Inside Out and Back Again
Written by Thanhha Lai
Copyright 2011
Harper Collins
Reading Level: Lexile- 800, Grade Level- 5,6
2012 Newbery Honor Book
2011Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s
Literature
"moving, refugee, struggle, Vietnam, changing"
Things begin to change in 11-year-old Ha’s world as the
Vietnam war moves close o her home in Saigon. Ha struggles to find her place in
her family while saying goodbye to her friends fleeing the country and hoping
for her father’s return from the war. When Saigon finally falls to North
Vietnam in `975 Ha and her family flee
on a navy ship and spend months in refugee camps before being relocated to
Alabama, Once in Alabama, Ha struggles to learn the new language and cultures
while dealing with bullies at school. Ha begins to wonder if she will ever feel
like she fits into the new culture and if she will ever see her father again.
Suggested delivery:
Small Group/ Individual read
Electronic Services:
This online
interactive activity gives students the opportunity to gain insight into the
stories of children who have recently immigrated to the United States from
foreign countries. Reading the stories will give support and build their schema
of refugee and immigrant stories before reading the text.
This brief
video explaining the Fall of Saigon in South Vietnam and illustrates the
devastating effects of the event including the state being reunited as a
communist country and millions fleeing North Vietnamese rule. This video
provides powerful but kid-friendly information that will help to build
students’ knowledge of the Vietnam War and the time period in which the story
takes place.
Teaching Suggestions
1. Vocabulary:
- Monsoon: a rainy season in southern Asia
- Glutinous: to have adhesive qualities similar of glue; sticky
- Imitation: to copy the actions of someone else
- Vow: a promise
- Communist: a person believing in the form of government in which major businesses are owned by the public or the state and wealth is divided among citizens equally
- Chide: to scorn severely or angrily
- Gaunt: to be very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold
- Idle: to be not in action or work
- Putrid: to be in an advanced state of decomposition and having a foul odor
- Tangible: to be perceptible by the senses, particularly the sense of touch
- Martial: suggesting war or military life
- Monastery: the residence of a religious community
- Waver: to move in a rising and falling pattern
- Pivotal: being of crucial importance
- Implore: to call upon
2. Before, During, and After Reading Activities
Before:
Build up schema and prior knowledge before reading by having the students complete a KWL chart, accompanied by a mini
Social Studies lesson focusing on the Vietnam war. Questions such as “What do you know about the Vietnam War?” and
“What questions do you have about the Vietnam War?” can be used to assess
students’ prior knowledge on the topic. Based on students’ know, a brief lesson
on the Vietnam war and refugees can be conducted accompanied with the
electronic resources listed above to help students learn more about the experiences
Ha has throughout the text.
During:
Having
students read this story to each other in small groups and participate in “book
club” discussions are efficient strategies that will engage the students in
collaborative learning and give them the opportunity to share their feelings
and ideas on the text. Providing students with a few literal and inferential
questions to outline their discussion and prompt students to share and
comprehend key ideas and themes in the text.
Sample
Questions:
Literal Questions
|
Inferential Questions
|
What happened to Ha’s father?
|
Why did brother Khoi keep the dead chick in his pocket on
the ship?
|
Who are the unfamiliar men in uniform boarding the ship?
|
Why did the passengers react the way they did when they
heard news of the fall of Saigon?
|
What happens when Ha’s family visits the church with the
cowboy?
|
Do you think Ha’s father is still alive? (Throughout text)
|
How does the family celebrate Christmas?
|
Why was Ha upset about Ms. Scott teaching the class about
Vietnam?
|
After:
In their
book discussion groups, students will brainstorm, discuss, and record ways in
which Ha adapts to her surroundings throughout the book. After coming up with
the list, students can create a board game demonstrating how Ha’s life has
changed from living in Vietnam, to fleeing on a Navy ship, to living in a
refugee camp, to adjusting to a new life in America. The board game should use
some sources from the text such as quotes as well as original illustrations,
and brief summaries of events to illustrate Ha’s struggles and triumphs in
adapting to her surroundings.
Writing Activity:
Inside
out and Back Again is written in free verse poetry and uses a lot of symbolism
to illustrate main ideas. Students will brainstorm a major change that has occurred
in their life (ie. Moving, having a new sibling, getting involved in a new
activity etc.) Students will create an original free verse poem using at least
3 examples of symbolism describing how they adapted to unfamiliar experiences
in their life. By writing about their own experiences in change, students will
be able to draw connections between their experiences and the experience
described in the text, increasing inferential comprehension.
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