9-12 Educator Guide

We Are All We Have

by Marina Budhos

 Dear Educators,

We Are All We Have is a gripping young adult fiction novel for teens, set in the year 2019, when seventeen-year-old protagonist, Rania, and her family seek asylum in the U.S. from Pakistan. But the impact of the 2018 U.S. Immigration policies leads to the separation of Rania’s family when Ammi, her single mother, is suddenly taken into detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), forcing Rania to navigate a path for survival for herself and for her younger brother, Kamal. Rania must negotiate her teenage life–being a senior in high school and hanging out with Fatima, her best friend—with a life of grown-up responsibilities and decision-making around survival, all while grappling with family relationships, judgment from others, new love, and a yearning to be free, to belong, and to hold onto her dreams. Rania seeks to understand others and finds her voice to ask questions; she uncovers family stories her mother had hidden from her for protection. She experiences the search for sanctuary; the open road; and her first romance with Carlos who allows her to feel understood. Through safety and understanding, Rania’s memories return; she faces the trauma of her past in order to add voice to their asylum case and to protect their family’s future.

In this coming of age story, readers follow Rania’s journey as she seeks safety, visibility, her place in the world, and all the parts of her story that make her whole; they confront the impact of immigration policies on real lives. Readers experience the universal themes of survival; freedom; protection; identity; trust, and hope. In addition, students explore concepts related to family, sense of belonging, and the amplification of marginalized voices. This layered novel also inspires conversations about human and civil rights; a multicultural, multiracial world; transformative America, and the lived experiences of asylum-seekers and undocumented teens.

These Core Curriculum Lesson Plans present discussion questions, vocabulary, author’s craft, research topics, activities, and essay prompts that align with the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and History and Social Studies for grades 9-12. This guide is broken up into six parts, according to the main sections of the text. The lessons can be used as part of a comprehensive English and/or History unit that lasts for three to four weeks, or you might choose to use the lessons as enrichment activities to deepen student thinking as you conduct a whole class or small group novel study. This novel offers many options for further exploration and research about the causes and effects of immigration policies.

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Content of these Core Curriculum Lesson Plans was created by Dr. Jennifer M. Bogard, a former elementary school teacher who currently teaches educators at Lesley University in the Integrated Teaching Through the Arts Program. She is passionate about teaching through the arts and co-authors books about integrating the arts for educators of K-12 classrooms. Jennifer’s doctoral studies focused on sociology of the family; school and family engagement; and reading pedagogy.

Pre-Reading Explorations:

  1. Learn about the author, Marina Budhos, by visiting her website: https://marinabudhos.com and sampling from the featured interviews. Be sure to include the following, which focus on We Are All We Have:

Interview with Greenlight Bookstore, embedded within the website: https://marinabudhos.com/books/coming-in-2022-we-are-all-we-have

Interview with South Orange Public Library: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvi4l2UxHP8

  • Ask: What is important to Marina Budhos? What fuels her writing?
  • What does the author speak up for? How is she an activist?
  • Ask students to pay attention to discussions related to immigration policies and to list questions that come to mind.
  1. Have students closely examine the artwork by Samya Arif on the cover of the text.
  1. Generate anticipation and build context knowledge by assembling a jackdaw of items related to the book. Present the items all at once as a collection or add to the jackdaw incrementally as the topics arise during reading. Invite students to add to the collection. Learn about literary jackdaws by reading the following article: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED234351 You might include a sampling of the following:

Foods mentioned in the text (recipes for/ photos of/displays or samples when possible). A sampling of foods can be found on the following pages: koftas and rice (28), bowls of chaat (30-31), aloo parathas steaming off the kathi pan (42), toast sprinkled with butter and cinnamon and papaya slices (44), chicken cutlet, Biryani (59), flan (73), milky chai; parathas and potatoes and pistachio shortbread (79), greasy pakoras (105), a big pot of seviyan kheer (190), café con leche (223).

