Back to Lesson 3
John D. Rockefeller |
Unit 1: An Age of Extremes
Topic 1: The Gilded Age Lesson Module 4
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Next to Lesson 5
J.P. Morgan |
Focus Activity - Determining a Purpose for Reading
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Outcomes are what you (the student) will be able to do after the lesson is over.
I can describe the part L. Frank Baum played in the Gilded Age of U.S. History. |
Why Is This An Outcome?
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Every state has a set of standards for students to achieve in each class and grade. They set these goals so that when you graduate, you will slowly have build up everything you need to know to be ready for your career or for college. We have the lesson outcome above because we are working to meet one of the standards set by the Alabama Department of Education. It will take several topics and many lessons to meet each state standard. The standard we are working to meet now is:
Alabama State Social Studies Standard 1: Explain the impact of industrialization, urbanization, communication, and cultural changes on life in the United States from the late nineteenth century to World War I. |
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Teaching Activity - Outlining Informational Text
Before, During, and After a Reading
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In this activity, you will learn how to set up a framework for reading informational text before you read; how to outline informational text while reading; and how to summarize the important things you outlined.
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The Lesson ReadingLyman Frank Baum |
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I Don't Want to Grow Up! Cadet Baum in Military School 1868
Lyman Frank Baum wasn't like most other people. And he certainly didn't fit into the Gilded Age. He had no talent for making money. Ask your parents and friends if they know who Frank Baum is and they may shrug their shoulders and say no. But they know his words. You probably do, too.
Baum's dad was a tough oil man who fought giant Standard Oil in the days of the Pennsylvania Oil Rush, and survived with only minor wounds. Frank was different. He was a gentle boy, often sick, who had to stay home from school and couldn't play ball games with the other boys. He spent a lot of his time daydreaming. Once he saw a scarecrow as big as a man, and for a long time he had real dreams - nightmares - about that scarecrow. Frank Baum loved to act and write plays and tell stories, but everyone told him that a young man needed to be sensible and serious if he were to succeed in the world. His parents sent him to military school; they hoped to make him serious. He did poorly there, got sick, and came home. Later he told stories about an army full of generals and officers and one poor soldier who was expected to do all the fighting. In Frank Baum's stories no one liked to fight. A general Baum told about said very sensibly, "Fighting is unkind and liable to be injurious to others." Love and Marriage Baum's wife, Maud and their 4 boys
Baum, grew up and went to work and tried to be serious. He started off in the oil business selling Baum's Casterine - machine grease - but he wasn't much of a salesman. About this time he fell in love. Frank was tall, handsome, and slim, and Maud Gage was pretty and bold. They made a fine couple, and soon married and had children. But they didn't have any money, so Maud suggested they move to South Dakota, where gold had been discovered. Anyone who opened a store in a gold rush town was sure to be successful. So that's what they did. They called the store Baum's Bazaar.
It might have been a success but Frank couldn't bear to take money from people who were poor. Besides, what he really liked to do was tell stories to children. And that's what he kept doing, instead of minding the business. It failed. Some People Don't Get Satire! Duel Guns
Then he started a newspaper. He wrote one story for his paper about a town where people rode in horseless carriages and flying machines and slept under electric blankets. Of course that was all daydreaming nonsense - this was the late 19th century, and there were no horseless carriages for sale, and certainly no flying machines. Electric blankets - that was really absurd. Then he wrote a story that poked fun at another newspaper editor. That kind of writing is called "satire". Well the other newspaper editor didn't think it was funny at all. Baum was challenged to a duel. Remember, these were the days of the Wild West, when people shot out their differences. But not gentle Frank Baum. He strode out the door of his office with a revolver on his belt - like the actor he longed to be - and then he left town. He didn't want to hurt anyone.
Getting By Frank Baum telling stories in 1904
You might not find it surprising that his newspaper failed. By this time the Baums had four boys and still no money. They moved from prairie South Dakota to bustling Chicago. There Frank became a newspaper reporter. But the pay - $18.62 a week - was so low he had to give up that job to sell dishes. He wasn't much good at that. It was a very discouraging time for the Baums. About the only other thing that seemed to make Frank happy was sitting around telling stories to his four boys.
Naming Greatness Isn't Hard
He told stories about people he made up, but his characters became real in his mind. They were his friends and he talked to them and they talked back. Once, when someone asked him how he figured out an adventure, he said his characters did what they wanted to do. One of his character friends was the old scarecrow who had scared him when he was a boy. Now the scarecrow was a kindly soul.
One day Maud's mother got exasperated with her son-in-law. "Go out and get your stories published!" she said. He did. He published two books of Mother and Father Goose stories. Children liked them! But the stories his boys liked best were about an emerald city, a tin woodsman, a cowardly lion, and a scarecrow. There was also a determined little girl in the story - a bold girl - and her name was Dorothy. She lived on a prairie in Kansas, where she once ran from a cyclone and landed in a magic land. One day when Frank Baum was telling the story, one of his children asked, "What was the name of the magic land?" Frank needed a name for that land, and quickly, so he looked up, and there was his filing cabinet with the letters O - Z. "The Land of Oz", he said, and so it was named! |
People to KnowThese VIPs are also available in the VIP Pages.
