8th Grade ILA

Links for use with:

Waiting for the Rain & To Kill a Mockingbird

• Prepare a map of South Africa showing its major cities, capitals, and landmarks.    CIA World Factbook - South Africa Information

• Research apartheid.  Define and give history.  South African Political Information Exchange

• Present a biography of Sheila Gordon.  Atlantic Monthly Sheila Gordon Interview 

• Explain what the Jane Addams Peace Award is and why this novel received that award.  Name other novels that have also received this award.  Jane Addams Children's Book Award Site. 

• Additional sites of interest:

  South Africa's natural resources, its language and religion, the climate, the economy, the Boers, Black African kingdoms, European settlements, and culture/arts. Suggested internet sites for these topics are:

  Ethnic groups in South Africa (from Ethnologue)

  South Africa: A Country Study (from Library of Congress)

  South Africa Links (from K-12 Teaching and Learning Center)

  South Africa: The Land and It's People (from Government of South Africa)

  The Nature Workshop - Travel Information about South African Areas.

The students then present their research orally in class so that the entire class will benefit and learn about South Africa. Waiting for the Rain will awaken students to a different part of the world and to a different culture. They will come away from reading this novel with a new understanding of racial prejudice and social injustice, and it will encourage them to think about their own attitudes about prejudice and intolerance.