Clothing/dress: blue kurta over white slacks, gold slip-on sandals (59); Rania’s old school uniform: a light blue shalwar kameez, a cardigan for the cold mornings (191); photograph of Ammi in her shalwar kameez and a gauzy scarf

Ghazals/Songs: (239-241) Visit the author’s website to hear ghazals/songs

Additional references to culture: silver bombilla (22); mate (22); chowkidar (67); bougainvillea on wrought-iron fences (190); samples of Urdu language (209)

Maps of the geographic places mentioned in her native country of Pakistan (Rania’s family moved around when they lived in Pakistan due to Abu’s work as a journalist for different newspapers. Locations include: Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi, Hyderabad (42); Karachi beach (44). Maps of U.S. locations in the text: Brooklyn, NY; Manhattan, NY; Cape Cod, Massachusetts: Wellfleet; Canadian border, and more.

Items from the book that serve as symbols: Cape Cod Lighthouse (143), bangle bracelet (12); locked box (49; 68; 190); highway (cover); statue of liberty (67); roads (32); Carlos’ tattoo.

Set of multigenre texts with similar themes: Gather a collection of poems, picture books, photographs, young adult books, newspaper articles, and more to display.

Educators: Consider inviting school counselors into the classroom for discussions on books that include topics to handle with care in the classroom such as ICE officers; Muslim ban (30-31); Child Protective Services (41); juvenile-immigrant-status (24), “zero tolerance” policy; imprisonment; detention, and more; to be mindful that our students have various life contexts, perspectives, and experiences with trauma.

Part I: Brooklyn, New York 2019 (pgs. 1-76)

Vocabulary and concepts for content knowledge:

collateral (6); standby guardianship (3; 83); sponsorship (83); appeal (31); Muslim ban (12); asylum application (12); asylum; undocumented asylum seekers; “zero tolerance” policy; migrants; prosecution; immigration; DACA: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Organizations mentioned: DOJ: US Department of Justice; HHS: US Department of Health and Human Services; ORR: Office of Refugee Resettlement; ICE: U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement

CPS: Child Protective Services

Discussion Questions:

  1. The story begins with an intense scene of Rania and Kamal’s mother being taken into detention by ICE.
  • What descriptions, words and phrases does the author use to create mood and set the tone? How is the system of ICE portrayed?
  • What do we learn about Rania and her family in this scene?
  • What insight do we get into Rania’s relationship with her mother? With her brother? What does Ammi expect from Rania? From Kamal?
  • Discuss the author’s choice of where to begin the story.
  • What other scenes in this section depict ICE (31)? How do these scenes impact you as a reader?

2.On page two, Rania says, “Me and Ammi both stretch the truth when we have to.” (2)

  • Ask students to prepare for a discussion by locating evidence in this section that highlights the concepts of lying, secrets, and truth (ex. pgs. 22; 28; 30; 33; 34; 36; 37; 46; 47; 48; 51; 58; 63; 64; 71; 72).
  • Have partnerships share their passages aloud, creating a body of excerpts to consider as a class.
  • Discuss: Who lies and in what circumstances? What do you think about telling a lie? Is there ever a reason to hide the truth with a lie? In what ways do lies help or hurt the characters?
  • On page 39, Rania shares the devastating truth with Kamal about problems related to staying in the US. Should Rania have lied to Kamal to protect him? Or is the truth a better option? Why or why not? How does Ammi hide the truth from Kamal? How does this impact Kamal? Do you agree or disagree with Ammi’s approach to try and protect him?
  • In what instances do issues of trust arise?

 

  1. On page 4, Rania says: “my mom wants to be me” and on page 45, Rania says, “I always felt as if I were the tail of my brave mermaid mother, shimmering with shiny scales, hard and strong like her.”
  • How would you describe the relationship between Rania and her mother? What are the complexities involved?
  • In what ways are they alike? Different? What are their hopes and dreams?
  • Locate a meaningful interaction in the text that illustrates their relationship.

 

  1. Rania says that her mother is, “always ready to flee.” (5)
  • Ask: In what ways is Ammi ready to flee and why? How does this impact their daily lives?
  • When Rania reflects on learning her mother was pregnant, she says, “It was Kamal, our tiny tapole, swimming in Ammi’s belly. A miracle. A sign that running was the right thing to do.”
  • Ask: What did they run from? What are they continuing to run from and why? What are the characters seeking? What barriers exist?
  • Have students begin to gather additional references to flight, running, and fleeing as they read on.