Lyman Frank Baum: author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Maud Gage Baum: wife of L. Frank Baum John Gruelle: creator of the Raggedy Ann doll Marcella Gruelle: daughter of John Gruelle who's attachment to a raggedy doll during her illness and still holding it upon her death led him to create the Raggedy Ann doll for children Judy Garland: the 16 year old actress who played Dorothy Gail in the Wizard of Oz Movie that debuted in 1939 and launched her into superstardom 
Words to KnowVocabulary words are also available in the glossary pages
satire: something meant to make fun of and show the weaknesses of human nature or a particular person
duel: a shoot-out between two people who have an unresolved argument in the presence of witnesses exasperated: angry, annoyed, or irritated icon: a symbol or representation of something 
Places to KnowLook on the Lesson 4 Maps Link in the Tool Box to see these places on a map.
South Dakota
Chicago, Illinois Kansas 
Events to KnowReview Your Reading of the following Events
South Dakota Gold Rush
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is Published The Wizard of Oz Movie Debut |
If At First You Don't Succeed... Try, Try, Again!
He wrote out those stories of Oz and got a friend to draw pictures, and they sent them to a publisher. The publisher sent them back. The stories were too silly; no one would read them, Baum was told. He sent them to another publisher, and another, and another. What a failure he seemed - even his stories were rejected. Then a publisher said he would publish the stories if Baum paid the cost of printing. And so he did. He borrowed the money to do it. The book was published on August 1, 1900. You know what happened after that. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz became one of the most popular books ever written. It was turned into a play and a movie. Baum wrote more Oz books and more again. And no matter how many he wrote, the boys and girls who read the Oz books wanted still more. They were translated into Russian and Chinese and most of the world's languages, so children all over the globe could read and love them. A century later, they are still loved.
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ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE ORIGINAL BOOK
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THE WIZARD OF OZ APPEARED IN THEATERS IN AUGUST OF 1939
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JUDY GARLAND WAS CAST AS DOROTHY GAIL AT AGE 16 LAUNCHING HER INCREDIBLE ACTING CAREER
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Did you know the famous "Ruby Slippers" in the Wizard of Oz were actually silver slippers in the book?
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The Poor Wicked Witch of the West
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Perhaps one reason the Oz stories are so popular is that all the characters are as gentle as Baum himself. Well almost all the characters - there is that wicked witch. But even the Wizard isn't mean. Remember when he said, "No one has a right to kill a living creature, however evil they may be, or to hurt them, or make them unhappy." L. Frank Baum believed that. His friends said he never was unkind to anyone.
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For the Children
Baum was not the only one who made children happy during this time. John Gruelle gave us another American children's icon - Raggedy Ann. |
Raggedy Ann and Andy Today
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Raggedy Ann Makes Her Debut
Marcella Gruelle was very sick. Her father found an old rag doll in the attic, and it helped cheer her up. Marcella named the doll Raggedy Ann and asked her dad to make up stories about the doll. John Gruelle did. But nothing could help Marcella. She died holding Raggedy Ann in her arms. Marcella's sad father wanted to do something to remember his daughter, so he wrote out the stories that she had loved and had them published. They were so popular that he ended up writing 25 of them. Since then, Marcella's doll and her stories have been pleased children all over the world.
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Original Raggedy Ann Doll
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Team Activity - Applying the Reading
L. Frank Baum Timeline
In this activity you will work together to create a timeline of L. Frank Baum's life using the reading above. Click on the picture icon to the left to create the timeline. Each group member will create a timeline. Your timeline will look the same as your group's.
When you are done.
If you are doing this at home, you may do the timeline above or draw the timeline yourself.
When you are done.
- Click print.
- Click Ok.
- Click PDF in bottom left corner.
- Click Save
- In the save as box save the timeline as L. Frank Baum Timeline.
- Make sure the Where Box says Desktop.
If you are doing this at home, you may do the timeline above or draw the timeline yourself.
Today's Map Poll
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Books were set in Kansas. Which of the following letters represents Kansas on the map below? In your group discuss the answer. Put your group's answer on the daily map poll below and see how your group's answer compares with other groups. Then check your answer by going to the Lesson 4 Maps Page.
Reflection Activity - Formative Assessment
L. Frank Baum
Think you know everything about Frank Baum now? Prove it. Play Frank Baum Trivia to test what you remember. If you click on the icon below, you will now be able to play the trivia games directly on the trivia platform. It lowers the chance of the quiz freezing up on you. Click submit when you are done.
You have completed Lesson 4 Module on L. Frank Baum