has information and resources. Click on the "Related Resources," too.

Child Abuse:

The stories of nine abused children told briefly, at the site of Tennyson Center for Children.
Child Help USA offers a guide, "What is Child Abuse?"
21 questions about child abuse are answered by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. (Some of the answers are unique to California law.)
How to tell if a child has been abused; advice to pediatricians from a fellow doctor.

Equality of Women:

The National Women's History Project has a page dedicated to "Living the Legacy: The Women's Rights Movement 1848-1998". Be sure to click on the History, Timeline, and Today's Issues sections.
Global Issues.org has a page dedicated to progress for women's rights around the world, including South Africa, Latin America, and China.
An American convert to Islam discusses the idea of "Women's Rights and Equality in Islam", from Islam for Today.
The World Book has a collection of their articles on the issue, "The Quest for Equality".
A television documentary about domestic abuse and wife beating was called, "No Safe Place," and the official site has sections called "Are You in Danger?" and "Resources" for more information.
Domestic abuse against women is also explored in more detail at The Safety Zone.

Child Abandonment and Adoption:
Abandoned babies suffer in different conditions and orphanages around the world. These resources all refer to the situation in the United States, since it's closer to the situation in The Bean Trees. You can include other countries in your research and presentation.

Safer Child has an introduction to the topic, which answers questions such as "What is Child Abandonment?"
Some of the same questions are answered in the Baby Abandonment Fact Sheet, from the Child Welfare League of America.
The About.com Adoption page has some good articles, but is also spotty with quality.
To relate to The Bean Trees, here is an article about "Keeping Native Children Connected," when a Native American child is adopted outside of his or her culture.
The Indian Child Welfare Act aims to keep Native American children within the Native American community, if possible, rather than placed outside the Indian community. Read more about it, from the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Internet Links Related to The Bean Trees:

Information About the Author
When she was pregnant with her first child, and having a case of insomnia, her doctor suggested she clean the tiles of her bathroom to pass the night hours. Instead, she sat in a closet and finally wrote the novel she'd been thinking about writing. She was Barbara Kingsolver, and that novel was The Bean Trees.

Barbara Kingsolver's own website has the same biography her publisher provides (below), plus a page dedicated to The Bean Trees, including a few discussion questions, and a list of questions she is frequently asked about herself and her books--such as, "How do you come up with names for your characters?" and "Is it possible to become a writer if you don't like to read?" (Her answer to that last one: "Not on your life".)
A brief biography of Barbara Kingsolver is provided by her U.S. publisher, Harper Collins.
When her first book, The Bean Trees, became a hit, Barbara Kingsolver was a graduate student at the University of Tucson, studying the social habits of termites. What did she do? She dropped out of school. She discusses this, and other things, with New York Times reporter Sarah Lyall, "At Lunch with Barbara Kingsolver: Termites Are Interesting, but Books Sell Better".
Barbara Kingsolver admits "I'm a horrible eavesdropper" in an interview with Salon.com. Be sure to read both pages.

Barbara Kingsolver has become a socially concerned and political writer. She has written incisively about the September 11 attacks on the US ("In a week of terrifying events, here is one awful, true thing that hasn't much been mentioned: Some people believe our country needed to learn how to hurt in this new way. This is such a large lesson, so hatefully, wrongfully taught, but many people before us have learned honest truths from wrongful deaths..."), as well as the resulting bombing of Afghanistan ("We've answered one terrorist act with another, raining death on the most war-scarred, terrified populace that ever crept to a doorway and looked out.")

Information About the Novel:

An amazingly detailed compilation of notes, questions, pictures, lists, and more--for each and every chapter of the book--can be found at this site, part of the University of California Riverside, thanks to an enormous amount of work by webmaster Catherine Decker.
The 1988 review of The Bean Trees in The New York Times has a lot of insights about the novel, and some comments from Kingsolver about the novel.
Not all of the online notes people have notes for The Bean Trees, but Pink Monkey and ClassicNotes do.
The people at Vocabulary.com have compiled a list of S.A.T.-ish vocabulary words to study from the novel. The list was made by teacher Janice Cook.

"Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer." Barbara Kingsolver

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