Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Use The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer to strengthen your students' comprehension skills, build their vocabulary, and help them understand how words work.

Bryan Mealer and William Kamkwamba together tell the inspiring story of William's quest to bring water and electricity to his drought-ridden village in Malawi, Africa. Share this inspiring story with your students and teach them to comprehend biographies as they work to make connections to the text, make inferences about William's life, and identify the author's purpose for writing this story.

Explore lesson plans and activities to help you teach with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind in the drop down below.

Asking Questions with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first page of Asking Questions with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Asking Questions with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

In The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, readers will be introduced to William's life, which may be very different than what most of them have experienced. This set of resources will support students as they ask questions and use the story and illustrations to find answers, leading to a better and deeper understanding of the text.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Identifying the Author’s Purpose with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first page of Identifying the Author's Purpose with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Identifying the Author’s Purpose with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Authors Bryan Mealer and William Kamkwamba share the message of working hard to achieve your goals in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. This biography offers the perfect opportunity for readers to practice identifying the author's purpose with this ready-to-use resource set.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Making Connections with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first page of Making Connections with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Making Connections with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Teach readers to combine what they already know about working hard and the power of determination, with the information presented in the text to make important connections to the story of William's life that is shared in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Making Inferences with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first page of Making Inferences with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Making Inferences with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The engaging text and illustrations presented in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind support readers as they work to make inferences about William's life. This making inferences mini lesson will spark student thinking about how inferring helps them understand both his struggles and successes.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Making Predictions with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first page of Making Predictions with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Making Predictions with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind provides deep and meaningful text and illustrations for readers to use when they make predictions about what will logically happen next in William's life. This focused mini lesson offers a step-by-step guide for students as they work through making predictions while reading the text.
Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Parts of Speech with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first page of Parts of Speech with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Parts of Speech with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

This word work lesson plan and set of teaching resources use The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer as a springboard for instruction focused on parts of speech.

By anchoring word study to the text, students will benefit from seeing how possessive nouns are used inside of the text before engaging in both guided and independent practice with nouns.

Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Vocabulary Connections with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The first page of Vocabulary Connections with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Vocabulary Connections with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

This set of vocabulary development resources for The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind highlights the words that are most important for students to know and understand while reading the book. Through engaging in fun word games, matching words to definitions and pictures, and practicing how to categorize words, students will develop the vocabulary necessary to comprehend this story and many others.

Common Core State Standards Alignment
TEKS Alignment

Running Record with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

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Running Record with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Use this Running Record to assess oral reading fluency with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Track meaning, structure, and visual accuracy using the first 100 words of the text to determine whether or not this book is a good fit for the readers in your classroom.

Cause and Effect Matching with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Thumbnail for Cause and Effect Matching with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Cause and Effect Matching with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind then have some fun matching cause and effect sentences from the book. By using these cause and effect cards, students will demonstrate both their comprehension of the text and their understanding of cause and effect relationships in hands-on and interactive way.

This resource includes matching/sorting cards and a sorting mat for four cause and effect sentences in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Each cause card is marked with a square and each effect card is marked with a circle, making it easy to support students who struggle with matching cause and effect relationships.

Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

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Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Understanding cause and effect is a key comprehension and language skill. The text structure of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind includes several examples of cause and effect relationships, making it easy to use as a springboard for modeling or independent practice.

This simple resource includes four sentence stems. Each sentence stem presents an effect. Students will use what they know about the book to fill in the cause of the effect.

Problem and Solution with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Thumbnail for Problem and Solution with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Problem and Solution with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

The BookPagez extension activities are a great way to push student engagement beyond the pages of the text. Try using this activity with early finishers, with students who show a deeper connection with the text, or as a center activity.

Asking Questions with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Identifying the Author’s Purpose with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Making Connections with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Making Inferences with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Making Predictions with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Spanish)

  • Student Practice Page and Answer Key
  • Reader's Notebook Prompt
  • Graphic Organizer

Problem and Solution with The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Spanish)

Worksheet

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About the Book

The cover for the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Title: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Author: William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Genre: Biography, Nonfiction
Themes: Growth Mindset, Perseverance, STEAM / STEM, Family
ISBN: 9781101637425
Publisher's Summary:
When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that would change his family's life forever: he could build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, William's windmill brought electricity to his home and helped his family pump the water they needed to farm the land.
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