Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Non-Fiction Book: Malala: A Brave Girl From Pakistan


 Title: Malala A Brave Girl from Pakistan

Author: Jeanette Winter

Publisher: Beach Lane Books

Copyright: 2014



Reading Level:

Fountas and Pinnell: Level M
Lexile: AD 640 L

Accelerated Reader: 3.6

An easy to read book that tells the inspirational, heroic, emotional, and courageous story of two brave children who spoke out despite death threats and danger.

2 electronic resources to support/extend the text:


      This is a link to Malala’s website. On this site, she discusses her life and story and also talks about the fund that she set up to help children all over the world receive an education. There is also a link to her blog where girls all over the world post and share their experiences and how Malala has impacted their life. This is a good resource for students to see how big of an impact she has made and also contribute and interact with other students who have read Malala’s story.


      This is a link to a BBC News article that was posted a few years ago. This article discusses further the story of Malala and all of the medical procedures she had to go through after she was shot. It also has a few videos of speeches that Malala has given and other articles and information that students can view if they are more interested in this topic.

Key Vocabulary:
1. Injustice- When something is unfair or unequal.
2. The Taliban- An Islamic military group that took over Afghanistan and
      Pakistan where they created very unfair and unjust laws.
3. Extremist- A person who holds extreme views that are far beyond the normal
      views and can be dangerous.
4. Outwit- To defeat or trick someone by being more intelligent than they are.
5. Liberate- To free someone or a group of people from being controlled by
       another person or group.
6. Murky- When the details of an event are unclear or it is hard to see the true
       facts.

Before Reading Strategy:

      Before reading the Malala side of the story, the teacher should do a think-aloud while they read the Iqbal side. During this think-aloud, the teacher should model how to summarize what they have read after a few pages. After finishing the reading, the teacher should model how to produce an oral summary of the story first and then how to produce a written summary based on their original oral summary. This will provide the students with an opportunity to watch the skills that will be necessary during their reading.

During Reading Strategy:

      The students will participate in a generative reading based on the think-aloud that the teacher did at the beginning of the text. The student will be asked to stop at certain pages and produce an oral summary of what has happened so far. At the end of the text, they will have to summarize the entire text orally and then write down the summary just like the teacher modeled during the think-aloud.

After Reading Strategy:

      After reading, have students create a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two stories that are included in this book. Then have a discussion on whether or not some of the differences were due to the fact that Malala was a girl and Iqbal was a girl. They can also discuss if they think these stories would have been different if they occurred in the United States.

Writing Activity to demonstrate Inferential Comprehension:

Malala and Iqbal are heroes without a doubt. After reading, ask students to consider how these two children used their voices to stand up for what they believed in and advocate for children’s rights. In what ways do they show their bravery and courage? In what ways have you shown bravery in your life? How would you fight for something that you believed in?

This writing prompt should include:

a) A class or individually crafted definition of bravery.
b) How Malala and Iqbal showed their bravery and courage.
c) How they used their voices to stand up for children’s rights.
d) How you or someone you know has shown bravery in their life.
e) How you would fight for something that you believe in.



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