ALWtW and Health Education

While reading A Long Walk to Water, I tried to focus on scenes connecting to Physical Education instead of Health because I will more than likely only be teaching physical ed. I had troubles with this and seemed to be able to connect more to health related scenes. The book covers food and water availability, quality and variety. My first bookmarked scene was in chapter 3 while Nya gathered water in her container to bring home. In this scene, she drinks “brown, muddy water”, fills up her container, and walks the water home. Water is an essential macronutrient to the human body, therefore this scene can be tied into a nutrition lesson on nutrients.

If I were to teach this lesson to my students and have them connect ALWtW to their nutrition plan, I’d use the Instructional Routine “Independent Reading”. Along with this, I’d write questions up on the board for students to think about while they are reading independently. Some students may need to take notes while they are reading or write down any thoughts or questions pertaining to the reading. The text is short and the concept I’m reaching is quick and to the point. I think independent reading will allow students to get their minds running before anything is collaborated as a group.This activity would be brought in after learning about water and other macronutrients essential to the body. Questions to think about while reading would be focused on how the characters actions of drinking dirty water could affect her health. After reading to themselves another strategy, such as Fishbowl Discussions would be used so I could hear and assess the ideas my students come up with. My students should be able to apply what they have learned from the nutrition unit to Nya’s consumption of dirty water.

This activity would be taught to a high school, 9–12, health class. The standard that goes with this lesson is Health Education Standard 1.1: Predict how health behaviors can affect health status. Health Standard 1.4, “Analyze how environmental factors and personal health are interrelated” is another that connects to this scene. Reading this chapter, along with many others, brings up many certain health behaviors that could affect one’s health. Specifically drinking dirty water in this case, is what my students would reflect on and decide what some consequences of doing so could be. The water Nya is drinking is purely part of her environment so this connects to the second health standard mentioned.