A Long Walk to Water Novel Study

About this resource

Teaching A Long Walk to Water and writing the questions the night before? This novel study for 6th, 7th and 8th grade does that work. It is made for use with the novel by Linda Sue Park (the book is not included; students need their own copy, any edition). The book tells two stories in alternating chapters: Salva, whose life changes when war reaches his school in Sudan in 1985, and Nya, who walks for water in 2008. The study divides the book into six parts by what happens. For every part: a question page with five questions on ruled lines, four short answers and one Think Deeper. For every two parts: a page of ten words to look up. Around them: a tracker for both storylines, a page for six people in the book, four key terms to find and think about, four themes (survival and perseverance, the value of water, family, loss and hope, helping others), sentence starters, and an essay planner with three prompts and a lined draft page. Every question, term and word has an answer key.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (36 pages)

• 18 student pages, every one with a name line, one instruction, and ruled lines or table cells with room to write
• Before You Read: 5 statements to agree or disagree with, revisited at the end
• 6 question pages, one per part: 30 questions in all, 3 ruled lines under a short answer, 5 under each of the 6 Think Deeper questions
• 3 word pages: 30 words to look up, 10 per two parts, with columns for the page found, the student's own meaning and their own sentence
• Salva and Nya, Part by Part: a tracker with a row for each part and a column for each storyline
• The People in the Story: Salva, Nya, Uncle Jewiir, Akeer, Nya's mother and Salva's father (6 entries)
• Key Terms, 2 pages: the long walk, refugee camp, the well, Dinka and Nuer (where, what it means, why it matters)
• Themes: 4 themes defined, the student chooses 2 and finds evidence for each
• Sentence Starters: 13 starters for claims, evidence, explanation, then-and-now and endings
• Essay Planner with 3 prompts (claim, three pieces of evidence, so what, ending) and an Essay Draft page
• 6 answer keys: every question (three parts per page), the key terms, the 30 words, the people and themes, and the tracker and Before You Read pages, each with a notes box for your own wording
• A Reading Plan: one-line synopsis of each part, its study pages, and a blank for the chapters in your edition and your dates
• 1 reading log (one row per page or pair of pages), 1 class grid (15 students), 1 filled example for an invented student
• 1 family page with a discussion question per pair of parts, 1 phrase bank of 16 feedback and conference starters
• 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and terms of use

How To Use It

1. Hand out Before You Read (page 5) before anyone opens the book, and fill in the Reading Plan with the chapters and dates in your edition.

2. Read a part, then give the word page (one per two parts) and the question page for that part.

3. As the class reads, students add to the storyline tracker and the people page.

4. After the last part: key terms, themes, sentence starters, then the essay planner and draft.

5. Check with the answer keys, log each page, roll the class up on the grid, and send the family page home.

Built For Grades 6 To 8

No mascots and no clip art. Clean pages, body text at 11 point or larger, a numbered question and ruled lines under it. The direction on every question page is the same: answer in complete sentences, with a detail from the story. The word pages ask students to look each word up and use it, and to write the page where they met it. War, loss of family and death are described plainly in the book and handled plainly in the questions; preview them for your class.

Type In, Or Print

The name, date and period lines, every ruled line, the word and character tables, the reading log, class grid and family page are type-in fields in any PDF reader. Every page prints clean in black and white. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Middle school ELA, resource rooms and co-taught classes, homeschool families and tutors reading this novel in any month. The open questions have sample answers, so accept any reasoned answer that uses a detail from the book.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A complete novel study with the record-keeping around it. There is no rubric or point value printed on any student page; the log has a blank for your own wording. It is not a test, a reading-level screener or a clinical tool, and it makes no claim about any student's grade level or rate of progress. The novel itself is not included and none of its text is reproduced.

This resource is not affiliated with or endorsed by Linda Sue Park, her publisher, or the owners of A Long Walk to Water.