5th+Grade+LA

Our year-long goal is, together, to DEFINE the characteristics of an INSPIRED QUESTION, and to develop and ultimately discuss these questions that helps us to prove that we have a profound understanding of the novel, article, subject, topic, idea...

Our Great Debate Blog media type="custom" key="26731724"

READ ALOUDS: 2014-2015

Our burning question after reading this book: How should governments balance the rights of individuals with the common good?
 * Breaking Stalin's Nose - Eugene Yelchin**


 * A Long Walk to Water - Linda Sue Park**

Now that we've read this book, what BIG question to we have to bring to our Socratic Circle discussion? What will you write about as a reflection of your understanding of the book we just finished? Of course it would be ideal to support our stance with evidence from the text, but since we read this aloud, that may be difficult. Do you have any ideas about how we could work around this?

Here are some of the BIG ideas that I've heard you talk and ask about:
 * How do individuals survive in challenging environments?
 * Does reading a book based on a person’s true life help you understand how other people in this world...
 * How would Salva's story be different if he were just a fictionalized character and not a real person?
 * How do culture, time, and place influence the development of identity?
 * How does reading from different texts about the same topic, different cultures, time periods, political systems, etc., build our understanding of who we are?
 * How does juxtaposing multiple characters help authors develop and contrast their points of view?
 * Salva became a leader. What factors prompted Salva to become a leader? What characteristics of leadership did Salva exemplify?
 * What factors made survival possible for Salva in A Long Walk to Water?
 * Compare and contrast Nya's and Salva's lives.
 * How do Americans take for granted the availability of clean water to drink? How did reading this book make you feel about being careless with our water supply? Will you change any of your habits that may waste water?
 * Compare the chores you have to do at home with what Nya had to do to keep her family alive. Do you think you could do what Nya had to do?
 * If you were forcibly separated from your parents as Salva was, how would you stay strong and survive?
 * How did the author convey the themes that we've identified in the novel: survival, friendship, perseverance to the reader?

media type="youtube" key="GkxkisRUmMM" width="420" height="315" What would you ask the "author" if you could? Why do you think I typed quotation marks around the word "author" in that previous sentence?

media type="youtube" key="v5eWLBucxD8" width="560" height="315"

Now what? Shall we write? Shall we act? What are some other books about people, like Salva, who decide to DO something:

Here are some more books about people like Salva who decide to DO something:

Resources:
 * Amazon **[|Look Inside]** //A Long Walk to Water[[image:http://www.imcpl.org/kids/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/water-for-sudan-logo.png.pagespeed.ce.mjWsNtgB7R.png width="113" height="102" caption="water-for-sudan-logo" link="http://www.waterforsudan.org/"]]//
 * Linda Sue Park’s [|**Official Website**]
 * Linda Sue Park’s [|**Blog**]
 * [|**Watch**] the PBS Need to Know Episode “The Lost Boy of Sudan” – it’s about Salva himself.
 * [|**Watch**] a Video of Salva talking to small children about his project.
 * [|**Water for Sudan**] - Salva’s own organization that drills wells to provide water to people Southern Sudan

@http://www.kateryder.net/literature---a-long-walk-to-water.html
 * Here are some more books about people like Salva who decide to DO something: ||
 * [[image:http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=IMC93694&Password=CC48769&Return=T&Type=S&Value=9780152065454 width="80" height="101" caption="Wengari's Trees of Peace" link="http://www.imcpl.org/kids/blog/?p=1441"]] || [[image:http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=IMC93694&Password=CC48769&Return=T&Type=S&Value=9780803733923 width="80" height="101" caption="Three Cups of Tea" link="http://www.imcpl.org/cgi-bin/fullbib.pl?bibno=1181623"]] || [[image:http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=IMC93694&Password=CC48769&Return=T&Type=S&Value=9780761157472 width="80" height="101" caption="Do Something" link="http://www.imcpl.org/cgi-bin/fullbib.pl?bibno=1273487"]] || [[image:http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=IMC93694&Password=CC48769&Return=T&Type=S&Value=9781553379676 width="80" height="101" caption="Ryan and Jimmy and the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together" link="http://www.imcpl.org/cgi-bin/fullbib.pl?bibno=1075716"]] ||
 * [[image:http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=IMC93694&Password=CC48769&Return=T&Type=S&Value=9780975320006 width="80" height="101" caption="Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand" link="http://www.imcpl.org/cgi-bin/fullbib.pl?bibno=1019544"]] || [[image:http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=IMC93694&Password=CC48769&Return=T&Type=S&Value=9780888999313 width="80" height="101" caption="A Gift from Childhood" link="http://www.imcpl.org/cgi-bin/fullbib.pl?bibno=1251684"]] || [[image:http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=IMC93694&Password=CC48769&Return=T&Type=S&Value=9781554690015 width="80" height="101" caption="Making Change" link="http://www.imcpl.org/cgi-bin/fullbib.pl?bibno=1183855"]] || [[image:http://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?UserID=IMC93694&Password=CC48769&Return=T&Type=S&Value=9781575422169 width="80" height="101" caption="The Doggy Dung Disaster" link="http://www.imcpl.org/cgi-bin/fullbib.pl?bibno=1131091"]] ||