Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 was an extremely significant event in US history. Why was rail transportation so important to early America? Brainstorm 5-6 specific reasons. What is meant by “railroad towns?” Why and where did they typically exist? How were railroad towns different from other frontier towns?

Teaching Suggestion: Begin your contextual study of Prairie Lotus by explaining to students that main character Hanna travels to a newly constructed railroad town in Dakota territory, 1880. While the town of LaForge in the novel is fictitious, author Linda Sue Park modeled it after the railroad town of DeSmet in what is now South Dakota. (Be sure to read Park’s Author’s Note before beginning your unit for a full understanding of the connection to DeSmet.)

• “The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad” on PBS’s The American Experience site summarizes the cause-and-effect of this gamechanger in US history, including some of its negative consequences.
• For a colorful characterization of railroad towns, try this brief description from the University of Groningen’s American History: From Revolution to Reconstruction and Beyond project.