Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is trending, and for good reason. I'm seeing the evidence everywhere.

This spring, as I ran our curriculum book choice tournament across the high school levels and hundreds of teachers weighed in, I watched it soar to the finals in BOTH the 9th/10th category and the 11th/12th category.

Then, as summer began and I opened up this new podcast series, "Plan My Lesson" (which starts today, right now), I immediately received three separate requests for Born a Crime lessons. Naturally, with this book soaring in popularity but new to the scene, there isn't that much out there being shared yet.

One teacher was searching for ways to get students connecting the text to the 5 key themes of the I.B. curriculum (identities, experiences, human ingenuity, social organization, and sharing the planet). Another teacher was planning to use it as an anchor for a memoir class, and still another wanted to help students identity rhetorical devices inside while also developing their question-asking skills and connecting key moments in the text with argument claims.

Is it possible to fulfill all these needs with one lesson? I think so. What we want is an in-depth lesson on a section of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime, with a focus on connecting its big ideas to big ideas in our world today and in students' own lives, exploring text passages carefully along the way for writer's craft moves and theme development. And of course, we want it to be engaging. And fit neatly in one class period.

So today, in the first of our summer "Plan My Lesson" series of podcasts, let's dive into planning an engaging, goal-fulfilling lesson for Trevor Noah's Born a Crime. Whether or not you're teaching this book, you'll find lots of ideas for lesson planning here. After we walk through the lesson itself, we'll be talking about helpful takeaways from designing THIS lesson that you can apply to designing ANY lesson, so be sure to stay tuned to the end. I'll also be telling you how to grab all the curriculum for this lesson totally free. So let's dive in!

Grab all the materials for today's lesson free here: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/bornacrimelesson

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Camp Creative : Your Shiny New Short Story Toolbox is coming June 23-27.

In this fun and free 5 day summer workshop, you’ll…

⭐ Learn about 5 fabulous short story options from me (plus SO MANY others from the thousands of other teachers at camp!)

⭐ Walk through 5 creative out-of-their-seats and/or outside-the-box short story lessons (bye bye, comprehension questions)

⭐ Take away 5 classroom-ready curriculum kits for next year (hello, major time-savers!)

Each day’s materials are designed to take just 10 minutes to peruse, and they come straight to your email so you can join us day by day or, if you're busy (or still teaching), catch up later.

Sign up here: https://sparkcreativity.kartra.com/page/CC2025