 

  1. What does the term collateral (6) reveal?
  • What insight does this word choice give readers into the context of why and how Ammi is taken into detention by ICE?
  • Students might wonder about the topics of privacy, arbitrary detention, and rights.

 

 

  1. Reread pages 8-11. What do Rania and Fatima want out of their senior year? Out of life?
  • How do they express themselves? What is important to them? Why do you think they are friends?
  • Discuss how Ra-Ra and Fa-Fa rewrite Jack Kerouac’s On the Road to included themselves: their identities, hopes, dreams, questions (10).

 

  1. What references to freedom do you find?
  • What does Rania mean when she says, “My father was a free spirit” (15)?

 

  1. Fatima’s father, Mr. Elawady, makes Rania feel “ashamed” (15)
  • How does Mr. Elawady treat his sons vs. how he treats Fatima? His wife?
  • Why do you think the author includes this information?
  • What do you think about Fa-Fa’s plan to hide the truth about seeing a boy?

 

  1. Have students locate the following quotation on page 31:

“Thank goodness we’re protected,” Ammi would whisper. We followed the rules. We’re just awaiting our appeal. Inshallah. It will happen.”

  • What message does the author communicate about immigration law? How did the rules change for Ammi?

 

  1. How does the author show that trauma manifests in sensory and physical ways in the characters?
  • Consider: Kamal chewing on his shirt collar, wetting his pants (33); Rania kicking, tasting ash, throwing up (26); Fatima’s father makes Rania’s head ache.

 

  1. “My parents have always taught me to pay attention to words” (47)
  • How are poetry, words, and writing important to Rania and her family?

 

  1. While navigating immigration at JFK airport, Rania has an epiphany: “That’s when I knew: This is how we would get by. Luck and lies.” (48)
  • What led up to this realization?

 

  1. On page 49, Rania says, “My questions about home stayed in an iron lock-box of memories.”
  • What does Rania mean? Why does she hide her questions?

 

  1. What is the significance of Rania’s interactions with Mrs. Flannery? (52; 74)
  • How would you describe the way Mrs. Flannery treats Rania and why?
  • Even while trembling in fear, how does Rania seek to understand Mrs. Flannery?

 

  1. As Rania reaches out to family members, how do they make her feel? What hidden information is revealed?

 

  1. Reread page 65. What is the role of music and identity? How does singing ghazals allow Rania and her family to feel understood?

 

  1. How does the story of Abu unfold? What is the significance of his being a journalist? (67)

 

  1. Reread pages 67-69. What factors impacted the outcome of Ammi’s hearing?
  • What does Lidia mean when she tells Rania, “immigration law is not the same as the rest of our legal system” (67)?
  • Discuss the concepts of fairness, luck, just, unjust. Did Ammi have a fair hearing?
  • Consider character change. In what ways is Rania changing as she asks questions?
  • Have students note excerpts with the words: luck, unlucky, fair, unfair, and fairness as they read (ex. 79, 88).

 

 

  1. On page 74, Ammi said to Rania, “Just so you’re clear: We’re not undocumented, Rania. We are asylum seekers. There’s a difference.”
  • Why does Ammi make this distinction? What does this mean for Rania’s family?
  • How does Rania feel about this? Why?

 

  1. How is Child Protective Services portrayed? (Mr. Gonzalez and his partner)? (75-76).

 

  1. Once Ammi is detained, what additional roles must Rania take on? What are the responsibilities involved in each role?
  • How does she negotiate her life as a teen with her adult responsibilities?
  • What adult decisions does she have to make?
  • At the end of the section, Child Protective Services suddenly arrives and she must pack a bag. What do her choices of items to pack reveal about her?

 

  1. How is the concept of disappearing introduced in this section? (ex. 36; 46; 67, 76).

 

Research Topics:

 

  1. Ask students to use online sources to define content vocabulary: migrant, refugee, asylum, standby guardianship; appeal; asylum application; undocumented asylum seekers; and immigration.
  • Have students consult a variety of sources to consider definitions of the content terms.
  • Students can explore the different categories and meanings: immigration, refugee, asylum.

