“The importance of sharing different perspectives worldwide is vital to your classroom community.
The Boy, who harnessed the wind by William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer, is one of my favorite autobiographies to teach in my classroom. This book is about a boy’s determination to solve a problem. It’s a great story of engineering, perseverance, and resiliency. William Kamkwamba writes it, and he is a native of Malawi. I love that it has two versions. I use a chapter book version when I teach my fifth-grade class for my read alouds.
I use the picture book version because it is perfect for primary-age students to see the illustrations and connect with the text.
With my expertise in finding multicultural books throughout the world for my classroom, students get a different perspective of how day-to-day life is for kids worldwide. I use this book as an example. Traditionally, throughout Africa’s continent, students have to pay for their education. My parents were born and raised in Liberia. They told me growing up that they had school fees and tuition that they had to pay. The story’s premise was a natural disaster of drought, which brought famine to William’s home country.
What I also wanted to show my students is with hardships and challenges, you can still persevere. And this book gives you that firsthand account of what it’s like to strive. This story is one of my students’ favorite books that I read out loud to them. William Kamkwamba also did a TED talk, which I think is very important to watch.
I even made a curriculum lesson plan that is a companion to this book. I have many standards that are compatible with your needs in your state. I also have great thought-provoking questions that will help your elementary and even middle school students form good discussions around this book. No matter how hard he worked. He had people in his community, even his mother, who doubted his hope and dream to get a windmill into his town to irrigate.
The importance of sharing different perspectives worldwide is vital to your classroom community. This book has to be on your shelves: The Boy Who harnessed the wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. Elizabeth Zunon illustrates the book. Check it out and check out my companion lesson plan for purchase on www.jebehedmunds.com.
