Teachers:

Use “Derailed”  as a total classroom experience. This story includes interdisciplinary opportunities (History, ELA, Social Studies and even some STEM). Using my bibliography, I’ve created this list of ideas you can use as a guide to connect “Derailed” to broader curriculum goals, such as historical literacy, critical thinking, empathy, and research skills.  (If you think of other ideas, let me know, and I'll be happy to add them to the list for other teachers to use.) 

Language Arts / ELA

• Vocabulary Words from the text (tiered by difficulty)

• Writing Prompts: 
  Write a diary entry from the perspective of a performer in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.
  Imagine you are Jack or Judy and write about how they feel about the train derailment, seeing Buffalo Bill or about Gretta's desire to become a reporter (write in first person) 

History / Social Studies

• Research Topics
  e.g., Buffalo Bill, Nellie Bly, women’s suffrage, tuberculosis, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Native American representation in media. 

• Primary Source Exploration
  Check with the Reference Dept. of your local library to discover how to use indexes to find primary source articles from historical newspapers on selected topics  

• Map Activities
  using this as a resource, "Did Buffalo Bill Visit Your Town? A comprehensive Country/State listing of William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s tour destinations.” https://buffalobill.org/documents/Buffalo_Bill_Visits.pdf  plot Wild West Show stops, train routes, or migration of performers. How close did Buffalo Bill travel to where you live?

• Using your public library's Local History section or your local Historical Society, try to uncover an interesting story about an event or former resident and write a brief description. Extra points if you interview an older family member or neighbor who can share an interesting story with you!

Civics / Ethics

• Debate Questions
  e.g., “Were Wild West shows educational, entertainment or exploitative?”

• Class Discussion Prompts
  e.g., gender roles, racial stereotyping, immigration, media and myth-making

STEAM Tie-Ins

• Science: What was tuberculosis? How was it misunderstood? 

• Technology: How did trains change American life?

• Art/Music: Period songs or posters; student-designed ads for fictional Wild West performances or newspaper ads from the early 1900’s.

• Food technology: Find a simple recipe and bake some bread

 Activities & Assignments

• • Create a historical newspaper front page

  • Record a “podcast interview” with a classmate posing as Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley or another historical person​

  • Research presentations on performers or themes

  • Class debate on women’s suffrage

  • Since "Derailed" is fiction inspired by fact, have a discussion on fact vs fiction. Or, go a step further, and have a discussion on AI (Artificial Intelligence). What is real and what is fabricated (by AI or by other means), and how does one tell the difference?