 

  1. Decide how much background knowledge is appropriate for your students concerning “zero tolerance” policy; Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA); Muslim ban (12; 30) and the 2019 crisis at the southern border. Guide your students in researching and consulting a broad array of credible materials to gain insight into many perspectives:
  • You might consider the following materials: The Congressional Resource Service for reports; Congress.gov for the Congressional Record for policy and bills; major newspapers, peer-reviewed journal articles, news reports, interviews with those impacted by the policies, and position statements made by various professional organizations such as National Council for the Social Studies.
  • Guide students in determining credible sources and how to reach out to librarians for help when needed, for example, by emailing the Library of Congress.
  1. Research the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) by visiting the website: https://www.ice.gov/. What is the mission and vision? Who or what do they seek to protect and from what threats? In what ways is ICE working to change the public perception? Why?
  2. Explore the backdrop of what Abu did as a journalist in Pakistan, including the dangers to journalists and the meaning of political asylum. What might have been Abu’s topics that got him in trouble and put him in danger? Visit the author’s website for background/context information.

Activity Ideas:

 

  1. Have students choose a character and create a character map that includes internal conflict and external forces.

 

  1. Invite students to work in small groups and embody the meaning of a developing theme through tableau, or a frozen statue.
  • Have groups determine a developing theme. They might infer themes such as freedom; protection; identity; hidden truth; survival; identity; trust; safety; disappearing and appearing; family; sense of belonging and more.
  • Each group creates a tableau, placing their bodies as frozen statues to represent the concept (in a symbolic way rather than literally acting it out).
  • Groups might consider having one or more students read a key passage that illustrates the theme while they perform the tableau, or add music that enhances the theme.
  • As the group performs, invite the rest of the class (the audience) to brainstorm words or phrases that come to mind while viewing the tableaux.
  • For more information on tableaux, view videos at BRAINworks: https://www.brainworks.mcla.edu/curriculum-center or on the Alliance Theatre Institute’s virtual resources for teachers.
  • Students might instead decide to represent an important scene that reveals theme. In that case, students become characters, frozen in the action of a scene.

 

  1. Students work in partnerships or small groups to explore Rania and Ammi’s mother/ daughter relationship through dance.
  • Choose an excerpt that shows a key interaction between the Rania and Ammi.
  • Use movements to show the back and forth of the interaction, revealing the complexities of their relationship: tension, admiration, understanding, love, negotiations, or other.
  • Use mirrored movements when something that is shared between the characters: motivations; inner thoughts; hopes and dreams; character traits or other.
  • Movements can be organized into a dance sequence to tell the story of their interaction.
  • Invite students to do an online search for “elements of dance” or “elements of creative movement” in order to view videos, graphics and gather ideas.

 

  1. Invite students to perform a key excerpt from the text as a dramatic monologue (a short scene in which one character speaks to an audience in a heartfelt or passionate way).
  • Students choose an excerpt that shows a character working through an internal conflict; expressing desires and dreams; or a moment of turning point.
  • Invite them to take on the perspective of the character by reading/performing the passage. Some students might wish to read the words in the passage precisely as they appear, whereas others might enjoy recreating the passage in their own words or starting from scratch and writing their own monologue from the point of view of the character.
  • A sample of powerful passages in this section to perform include the following:
    • Rania imagining the moment of high school graduation–reflecting on the hardships to get there; the significance of event; and revealing relationship with Ammi (51-52).
    • Rania grappling with the question: Is America beautiful and welcoming? (32, 33)
  • Have students use a digital tool such as Audacity to record and practice. Encourage them to adapt their tone for meaning and effect.
  • For more informational on monologues, visit: https://www.teachercreatedmaterials.com/blog/article/reading-with-purpose-monologues/

 

  1. Begin to explore the cumulative impact of words and moments that express the concept of “disappear” (for ex: 34; 36; 46; 47; 67; 76; 85; 94) and “un-disappeared” (46) or restore (120) by collecting words and phrases in the text.
  • Ask students to be on the lookout for quotations that speak to the concepts, both figuratively and literally as they read.
  • Using a digital chart, have students label sections with the terms disappearing and appearing and add quotations and page numbers to the chart as the story unfolds. Have them jot the context for each instance; for example, mention of Abu disappearing as a journalist (47) or “stripping down to the essence of ourselves” while packing to leave with Child Protective Services (76).

