Learning Goals
There is often a great connection between literature and what is happening or has happened in our world. Analyzing Alan Gratz’s novel will help students understand where writers get inspiration from, and what they have to know in order to tell stories like Josef’s, Isabel’s and Mahmoud’s. This is meaningful work for my students because they struggle to make connections between what they learn in school and the world around them. Furthermore, making these connections between text and world is essential for their reading comprehension.
Students’ Background and Readiness
The previous units fostered great conversations around multiculturalism, identity and home. I think that this text brings those conversations to the next level. I believe that many of my students wanted to have deeper conversations and it was a great way to allow them to learn more about their own communities. By the time we engaged with this book students had also become a lot more comfortable and confident with reading and writing.
Student Development & Community Building
The themes that emerge in this novel are vast and appropriate for the discussions I hoped to foster. I wanted students to become more accepting of their peers and the most vulnerable populations in their community– engaging with this text did just that. Students began to build empathy towards others as we read the text and watched visuals that illustrated experiences similar to those of Josef, Isabel and Mahmoud. Overall, I think that this unit gave students the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of the main characters and taught them how difficult surviving can be.
Student Needs
I designed this unit for my English II class. Many of the students in this class were ELLs, and required extra support to be able to engage with the text. These students engaged in close reading activities and I integrated related visuals and documentaries to help them visualize what they were reading.
