A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park is based on a true story. This inspiring and heart-wrenching book tells the stories of Nya who lives in Southern Sudan in 2008 and Salva who lived in Southern Sudan in 1985. Each chapter begins with Nya’s story and jumps to Salva’s story.
Nya is a young girl from a remote village. She spends most of her days walking to collect water for her family. This task takes hours and leaves her with little time for anything else. Salva, an 11-year-old boy, is forced to flee his home. He embarks on a perilous journey through the desert to seek safety in a refugee camp.
As their paths eventually cross, Salva and Nya’s lives become intertwined in unexpected ways. The book shows how the human spirit and the power of perseverance can help people overcome unimaginable hardships.
This book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning more about the devastating impact of war. Readers will be transported to a world where access to clean water and basic necessities is not a given. Readers will see how communities face adversity. This deeply moving and inspiring story will stay with you long after you turn the final page.
A Long Walk to Water Activities
Book Unit Samples
You will find the following in this novel study sample:
- Vocabulary Practice for Chapters 1-2
- Comprehension Questions for Chapters 1-2
- Constructed Response Question – Character Traits
Teaching Idea #1 – Water Facts
Have students complete a small research project to learn about water. Here are some good places to start:
ESP Water Products “Water Facts”
NGWA The Groundwater Association
Have each student take one or two interesting facts about water and turn them into a word cloud.
Sites for Creating Word Clouds
The example pictured above was created using Tagul. This site has the water drop shape as one of its built-in options. The site also allows users to place quotation marks around words to keep phrases together.
Teaching Idea #2 – Repetitive Poetry
A Long Walk to Water is the perfect novel for this activity. Repetitive poetry is a simple, yet great teaching strategy to practice the main idea and summarizing text. First, students write between 4 to 8 simple sentences that summarize a passage. For chapters 1-2, students might write something like this:
Salva daydreams while his teacher drones on.
A cracking sound alerts the class.
“Run to the bush, not home,” the teacher warns.
Salva walks and walks meeting up with friends.
Soon, rebels gather all the men.
Next, the students think of a sentence or a phrase that would express the main idea of the text. This sentence is repeated between the lines.
Salva daydreams while his teacher drones on.
Problem comes.
A cracking sound alerts the class.
Problem comes.
“Run to the bush, not home,” the teacher warns.
Problem comes.
Salva walks and walks meeting up with friends.
Problem comes.
Soon, rebels gather all the men.
Problem comes.
Poems can be read interactively. The author reads the summarizing statements, and the class repeats the repetitive sentence in between each line. Even your most reluctant poetry writers are surprised at how good these poems sound.
Teaching Idea #3 – Videos
Book Trailer: A Long Walk to Water
This short video [1:29] plays music while you view a collage of images with some overlaid text. The video makes a good introduction to the book.
An Interview with Salva Dut
While this is an excellent video, I would not show it until the end of the book. It contains photos of Salva building wells. This might spoil the surprise ending of the book for your students who are super observant.
Salva’s Story
Linda Sue Park interviews Salva Dut
If you are not familiar with Boom Learning, you are in for a real treat. These interactive task cards are fun for students. Teachers love self-grading exercises. Supervisors love the data that is collected. Using Boom Learning is a win-win for everyone.
Check out what a Boom Learning deck looks like by clicking on the video play button on the video beside the novel stud sample.
Do you want to learn more? See A Long Walk to Water Boom Learning decks here.
See the product that inspired this post.
A Long Walk to Water Novel Study includes vocabulary practice, comprehension questions, constructed response writing, and skill practice.
