World Days Curriculum Ideas

Today’s students face so many challenges understanding our increasingly complex world and figuring out how to navigate the future. Each month, international world days draw special attention to a range of themes pertinent to the times in which we are living. These global days are wonderful opportunities for educators to work with students to explore and reflect on these topics.

At Novel Ideas, we strongly believe that engaging with literature and story telling is one of the most effective (and enjoyable!) tools at our disposal for promoting the kind of engaged learning and self-reflection today’s world asks of our young people. Each month, we will highlight a set of world days, paired with novel studies that focus on the identified themes.

The more we know and understand, the more we apply our imaginations to what can be done, the better world we can contribute to building!

June 12 : World Day Against Child Labor

Iqbal, by Francesco D’Adamo (trans. Ann Leonori)

Fictionalized version of the true story of Iqbal Masih. Sold into child slavery at a carpet factory, the young, insightful, and brave Iqbal resists the reality of his unpaid turmoil and inspires the other children to do the same.

READING for SUCCESS: You can order the novel study here

June 15: Global Wind Day

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

True story of William Kamkwamba who realized his dream of building a windmill that brought water to the fields during a terrible drought in his village in Malawi. All with what scraps he could find at the junkyard!

READERS & WRITERS - BIOGRAPHY: You can order the materials for using this book to teach the genre biography here

June 16: International Day of the African Child

Journey to Jo’burg, by Beverly Naidoo

A touching story about the thirteen-year-old Naledi and her younger brother, Tiro. When their younger sister becomes gravely ill, the two children must find the way from their village to Johannesburg, where their mother is working in domestic service. Throughout this journey, the resourceful children gain an increased understanding of Apartheid and the far-reaching injustices of racial segregation.

READING for SUCCESS: You can order the novel study here

July 1: International Joke Day

Ramona Quimby, Age 8, by Beverly Cleary

Ramona Quimby loves to joke! A humor that is distinctly Romona’s touches every part of this story, from her excitement at getting to ride the school bus and having Sustained Silent Reading added to her school day (the best part of being in grade 3!), to the frustrations of having to play baby games with Willa Jean and dealing with the eraser-stealing “Yard Ape” at school, to the lonely disorientation of navigating a family situation where her parents are even busier than usual.

READING for SUCCESS: You can order the novel study here

July 12: Malala Day

I Am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai and Patricia McCormick

Imagine living in Pakistan during the rise of the Taliban, where loving school and being top girl in your class were turned into criminal behavior. Imagine soldiers boarding your school bus and shooting you and two other children just because you fought for the right to keep learning. Malala, the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner, tells the story of her fight for survival and the right for all children to have access to quality education.

READERS & WRITERS - BIOGRAPHY: You can order the materials for using this book to teach the genre biography here:

August 9: International Day of the World’s Indigenous People

Secret of the Andes, by Ann Nolan Clark

Cusi is a young Incan boy living in the Peruvian Andes, in the company of just his caretaker, Chuto, and the herd of llamas it is their responsibility for which to take care. He becomes curious about the world beyond the beautiful landscape in which he grew up after observing, from a distance, a family move into the valley below. Cusi goes on two journeys as he comes of age, the first to the Salt Pits, with Chuto, and then to Cusco, alone and in search of his heart’s true desire. A beautifully written, lyrical book, with a sequence on lyrical poetry in our corresponding novel study.

READING for SUCCESS: You can order the novel study here

August 23: International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Freedom Crossing, by Margaret Goff Clark

Set in the 1850s, Laura Eastman is 15 years old and has just moved back to New York after living with her aunt and uncle in Virginia for four years. Still seeing things from the perspective of her southern relatives, she is shocked and shaken to learn that her father and brother are part of the Underground Railroad and have been hiding people escaping from slavery in their home. When Martin, a young boy who is trying to escape slavery, is brought to her house for protection while her father is away, Laura is forced to face important decisions about what she believes is right and wrong.

READING for SUCCESS: You can order the novel study here