Walk With Me:
A Study of Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water
Teachers: Gina Brooks, Meredith Gompf, Nichole Gross
Collaborators: Possible guest speaker, Science teachers
Target Grade/Subject: Reading 6; Reading 7
Length: 4 weeks
Summary: Students will answer the essential questions through the reading of Linda Sue Park’s
A Long Walk to Water, a novel about Salva Dut, a lost boy of Sudan. The novel is currently only
available online at www.instantserials.com. Students will develop skills highlighted in the Teens
Read! curriculum and Henrico 21 initiative.
Essential Questions:
 What do we need to survive?
 How important is clean water to one’s survival?
 How do our experiences shape us?
 How can we help others in need?
Skills and Concepts:
 Building prior knowledge
 Making predictions
 Summarizing
 Inferring the main idea
 Analyze source, purpose, viewpoint
 Study conflict in the Sudan
 Compare and Contrast setting
 Compare and Contrast character
 Research Dinka tribe (African tribes)
 Research clean water projects
 Defining words in context
 Make personal connections
Assessments:
1. Write a personal reflection about survival:
a. Would you survive the circumstances in which Salva finds himself? Why or why
not?
b. Write to Nya. Tell her what she needs to do to survive.
2. Create a way to help Nya bring clean water to her village. Collaborate with science
teachers.
3. Raise $10 per kid for water, using $10 gleaners (“QUARTERS FOR WATER”)
[www.globalwater.org]
Before reading
1. Give students a collection of images. Say the story will have something to do with these
images. They have to infer what the story will be about. (Use these same images to wrapup the reading by asking them to explain the true relationship between each image and
the story)
2. Watch video explaining “The Lost Boys” [www.lostboysus.org]
3. Watch the video—Interview with Linda Sue Park. Do you think Salva’s experience will
make a good story? What will Salva be able to tell us/teach us about survival?
While reading
1. Read aloud the first chapter. Stop at page 4 to make prediction. Stop at end of chapter 7
to make another prediction. Repeat in places where predictions can be made.
2. Draw/color/label a map that shows the tribal regions in Africa. Collect facts about the
Dinka tribe and others. (after reading Ch.3, p.2)
3. After reading passage about Nya collecting water, research regions in Africa that do not
have clean water. Research what happens to a person who doesn’t drink clean water.
Write to Nya, advising her of the reasons she should not drink water that is not clean.
Predict what can happen to her if she does. And explaining how to purify water for
drinking.
4. Stop at critical moments to analyze conflict.
5. Copy passages to annotate during close reading. Focus on words in context, lit elements.,
inferring main idea, et cetera.
After Reading
1. Draw a map of Salva’s journey, using Google Earth.
2. Prepare interview questions with a partner for a Guest Speaker
3. Write letters to Salva.