Home of the Brave

HOME OF THE BRAVE

By Katherine Applegate

Summer Reading Packet

Instructions: This is your reading packet of activities.As you read, you may work on different sections based on the following outline on the next page. I hope you enjoy this story about a boy named Kek who lived in Sudan, Africa and experienced life that is hard to imagine for a young boy. The book is from his perspective when he is in America, however, you will learn about his past in Africa. Complete all activities for the first day of school! We will go over the packet and discuss in detail many details of the novel when you return to school during the 1st two weeks.

PACKET OUTLINE

1. Read the Informational Text BEFORE reading the novel. This will provide you with background information about what happened in Africa in the 1980s and 90s. Answer the 3 to 4 questions with the articles.
2. Read Part 1. As you read Part I, fill out the CHARACTER TRAIT & EVIDENCE handout. Read the directions and use textual evidence for justification.
3. Work on your VOCABULARY WORDS and create your own copy (another sheet of paper) of the vocabulary words. You should have 6 of these attached.
4. Read Part II. After reading Part II, fill our the EYE: RL 6.6 Point of View sheet. Read directions and fill out.
5. Complete the Part II questions - Reading Comprehension.
6. Read Part III. Still work on your vocabulary words with frayer model!
7. Complete the Compare and Contrast graphic organizer for Lou’s and Hannah’s perspective.
8. Read Part IV (4) and finish the novel. Match the PLOT MATCH handout after the book; draw your most impacted scene.
9. Read your culminating project handout and rubric and complete.

HOME OF THE BRAVE: PART I

Informational Text Section

Instructions: Read the two articles before reading the novel. Underline and annotate the articles that describe the life of the “lost boys” in Africa.

After reading: Answer the questions in 2 to 4 sentences.

The Lost Boys of Sudan

October 3, 2014by The IRC

In 1987, some 20,000 Sudanese children fled a bloody civil war in their homeland. Known as "The Lost Boys," nearly 4,000 of them eventually found refuge in the United States. Photo: IRC

In 1987, civil war drove an estimated 20,000 young boys from their families and villages in southern Sudan. Most just six or seven years old, they fled to Ethiopiato escape death or induction into the northern army. They walked more than a thousand miles, half of them dying before reaching Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. The survivors of this tragic exodus became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan.

In 2001, close to four thousand Lost Boys came to the United States seeking peace, freedom and education. The International Rescue Committee helped hundreds of them to start new lives in cities across the country.

South Sudan: The story of one Lost Boy who eventually made it home

In the 58 years since independence, periods of peace in Sudan have been brief. Today there are new violent clashes unfolding in South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011. While parties meet to discuss a peaceful resolution, this is the story of one manchanged forever by the previous civil war, which lasted 22 years and claimed 2 million lives.

Gabriel Bol Dengvividly remembers the first thing he ate when he was in the United States. It was at a Subway restaurant, and he ordered the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich. As he was moving down the line, he was offered an impressive global offering of cheese: American and Swiss. They asked him what he wanted, and he requested “the African cheese.” Of course, there wasn’t any.

It was his second day in the US. In 2001 he, along with around 150 other “lost boys of Sudan,” were resettled in Syracuse, New York after years of walking through hardship that almost exceeds comprehension.

The first sound of gunfire came in the late afternoon while a 10-year-old Gabriel was in the grazing field with his family’s cattle. As he ran towards his village, now under aNorth Sudan group of militiamen called Murahileen,he was scooped up by a fleeing man and carried away from danger.

Within moments, his rescuer was shot in the back, and an exposed Gabriel played dead as he listened to the shooters congratulate themselves for killing the man “and his son.” It was 1987, and predators both animal and human, would continue to chase Gabriel and his fellow South Sudanese for years to come, for thousands of miles, and across the border frontiers of three countries.

The village of Ariang is located in the northwest of South Sudan, and today, is home to 3,000 people. Gabriel and his eight siblings were happy and well-off thanks to the family’s large herd of cattle, whichdetermines wealth for the Dinka people.

“If you have hope, make good decisions, and never give up – you can move Mt. Kilamanjaro,” his parents told him.“You control 90% of your life by how you react to the problems you face.”

In hindsight, no better advice could have been given to a child who was about to have everything in his life – including his parents – stripped away.

For four months, Gabriel and thousands of other children, mostly boys, who were separated or orphaned during the ensuing civil war, walked. They walked without destination, food, water or protection. Tree leaves acted as sustenance and papyrus leaves proved flimsy vessels for crossing the Nile into Ethiopia. Many were lost to the crocodiles

.

