The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read is part of our Starts With a Story Collection, which includes more than 550 picture book companions based on high quality children’s literature that support you in delivering highly-engaging interactive read alouds with follow up activities. Learn more about this children’s book below! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
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SUMMARY
"The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read" by Oge Mora is a remarkable and inspiring picture book based on the true story of Mary Walker, who learned to read at the age of 116. The book beautifully depicts Mary's lifelong journey towards literacy. Born into slavery, Mary endured numerous challenges and setbacks, including the denial of education. However, her unwavering determination led her to attend a literacy program at the age of 114. With vivid illustrations and poignant storytelling, the book captures Mary's resilience, highlighting her pursuit of knowledge and the transformative power of education. "The Oldest Student" serves as a powerful reminder that it's never too late to learn and that education can bring empowerment and joy at any age. By the end of the story, Mary's perseverance and dedication inspire readers to pursue their own dreams and embrace the lifelong journey of learning.
 USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Our read aloud lesson plans for this picture book come with reading comprehension questions (with sample student responses), 30 writing prompts, teaching ideas for grammar skills, social emotional learning discussion ideas, and more. Check out our list below to get a sneak peek at some of the skills this resource teaches.
- Encourage students to use their summarizing and retelling strategies.
- Discuss the different characters in the story and analyze their thoughts and actions.
- Help students to analyze what the author’s purpose for writing the book might be.
- Introduce a new form of punctuation, colons.
- Explain to students the various ways to use a comma.
- Discuss what it means to persevere and why it is important.
- Teach students about the importance of having a growth mindset using examples from the book.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30Â writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
This book is a must have for your school or classroom library. Your students are going to love completing these activities for the book and you will be impressed with how much they learn. You will want to read this book to your class every year.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will love the similar books listed below, which can all be found in our free picture book list.
- Saturday by Oge Mora
- Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
- The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
- The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad
- Ada Twist Scientist by Andrea Beaty
- Mae Among the Stars by Roda Ahmed
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