 

  1. Create an imagined scene in which students take on the drama roles of experts who are meeting to discuss how to support immigrant children in the community. Roles could include a pediatrician or doctor; a member of an educational organization; the head of a shelter for refugees and immigrants; a representative from an advocacy group, and more.

and/or: https://www.colorincolorado.org/sites/default/files/Summary-Final_12-21-18.pdf#page=2

 

  1. Explore author’s craft.
  • Give each small group one of the examples of craft strategies below.
  • Have each group explore the following questions: What is the author’s purpose for using this craft strategy?; What is the effect?; Are there additional examples in the text?
  • Have each expert group teach the class about the strategy. Invite students to revise their own writing pieces with one of the craft strategies:

 

Strong verbs: air and glaring light rushing through the windshield (32)

Symbolism: Ammi’s bangle (12-13)

Foreshadowing: “But I could hear it—the tiniest wrinkle in her voice. The sound of worry.” (20)

Simile: “the road like a hungry tongue, lapping up trees” (32)

Metaphor: “That’s what we are. A house without doors and walls.” (65)

Flashback (8) “Two months ago I was running around for fun. It was early April…”

Small movements to reveal character feelings (6): “Lucia nervously picks at her fingers.”

 

Part II: Manhattan, NYC (pgs. 79-102)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Once at the shelter, what memory emerges for Rania? (79) What does this reveal about her relationship with Ammi? How is Rania taking on Ammi’s role with Kamal?

 

  1. How does the author develop the concept of using one’s voice in this section?
  • Consider: Rania trying express that they don’t belong in the shelter (80); a girl about Kamal’s age who doesn’t speak (80-81); and Kamal being “so quiet” (86)?

 

  1. Throughout the chapter, what information do we learn about the character of Carlos? What is important to him? How is he “kind of a Peter Pan”? (89) What lessons is Carlos teaching Rania about patience and trust? (81-82; 93; 96; 97)

 

  1. On page 82, Rania says, “I see a trail of children, maybe five or six, walk down the hall. When they see us, they turn away, some of them throwing up their arms to hide their faces.”
  • What do you infer is happening and why?
  • In what other context is the idea of hiding developed in this section?
  • Why does Rania think Carlos has secrets “tucked away” (97)

 

  1. Rania wants to attend her last week of high school and says, “What about school? …You can’t keep me from that.” (84)
  • What’s happening here in regard to Rania’s right to education?

 

  1. Rania realizes that “something bigger is going on” (85) and that her experience is not just that of her family, when she says, “We are disappearing, into the holes and crevices of this country.” (85)
  • Discuss external forces in Rania’s character development. What other references to disappearing occur in this section?

 

  1. In what circumstances do the words luck and lucky arise?
  • How does the author reveal Rania’s character growth through her thoughts about luck? (ex. 79; 88; 90)

 

  1. How is Kamal’s character developing throughout this section?

 

  1. What is a significant quotation in the graduation scene and why? (99-100)

 

Vocabulary:

disgorged (45)

 

Research Topics:

  1. On page 102, Rania feels her parents were “Activists. Students. Progressive.”
  • Invite students to visit the author’s website to learn about the tensions in Pakistan in 2019: fundamentalism/bombing, threatening of secular spaces, history of military rule and how her parents might have been activists and progressive in relation to the Pakistani context.

 

Activity Ideas:

  1. Continue collecting evidence related to the developing concepts of disappearing and appearing on the chart.
  • Invite students to choose words and phrases from their curated collection thus far and arrange them into a found poem. Students begin by writing the chosen words and phrases on sentence strips in order to play with the arrangement and move them around before settling on a poem. Visit Library of Congress to learn more about creating found poems: https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/found-poetry/
  • Challenge students to create a visual element that shows disappearing or appearing. Students might consider the size of text, placement on the page, and more.