Illustration of a river crossing by Mac Anyat, a 17-year-old in Kakuma refugee camp 2004. Courtesy of PBS.

But Ethiopia would be better. There was food and safety there, the boys were told. After months of fighting for each minute of survival, a new rock bottom was reached upon arriving at a newly formed refugee camp. It was not the promised land, but somehow an equal pit of misery and hunger.

To make matters worse, he was severely weakened by a poisonous snake bite, bitter and angry at the broken promise of a reprieve. One evening, as he laid down to sleep feeling and hoping that he would not wake up, he found his parents.

They came to him in a dream, the only way they would ever come to him again, and they spoke the words that he says changed his life. He was scolded by his father for giving up hope and for letting his negative mental state get so bad it was worsening his physical health, and they told him they loved him more than he could ever know.

Gabriel carried on as best one could in that miserable place for four whole years until 1991, when Ethiopia entered into its own civil war. When planes began bombing the camp from above, it was time to start walking once again. First back to South Sudan, where the refugees were caught on the frontier between two wars, and finally on to Kenya.

And it was in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, still the world’s third largest in operation, where he found education.“Education is our mother and our father,” Gabriel says.

An aerial view of Kakuma in 2012. Photo credit africanasylum.blogspot.com

When many people hear the phrase “refugee camp” a temporary tent city may come to mind. The reality however is quite permanent for millions worldwide, with the average person spending decades in this uncontrollable state of dangerous limbo.Kakuma was equally as dangerous, with tension and violence from existing residents of the region, now having to share already stretched resources with hundreds of thousands of new, long-term arrivals. (There are still more than 36,000 Sudanese refugees in Kenya today according to the UNHCR.) After nine years in Kenya, Gabriel was chosen to resettle in Syracuse, New York.

A college education, a teaching job and a family followed. Gabriel’s first trip back to the village of Ariang came in 2007. There he found an uncle and two surviving brothers, who like him, had assumed the other had been dead for 20 years.

Gabriel (center in red) greets family members on his first return to Ariang. Photo credit Michelle Gabel

After listening to residents’ needs and seeing the local children attend school outdoors under a tree, Gabriel started theHope for Ariang Foundationwhich has built a proper school building one handmade brick at a time. Equally as important, they built wells. Millions of girls around the world spend their days fetching water instead of attending school so the foundation built a well at the school itself along with one in each of the five surrounding villages.

Villagers gather at a well built by Gabriel’s foundation in Ariang. Photo credit Michelle Gabel

The school now has over 500 students, including many girls. Gabriel admits to internal struggle when it came to deciding between his good job in America and starting a foundation on a shoestring budget for his childhood home.

“Your human worth is measured by how your attitude and actions affect other human beings,” Gabriel says. “How you reach out and help others determines this, not possessions.”

As for his feelings about his introduction to the United States – the chicken teriyaki sandwich at Subway, Gabriel says, “I ate one yesterday.”

The Hope for Ariang Foundation is currently constructing volunteer housing to grow the number of teachers able to assist the school.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the purpose of these articles? Who is the intended audience? Why was the article written?

2. In the 2nd article, write out the order of events Gabriel Bol Deng’s life.

3. Write new information learned from each article. (at least 2 things)

4. What is the attitude expressed by the speaker in the 2nd article? (think about the feelings you received)

END OF PART I: CHARACTER TRAITS and EVIDENCE [RL 3]

KEK

Instructions: After reading Part I, go back and think about Kek’s character traits (internal and external) from each chapter. There are 16 boxes for each chapter. If you repeat a trait, only repeat it 3 times and justify it with different evidences from the chapters. Use evidence from each chapter with the page number to justify why that is Kek’s triat.

TRAIT / EVIDENCE FROM CHAPTER
(Put Page Number)

PART II of ASSIGNMENT: KEK’s CHARTER CHANGE [RL 3]

Instructions: Complete after reading the book.

In the three boxes, describe Kek’s character change from beginning to end. Use your chart above (Part1) to guide your beginning response. Use Part II of the book for the second and Part III for the third. Write at least 3 to 4 sentences in each box describing the character and by the end, the character change of KEK. Think about what makes him change or even who, as well as the PLOT of the story.

1. Beginning Characterization of KEK

FRAYER MODEL: Make your own on a separate sheet of paper for your vocabulary words. Pick at least 4 words to create a frayer model from the list below.

