Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie

• Genre: Fiction; middle grade historical
• Originally Published: 1935
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 820L; grades 4-7
• Structure/Length: 26 chapters; approx. 335 pages; approx. 5 hours, 45 minutes on audio
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: Laura Ingalls and her family leave their home in Wisconsin and travel in their covered wagon to Kansas. Laura describes how her father built their log house and their encounters with the local Native Americans. Just when they start to settle in, they have to move again when US soldiers tell them their house is just inside Indian Territory.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Racist/intolerant and insensitive language choices; racism, racial slurs, xenophobia, colonization       

Laura Ingalls Wilder, Author

• Bio: 1867-1957; American writer known for the Little House on the Prairie series, based on her childhood; second of five children; spent much of her childhood traveling from home to home with her family, finally moving to De Smet, South Dakota, when her father accepted a job with the railroad; felt compelled to help her family financially, so she taught school; after her marriage to Almanzo Wilder in 1885, a series of unfortunate events befell them (diphtheria partially paralyzing Almanzo, death of an infant son, their home burning down), resulting in a move to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894, where she and Almanzo spent the rest of their lives; columnist with the Missouri Ruralist in 1911, writing a column called “As a Farm Woman Thinks”; the stock market crash of 1929 wiped out their savings, leading Laura to seek publication of Pioneer Girl, the manuscript that would eventually become the Little House on the Prairie series.
• Other Works: Little House in the Big Woods (1932); Farmer Boy (1933); On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937); By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939); The Long Winter (1940); Little Town on the Prairie (1941); These Happy Golden Years (1943)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• The Racial Attitudes of White Settlers
• Feminine Propriety and Filial Obedience
• Masculine Self-Reliance, Feminine Dependence

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the social and historical contexts around westward expansion and the groups impacted by “Manifest Destiny.”
• Analyze paired texts and other resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Masculine Self-Reliance, Feminine Dependence and The Racial Attitudes of White Settlers.
• Research, compare, and present the realities of life on the prairie with Wilder’s portrayal based on text details.
• Analyze and evaluate the plot and character details to draw conclusions in structured essay responses regarding gender roles, the relationship between humans and the environment, and other topics.