Loss & Healing
A curated collection of 4 books exploring loss & healing, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Learning Goal
Students will explore how characters cope with loss and find paths toward healing, building emotional awareness and empathy.
Standards Connections
- ELA: RL.K-7.3
- ELA: RL.K-7.6
- ELA: SL.K-7.1
- SEL
Books in This Unit
4 titles — each with a full lesson plan.
Grief & Choices
Long Way Down
by Jason Reynolds
3 learning goals · 50 minutes
Grief & Choices
Long Way Down: The Graphic Novel
by Jason Reynolds, art by Danica Novgorodoff
3 learning goals · 50 minutes
Grief & Hope
Beneath
by Cori Doerrfeld
4 learning goals · 35 minutes
Grief & Hope
All the Blues in the Sky
by Renée Watson
3 learning goals · 45 minutes
Pacing Tools in This Unit
2 tools from the Pace-Write-Read handbook.
Point of View
Who is telling the story, who is narrating it — create options that will make a huge difference. Memorable choices have included death itself, so how do you decide? The narrator you choose quietly rewrites every scene.
Details
Serve double duty and point to what a reader must not miss and help to build out your story in extraordinary ways. One well-chosen detail does the work of a paragraph of explanation.