VOCABULARY FOR BOOK

Vocabulary Words:

1. Refugee (pg. 6)
2. Wading (pg. 13)
3. Barren (pg. 50)
4. Inquiry (pg. 57)
5. Translation (pg. 98)
6. Foster (pg. 103)
7. Vast (pg. 207)
8. Escort (pg. 237)

POINT OF VIEW

Part II: Ganwar’s Perspective

Instructions: How does Ganwar view living in America? Record his thoughts and feelings in the pupil of his eye (the center circle). Then identify a prior experience and record it in the background of Ganwar’s eye.

Comprehension Questions Part 2

Directions: Read the questions and answer them in complete sentences or choose the correct answer. Use the book to help you, if needed. Use details from the text to support your answer. Record the Concept of Comprehension© on the line next to each question.

_____ 1. What happened to Kek’s mother? a. She escaped when the camp that she was in was attacked. b. She is safe and will be coming to Minnesota. c. She was killed when the camp that she was in was attacked. d. After the camp that she was in was attacked, she may have left for another camp.

_____ 2. Why does Kek say he was lucky when he tells Hannah about when his father and brother were killed? ______

_____ 3. Why does Kek tell his teacher he cannot have the desk she seats him at?

a. He prefers to sit on the floor.

b. He thinks he has to buy it with cattle and he does not have any cows.

c. He does not think he deserves it.

d. He thinks it is too fancy to sit at.

5. What happens when Kek tries to wash the dishes? ______

___ 6. What does Kek mean when he says that the bus is “even bigger than the school bus, with the sour breath and slow growl of a starving animal”?

a. The bus is hungry.

b. There is a hungry, smelly animal on the bus.

c. The bus is turning into a mean animal.

d. The bus makes noise and smells when it pulls up.

____ 7. List at least 3 mistakes Kek makes because he doesn’t fully understand English. ______

8. How are Hannah and Kek’s life situations similar? ______

COMPARE/CONTRAST: Part III

Instructions: Compare and Contrast Lou’s perception of Kek with Hannah’s by completing the graphic organizer below. Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

Name: ______Book: ______Standard: RL 3 Literary Elements

In your box, visualize and draw a scene that most impacted you. In your drawing, emphasize the setting of the scene. At the bottom of the box in 3 to 5 sentences describe and justify why it impacted you. Also, in another describe what mood is portrayed in that particular scene and justify. HINT: Think about what scene that brought out the strongest feeling you had in the book and draw it! Think about what happened in that scene. I want you to shade and color the scene to bring out the setting and vivid details. Use the entire space.

CULMINATING PROJECT: THEME (LIFE LESSON OF THE STORY)

Theme: Perseverance

Task: On a poster size paper or a technology site listed below create a collage of pictures, words from the text, and creative sentences that describes the theme of perseverance in the novel Home of the Brave. Think about Kek, Ganwar, and Hannah’s actions and life situations and how they kept moving forward. Use examples from the text on your collage

(Option) Technology Websites for Collages:

Padlet.com / Stormboard.com / / Glogster.edu / popplet.com

These technology web 2.0 tools are for collages and bulletin board online tools. You can use these instead of doing in by hand, however, you will have to register for each one. Make sure you use the FREE educational section of the website. Play around with each one, if you want to use technology, and make sure you include the items above.

RUBRIC FOR PROJECT

4 (A) / 3 (B) / 2 (C) / 1 (D)
Content: THEME / Clearly articulates the theme by using 8 or more evidences from the text; Every evidence supports the theme of perseverance and is justified why perseverance is the theme on the poster / Cleary articulates the theme of using 6-7 evidences from the text; Evidence supports the text; Theme is stated on poster / Articulates the theme by using 5 evidences from the text; states the theme on the poster with more than ½ of evidences supporting the theme of perseverance / Articulates the theme by using 2-4 evidences from the text; states the theme with less than ½ of evidence supporting the theme of perseverance
Grammar/
Punctuation / No more than 3 grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes on poster or web 2.0 tool / No more than 5 grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes on poster or web 2.0 tool / No more than 8 grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes on poster or web 2.0 tool / 10 or more grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes
Pictures/words/Sentences / All pictures, words, & sentences that are included on poster or web 2.0 tool make clear sense to the themed collage and are appropriate to the theme; organized in an unique manner that
encompasses perseverance / All pictures, words, & sentences are included on poster or web 2.0 tool make clear sense to the themed collage and relate to the theme; information is organized in a neat manner / All pictures, words, & sentences are included on poster or web 2.0 tool make sense to the theme of perseverance; information isn’t organized in a manner that is visually appealing / Words, Sentences, & pictures are included but doesn’t make sense to the theme of perseverance