Ninth Ward

Ninth Ward

By: Jewell Parker Rhodes

Published by Little, Brown and Company, 2010

Strength, Inspiring, Coming of age, Historically relevant, Demonstrates resilience

Awards:

• Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee (2012)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee (2010)
• Coretta Scott King Award for Author Honor (2011)
• The Judy Lopez Memorial Award for Children's Literature Honor (2011)

Summary:

Lanesha, a twelve year old girl, lives in a small neighborhood in New Orleans with her loving caretaker, Mama Ya-Ya.  Mama Ya-Ya is especially wise and has the ability to foresee future events. When she has a vision of a powerful storm - Katrina - fast approaching, Lanesha must stir up all the hope and courage she has to help them both survive this monstrous hurricane. This story demonstrates the true meaning of friendship, family and the strength of love.

Reading Level: Lexile, 470L, Grade 3.3

Suggested Delivery: Small group read, Whole class instruction

Key Vocabulary: (by page number) caul (1), synopses (5), clodhopper (12), fortitude (25), unfathomable (70), indigents (118), loitering (125), omen (125), sirens and banshees (129), bittersweet (145), siphoning (148)

3 Teaching Suggestions:

1. Use this text to explain (in depth) the concept of character development. Help students to explore this concept by guiding them through the development of the main character, Lanesha.
2. Throughout the text, there are a significant amount of vocabulary words that Lanesha uses. Choose a new word everyday and have a short discussion about what they think it means. When they have decided on a definition, ask them to write a sentence using it and then share their sentence with a peer or with the rest of the class.
3. Use the text to teach students what a tragedy is. Explore/research other tragedies that have occurred in American history. How would they feel if some sort of tragedy happened to them? What can we do to help others affected?

Before Reading: Create a large K-W-L chart and place it in the front of the classroom. Ask students to share what they already know about Hurricane Katrina or hurricanes in general. Then ask them what they would like to learn about hurricanes and Hurricane Katrina. Then have the students make predictions about the book. 

During Reading: Have students keep a list of all of the vocabulary words that Lanesha uses throughout the text. If Lanesha provides them the definition ask them to write the definition provided. If the definition is not given, ask students to use context clues and write down their best guess. Then have students look up the definition in a dictionary to see how accurate their guess was. Make sure to set aside several minutes to discuss why this particular word is important to the story.

After Reading: Go back to the K-W-L chart that students created before reading the novel and have them complete the (L) section of the chart. This can either be done as a whole class or students can do this in pairs. Upon completion of the chart, create an open discussion with the students by asking questions such as: What is it about Lanesha that makes her so special? How do you think this contributed to her being so heroic? What do you consider to be special about yourself? What skill or quality makes you unique from others? 

Writing Activity: Fortitude is a word used quite often in the text and carries much meaning. How does Lanesha, Tashon, or Mama Ya-Ya demonstrate fortitude? Ask students to support their short answer with an example from the book.

OR

Have students create newspaper articles about the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Allow students to do research on the event and write an article including details about the hurricane, the devastation it caused and what other's can do to help those that were affected by it.

2 Electronic Resources:

1. Kidsites: This website provides a list of outside links to child friendly websites regarding all subject matters. However, one of the science topics listed is all about hurricanes. By clicking on these links students can learn the history behind hurricanes and how they are formed. Teachers are encouraged to use this website for all subjects, not only science!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   2. Scholastic News: This link goes to a website which has several articles written by both children and teachers about the great tragedy, Hurricane Katrina.  Within the articles they list all the ways that they were able to contribute and help those in need. Students can visit this website to gain more insight to the horrible tragedy as well as to understand how their newspaper article should be written. Also, a list of charities is posted on the website. Students can visit these charities websites to see what exactly each charity does. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Rhodes, J.P. (2010) Ninth ward. New York: Little Brown and Company