 

  1. Invite students to explore the concept of running, flight and fleeing (ex. 86; 101), by creating a mixed media assemblage of a suitcase that includes tangible objects in addition to representations of intangible ideas.
  • As they flee, what do they take? What do they leave behind? What is lost? What is gained?

 

  1. Explore Rania’s desire to experience life as teen:
  • Invite students to paint an abstract image representing the freedom and possibilities of childhood and/or young adulthood. Students might also add words and phrases from passages that speak to this energy.
  • Invite them to create another abstract image to represent the grown-up struggles that prevent her from engaging in teen life, adding words and phrases that speak to struggles.

 

  1. Explore Author’s Craft such as the following examples:

Simile: (88) “I notice two faint scars, like thin lightening, streaking his neck.”

Showing emotions in physical ways: (82) “My insides flinch.”

Showing us the shelter through sights, sounds, feelings, and other senses? (80)

 

  1. Create a hands-on demonstration of Rania’s roles and responsibilities:
  • Explore the responsibilities involved in each of Rania’s roles since Ammi’s detention and how she must negotiate young adulthood with adult roles.
  • Have students brainstorm a list of all of the things that Rania juggles.
  • Write each responsibility on a separate object (You might use balloons, small boxes, small plastic bags of beans or other objects).
  • Ask for a volunteer to play the role of Rania, or play the role your self.
  • Give each student one of the items labeled with a responsibility.
  • One by one, students read the responsibility and hand the object to the person in the role of Rania, creating a visual demonstration of the gravity of responsibilities. It will be challenging for Rania to hold onto the many objects and some will slide away. A metaphor for having to give up parts of her teenage life.

 

 

Part III: Connecticut (pgs. 105-126)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Rania, Carlos, and Kamal hit the road in search of Salim Uncle to “save the day”. Rania says, “Save us? What does that even mean?” (105).
  • Discuss: What are the possible risks and rewards associated with this road trip?
  • What else is Rania in search of? (109)

 

  1. Rania says: “Maybe this is what my father used to feel, going on his assignments, chasing down a lead, a dangerous interview: dizzy-scared, but exhilarated too.” (109)
  • Discuss how Rania is identifying with her father.

 

  1. How does the theme of family develop in this section? (ex.107; 126)
  • What do we learn about Salim Uncle? From Salim Uncle?
  • How does Rania feel after she shares information with family? Why?
  • What do readers learn about the family dynamics?
  • What role does Carlos play in this section?
  • Why was it so hard for Rania to ask Salim Uncle to sign the paper? (115)

 

  1. Discuss the concept of pride (114) as it relates to characters in the story. What is pride?

 

  1. What does Rania learn about her father? About Ammi? (116)

 

  1. In talking with Uncle about Abu, Rania says, “It’s as if faint smudges were becoming clearer.” (120)
  • What is Rania discovering?
  • What is appearing, being made visible?
  • What pieces of Rania’s childhood emerge?

 

  1. Ammi would tell Rania to Be careful and to Always wait for the true love. (121)
  • What does Rania learn about Fawad?
  • What does Rania learn about Abu?

 

  1. Rania grapples with figuring out the pieces to her whole story. She says, “I’m not sure where I am. Who I am.” (121)
  • How is Rania’s character changing and what internal conflicts is she experiencing?

 

  1. On page 125, Salim Uncle exclaims, “This is just like your mother! Arriving out of the blue, with a strange boy! No chaperone! Shaming our family all over again!”
  • What ‘truths’ about the family do we learn? What values are depicted?
  • Discuss what ‘shame’ means in this context.
  • What other references to shame appear in this section?

 

 

  1. How does Rania convince Salim Uncle to sign the paper? (125)
  • What does the signature mean for Rania?

 

Vocabulary:

boroughs (117)

shame, shaming (125)

 

Research Topics:

  1. If students need background on Taming of the Shrew, invite them to research in order to understand the reference on page 120.

 

  1. Invite half the class to research place poems and the other half to research I am From poems. Both types of poems explore identity.
  • Ask students to locate examples to share as mentor texts.

