Your web browser might not work well with our site. We recommend you upgrade your browser.
/classroom/7477295 Customize URL
Since we are starting the year virtually, my district is planning to use short stories to teach and practice reading skills. While short stories are great, my students need to develop their reading stamina by reading novels. In addition, they cannot annotate text without having their own personal copy. With these books, they can build their reading stamina and learn to annotate the text. These are essential skills for middle school English. This novel is particularly important because many of my students are from Africa. As I stated above, my school is extremely diverse and many of my students come from Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, and other countries in Eastern and Central Africa. Unlike many of the books they have read at school, this book takes place in Sudan and they are very familiar with the setting. It is inspiring to see the joy on their faces when they hear the names of food, plants, and animals that they already know. Too often, we have to build their background so they can visualize what they are reading. With this novel, they are the experts and can explain things to their native-speaking peers. With your help, my students can each have their own copy of this novel to read and annotate during virtual learning this year.
Read more