A Guide to Creating Multimedia Text Sets for a Novel Study Using Thirst by Varsha Bajaj

The success of a multimedia text set depends on its ability to align with specific learning objectives, engage students effectively, and support their learning styles and preferences. By carefully curating content and continuously assessing its impact, you can create a learning experience that increases background knowledge and fosters curiosity, critical thinking, and a deeper understanding of the primary text.

There is an art to creating and organizing a quality text set that will deepen a student’s understanding of a topic or theme. ​ Want to know the secret recipe for cooking up a diverse collection of paired texts?

Diversity in genre: Using paired texts within a novel study allows for exposure to and analysis of multiple genres. Students work towards mastery of both fiction and nonfiction reading standards.

​Within each genre, look for diverse media formats.

To incorporate a speech related to your theme, look at American Rhetoric for text, TED Talks for videos, and Learn Out Loud for podcasts.

​Short Stories don’t have to be limited to text. Check out this collection of photo essays from The Global Oneness Project. Stories can take the form of interviews. Try The Moth or Story Corps websites for beautiful collections of audio and video interviews in which people share their stories.

Consider: How will this text widen my students’ view of the big picture?
Three WHOs:  Who is the text speaking about? Who is it speaking to? Who isn’t included?

In researching texts to include in my unit of study for “Thirst,” a documentary called The Story of India, written and presented by historian Michael Wood, was widely recommended. I was skeptical about a documentary on the history of India presented by a British historian, but I watched it anyway. While watching, I noticed that the historian mainly visited with educated people who did not appear to live in poverty. I dug deeper into the film reviews to see what people from India thought of it, and I learned that many stories were left out. 

This is why selecting multiple texts on a topic is so important. It allows students to examine an issue from diverse perspectives.

Another thing to consider: Does your selection of texts involve learning that can be applied to student’s lives?

• How is the issue of access to clean water affecting people in other places around the world?
• How is this issue affecting people in my community?
• How does it affect me?

A closer look at some possible resources to use specifically for Thirst by Varsha Bajaj:

I highlight several film-based nonfiction resources I watched during my background research in this video. I also highlight what resources you might want to use with the novel and how these videos connect to the text. I’ll let you know what topics and issues some of the longer documentaries cover and what minutes those topics are covered. I’ve been watching videos for weeks; hopefully, it will save you some time.

Here is the link to all of the resources I have collected, and there is a link to the slides from my YouTube video in the document. 
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How will students respond to the paired texts?

Remember that the key to a successful multimedia text set is its alignment with specific learning objectives and ability to engage students while promoting a deeper understanding of the subject matter. I have created a collection of lessons that assess students’ understanding of the content covered in the text set. Students must think critically through each resource’s guiding questions or prompts. Each lesson includes questions to help students analyze, reflect upon, and discuss the content. My goal with these lessons was to promote critical thinking and foster collaboration by incorporating group discussions, peer reviews, or collaborative tasks related to the multimedia text set.

You can preview the follow-up lessons in the video below:

Add student choice, collaboration, small group instruction, and nonfiction reading skills to your novel study with this nonfiction companion to “Thirst” by Varsha Bajaj. It includes nine activities for adding connected nonfiction texts to your novel study. The lessons can be used as choice board activities or for a station rotation model that allows the teacher to work with small groups.

Note: The activities in this resource can be used with any informational video, audio, or text resource. I have included a list of related topics and links to possible resources. I am providing the learning activity (lessons) to go with the resources you select– not the resources themselves.

You can buy this lesson, including a 68-page PDF download for Thirst and a digital interactive notebook in Google Slides, through my online store (below). This lesson is available on Teachers Pay Teachers as well.