 

Activity Ideas:

  1. Continue collecting evidence related to the development of themes.

 

  1. In learning about her father, Rania says, “I stare at my phone, wishing I could just ring Ammi. Why couldn’t you tell me? (123)
  • Invite students to create the phone call through improvisation.
  • Students work in partnerships, one taking on the role of Rania and the other in the role of Ammi.
  • What would Rania ask Ammi? How would Ammi respond?

 

  1. In wondering if Fawad knew her, Rania considers her identity and how she wrote poems as a child.
  • Offer students an opportunity to write a poem in which they explore their own identity, such as an I am From poem or a place poem.
  • Students might also choose to write the poem from Rania’s perspective.

 

 

 

  1. Throughout the text, the author includes references to culture including food.
  • Have students choose a food mentioned in the text (see pre-reading activities for a list) and locate a cooking demonstration online, in order to learn about the food and how it’s prepared.
  • Invite students to create their own “learn to cook” video.
  • Discuss: how do food, fashion, language, tradition, values and more create culture?
  • Students might choose to explore fashion instead of food.

 

  1. Explore author’ craft:

Simile (112): “I’m used to squeezing everything shut, tight, like a jar top. Just the way Ammi taught me.”

Metaphor (113): The bull doesn’t get what they want. The cat does.

Specific word choice: (119) rumpled disarray

 

Part IV: On the Road (pgs. 129-183)

Discussion Questions:

  1. At the beginning of the section on page 129, Rania says, “I don’t want to be reminded of who I was: that girl in her army jacket and black boots, so sure of herself, of her past and future.”
  • Discuss: How is Rania changing? What cause her to change?
  • Locate additional passages that reveal character change in this section.

 

  1. “Everything a lie. This country a lie.”(129)
  • How does Rania view the country and why? Consider page 178.
  • Discuss the idea of America as a land of immigrants. Does Rania feel this is a myth? Why?

 

  1. Analyze additional references to lies in this section (138; 159; 162; 179).
  • When do characters lie and why?
  • When and why does Rania lie to her mother?

 

  1. What’s going on with Rania’s relationship with Fatima? (134)

 

  1. In what way is the open road a separation between Rania and Ammi?
  • Consider the quotation: I am behind you always, Ammi used to say…Even when I can’t be. “Maybe I don’t want Ammi behind me.” (135)

 

 

  1. What does the idea of disappearing mean to characters in this section?
  • Discuss when Rania expresses that she wants to disappear into freedom, “not looking back.” (134)
  • Consider the references to disappearing on 146 and 167.

 

  1. What is the impact of role models? In what way is Carlos a role model for Kamal? (136-137)
  2. How is Rania’s relationship with Carlos progressing?
  • Consider the theme of protection when Rania says, “I want to protect him and be protected by him.” (136)
  • How does the author build tension between them? In what ways are both characters: “proud, armored, too self-sufficient”? (165)

 

  1. What is the significance of searching for the lighthouse? (137; 141; 143) What do lighthouses symbolize?

 

  1. In what ways do the characters connect with and express themselves through art?

 

  1. What is life on the road like?

 

  1. Invite small groups to discuss the development of the following concepts in this section, locating evidence to support their thoughts: fairness; family; hopes and dreams; lying, hiding out, safety, flight.

 

  1. What does Rania mean when she says they found “another America”? How does Kamal get childhood experiences that they didn’t have? (167)

 

  1. Discuss how the author leaves us with this emotional ending to the section: a note by a plant in the synagogue that reads: May this home be a sanctuary for those who seek.
  • Do you infer this will be a turning point, a new beginning, or just a temporary spot on their road trip? How fragile is safety for them?

 

  1. Chapter fifteen ends with the words of the title: “we are all we have” (175)
  • What does the title mean?

 

Vocabulary:

harrowing situations (136)

synagogue (181)

sanctuary (183)

 

Research Topics:

  1. Have students research the paintings described in this section:

Ask: Why do you think the author chose these paintings? How do the paintings allow them to feel seen?

 

Activity Ideas:

  1. Invite students to visit the website of the Museum of Fine Arts and find a piece of artwork that speaks to them.
  • Write a journal entry to explore the connections among art and identity.

