Novel Study & Impromptu Debate

Teacher: Nadia Khan

This course is designed for students to develop the communication skills needed for success in secondary school academic programs and in their daily lives. Students will interpret and evaluate the book and determine the intended and unintended purpose. Students will develop critical and creative thinking skills as they analyse the text, interpret ideas, information and learn debating skills from impromptu topics given to them. An important emphasis throughout the course is on strategies that contribute to clear, correct, and effective communication through debates, discussion and writing.

Novel Study Book: The Shepherd's Granddaughter By Anne Laurel Carter

Winner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award for Children, the Society of School Librarians International Best Book Award and a Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor Book

Ever since she was a little girl, Amani has wanted to be a shepherd, just like her beloved grandfather, Sido. For generations her family has grazed sheep above the olive groves of the family homestead near Hebron, and she has been steeped in Sido’s stories, especially one about a secret meadow called the Firdoos, where the grass is lush and the sheep grow fat, and about the wolf that once showed him the path there.

But now Amani’s family home is being threatened by encroaching Jewish settlements. As she struggles to find increasingly rare grazing land for her starving sheep, her uncle and brother are tempted to take a more militant stance against the settlers. Then she accidentally meets Jonathan, an American boy visiting his settler father.

Away from the pressures of their families, the two young people discover Sido’s secret meadow, the domain of a lone wolf. And Amani learns that she must share the meadow, and even her sheep, with the wolf, if she is going to continue to use it.

Source: Publisher

Refund Policy

If you choose to withdraw from the course, please see below:

November30th:  90% refund

December 7th:  50% refund

After the first class:  50% credit or 25% refund

*Please note Monday Feb.19th is a public holiday