Instructions:

Books:

Assignments: 

Elementary School

The Water Princess

Author: Susan Verde

Introductions: Princess Gie Gie's kingdom is gorgeous, however, clean drinking water is very scarce. Every morning Gie Gie woke up before the sun to make a journey to the well to get water. Gie Gie chooses to not wear a crown, but instead, she wears a pot on her head to collect water. At the end of every day, Gie Gie imagines how great it will be for her village to have clear and clean water of their own.

Activity: Students will read the book in class as a group. Once the students have read the books they will then go and draw their own land with their own imagination. I would also give my students the option to go outside and attempt to wear a pot on their head with water in it to get put into Gie Gie's shoes and see what she did for her kingdom. 

Discussion Questions: 1) Where does Gie Gie go each morning? What does she bring back?

2) Why is water so important to Gie Gie's beautiful land? 

The Name Jar

Author: Yangsook Choi

Introductions: A young girl moves to America from Korea and no one can pronounce her name, so she decides that she will tell her classmates what her name is next week. Her classmates think that this no-name girl is interesting and they fill a jar full of names and let her pick her name from the jar. One of her classmates went to her neighborhood and found out her real name and what a beautiful meaning her name had. When she was pulling names out of the jar, she came across her Korean name and her classmates encouraged her to keep her name.

Activity: Students will write their name in a jar. Once the names are in the jar the teacher will pull out 2 names out at a time, and whoever is chosen they will be each other partner. Students being in pairs will talk about the book and what their thoughts about the book.

Discussion Questions: 1) Why does Unhei leave Korea to move to the United States?

2) Would you leave your home country to live in another country?

Arrow to The Sun

Author: Gerald McDermott

Introduction: A young boy is searching for his father, but before he can find his father, he has to claim his heritage. To claim his heritage he has to prove his worthiness. He has to pass through four chambers that are ceremonial. The kiva of lions, the kiva of snakes, the kiva of bees, and the kiva of lightning. This is a brilliant picture book with vibrant colors and very bold geometric colors. 

Activity: Students will look at the beautiful pictures. Students then will go to their desk and draw their favorite picture on paper. The teacher will call the students one at a time with their paper they have drawn and they will put In their own words what they thought the book was about.

Discussion Questions: 1) If you have to claim your heritage by proving your worthiness, Would you? 

2) If you could recreate the four chambers that you would have to pass through, what four chambers would you choose and why? 

Middle School

The CrossOver

Author: Kwame Alexander

Introduction: Josh and Jordan Bell go crazy on a basketball court, however, Josh also has another talent; making beats. Josh tells his families story in verse. These twins have to figure out how to grow up on and off the court or else they are going to pay the price, a terrible price. Do they pay the price? Read to find out!

Activity: Students will write a paper on what they thought about the book. With the paper, I would like the students to relate to this book by putting the sport or activity that they do. Write the paper and explain things related to their book like they did with crossover.

Discussion Questions: 1) Why does Josh get angry at his brother?

2) Would Josh rather play basketball or spend time with his best friends?

Interactive Activity: https://www.rif.org/literacy-central/book/crossover Go to this website and choose some of the medium and hard puzzles and complete them. When completed, send the teacher a picture via email of the puzzles completed to receive credit for the assignment. If you wish to print out the puzzle and complete it by hand, then just turn the paper copy in when completed to get full credit for the assignment. 

High School 

The Surrender Tree 

Author: Margarita Engle

Introduction: The Surrender Tree is a book of poems that describe events that occurred a long time ago. A big event detailed in this book is Slavery. The author explained how slaves were treated and the difference of opinions throughout the people. The details that are mentioned in this book are very descriptive and written for mature audiences. 

Activity: Students will read the book and then drawl an outline of a tree and write a meaningful poem. Once the students are finished they will read their poems to the class.

Discussion Questions: 1) Infer why these poems are so detailed and vivid.

2) Pick your favorite poem in the novel and draw what you imagine in your mind when reading it. 

Night

Author: Elie Wiesel

Introduction: Night is about a little boy who experienced the Holocaust. The little boy and his father are Jewish and were sent to a concentration camp and ended up getting separated in the end. Throughout the book, the little boy describes how hard his father worked and what kind of work he had to do and he also goes into vivid detail about what he witnessed and what kind of conditions they had to deal with in the camp. 

Activity: 

https://www.superteachertools.us/jeopardyx/jeopardy-review-game.

Who doesn’t love a game of Jeopardy! Students will be assigned to read the book at their house and be prepared for in-class pop quizzes to make sure that students are staying on track. After, the book is completed there will be a day of review with Jeopardy!

Discussion Questions: 1) How did this book change your perspective of the Holocaust? 

2) Why were Eliezer and his father separated to begin with?