Norwalk High School
2016 Honors World History
Summer Reading Assignment
ISBN-13: 978 - 0 - 3 7 4 - 1 0 5 2 3 – 5
Liner Notes:
“This is how wars are fought now: by children, traumatized, hopped-up on drugs, and wielding
AK-47’s. Children have become the soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty violent conflicts going on
worldwide, it is estimated that there are more than 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be
one of them.
What does war look like through the eyes of a child? How does one become a killer?
How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to
imagine their lives. But it is rare to find a first-person account from someone who endured this hell
and survived.”
Your assignment is in to read the book and execute a reflection paper.
Directions for the reflection paper are on the next page.
Link to the Schoolwide Rubric for Effective Writing is at the bottom.
Your Name
Hons. World History
Mr(s). Teacher Name
August 31, 2016
Reflection Paper:
Long Way Gone
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Topics to be addressed in your Reflection Paper:
1. What did you learn on a historic level? What did Ishmael’s personal history communicate to you
about the recent history of his homeland?
2. What has Ishmael’s many violent experiences taught you about the consequences or aftereffects,
both intended and unintended, of violence. You should write about the psychological as well as
the physical violence.
3. Explain Ishmael’s inability to tell the difference dreams and reality.
4. Explain the story of the Bra Spider and the story of the wild pig. What cultural significance do they
hold? What is the moral of each story
5. Who are the civilians and how does Ishmael’s relation to them change through the book?
6. How does the civil war and childhood converge to give Ishmael his ultimate calling, his life
purpose?
Your reflection paper MUST:
 Be organized to include an introduction and a conclusion
 Be typed, double spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman font
 Be at least 3 pages (not almost 3 pages), stapled together in upper left hand corner
 Have the heading that is at the top left hand corner of this paper. Heading is NOT double spaced.
 Have 1 inch margins all around
 Include at least 5 direct quotes from the book, with page number in parenthesis following the
quote: “Quote quote quote quote quote quote” (p.76). Quotes MUST be less than 40 words.
 Be handed in first day of class: August 31, 2016
LINK TO SCHOOL WIDE RUBRIC: EFFECTIVE WRITING
http://nhs.norwalkps.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_72063/File/Rubrics/SWR.20142015.EffectiveWriting.pdf