A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What is a civil war? Can you think of any other civil wars besides the one in the United States?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may be familiar with the American Civil War but may not have learned about other civil wars in world history, especially more recent conflicts like the one seen in Sierra Leone and around which this memoir takes place.

• The Imperial War Museums website includes a list of 20th and 21st century wars.
• BlackPast.org offers a short introduction to the Sierra Leone Civil War.

2.   What is a memoir? What other memoirs are your familiar with?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may not know the difference between a memoir and an autobiography, so this provides an opportunity to introduce them to the genre. Additionally, the prompt can get them thinking about different stylistic and storytelling choices that authors make.

• BookRiot has a useful article explaining the difference between memoirs and autobiographies.
• The New York Times has compiled a list of 50 famous memoirs.

Short Activity

Reflect in writing about the story of your life. How would you tell it? Think about memories and symbols that might be important to you. How could they help you communicate with a reader about your life? Take 15 minutes to brainstorm ideas for how you might write your memoir.

Then, pair up with a partner and explain your ideas. Each person should take turns sharing ideas.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity can help students think in a somewhat meta-analytical way about how stories are told. Beah includes flashbacks throughout his work as well as recurring motifs like that of rap cassette tapes and nightmares.

• The American Scholar published an article with tips and ideas for memoir writing.

Paired Resource

What It Is

• Part-memoir, part-workbook graphic novel by Lynda Barry
• Helps to think about the many ways of telling one’s life story

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who may be visual learners, consider supplying them with a graphic organizer worksheet so that they can visualize the arc of their life story and the themes and symbols around which they can build it.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the story.

Think of a time when someone was unexpectedly kind to you, especially on a day when you might have had an especially rough time. What did this kindness feel like to you? How might it have changed your perspective?

Teaching Suggestion: Much of this story is mired in violence, but encourage students to think critically about the theme of The Capacity for Altruism In Human Nature. Returning to this theme can help students balance out story elements emphasizing the violence.

Differentiation Suggestion: For struggling writers, ask them to choose a song that might have brought joy to their lives when they were feeling down as a way of expressing their emotion.