 

  1. Have students create a visual of a winding road. Ask them to add key events from this section, showing how characters are in motion to seek Rania’s family story behind the asylum; childhood; and more.
  • Once students have determined the key events that happen on the road, invite them to invent a movement for each event. Have them tie the movements together with choreography.
  • Discuss how the performance communicates the energy of the open road; the running; the seeking.

 

  1. Invite students to explore the layers of symbolism in a lighthouse (hope, security, forces beyond control, isolation, danger, journey and more). Consider how the ideas apply to the characters in the story. Challenge students to use mixed media artwork to recreate the symbolism. Begin by sharing examples of mixed media from online searches.

 

  1. Locate instances of author’s craft and consider the effect:

Simile (129) “That’s the old Rania, like a deflated parade float, left on the pavement in a puddle of flattened rubber.”

Onomatopoeia (165) “the gray road humming before us”

Visual Imagery: (134-135) description of painting

 

 

Part V: Exits North (pgs. 187-211)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Discuss the meaning of sanctuary. What does sanctuary look like and feel like at the synagogue? What does sanctuary include and who creates it? Consider an analysis of the following quotation:
  • Santuary. The real meaning: a place where these kind people have returned us to ourselves, to our own memories…We can be kids again, remember who we were before we ran” (191).

 

  1. Raina says that the best part of sanctuary is being with Carlos every day and “exploring the nearby hills” (189).
  • How is the author developing the relationship between Rania and Carlos in this section? Discuss being a teenager vs. adult responsibilities.

 

  1. When do the “sounds and tastes once locked in the box of the past come spilling out”? (190)
  • What information do we get from Rania’s flashback?
  • How does feeling secure and safe allow for memories to be restored?

 

  1. During the outdoor concert (Sufi music), she remembers her father saying, To think this is what those fundamentalists want to bomb away. (190)
  • Discuss: what were the tensions in Pakistan when her parents were there? (Review information from the author’s website: fundamentalism/bombing, threatening of secular spaces, history of military rule.)

 

  1. How does the theme of trust develop in this section?

 

  1. Discuss the story of Sam and his mother. How did his mother survive World War II? (193) What is the meaning of the sign: “Greta’s Barn School—No Very Serious Adults Allowed”

 

  1. How is the laughter and play of childhood “the best kind of sanctuary” (194)?
  • How does each character grow and change at the sanctuary?

 

  1. When Carlos’ memories “rush like a river” (195), we learn about the trauma that caused his scars and how he had to “become a thing.” (195).
  • Discuss how drawing allows him to protest: “I am not a thing. A headline. I feel, I see.” (195)
  • How does the darkness allow Carlos to speak about his trauma?
  • Discuss what Rania says at the end of the section: “Carlos takes his place behind the others. I think about how many times he’s done this: become a number, a thing, on a line. He’s turning himself hard, protected, to get across” (p.210).

 

  1. What do we learn about Carlos’s case? Why is Jayne suggesting a “kind of safe house” in Canada? (197)

 

  1. How does Rania grapple with internal conflict around the idea of running?
  • Discuss how Ammi taught her to run to find solutions (198) but Rania wants to stay.
  • Consider her thoughts: “But what happens when you don’t want to run anymore? When you want the world to stop spinning? To finally stay.”

 

  1. What is the significance of the story of the fisherman? (200)
  • How does Carlos identify with the fisherman?
  • What does this reveal about the relationship with is aunt?
  • What does this passage teach us about the power of storytelling? Discuss how Rania cries and says, “I hear your story.”

 

  1. Find quotations in this section that illustrate how Carlos and Rania feel understood by one another. Include the following:
  • “Carlos is the only one in the whole world who gets what it is to be already grown-up and just seventeen at the same time.” (201)

 

  1. Discuss the idea of protection and overprotection.
  • Consider the following: “You don’t have to be so overprotective of Kamal,” Carlos says. “He’s stronger than you think.” (207)

 

  1. Consider Rania’s thought: “That poor border guard is shouting the same thing all over again” (210).

 

Vocabulary:

unaccompanied minor/ unaccompanied minors exception (197)

 

Research Topics:

  1. Invite students to research the meaning of sanctuary, the sanctuary movement, and sanctuary cities.

 

  1. Invite students to cast a wide net on local support resources. What is available for community members who need the same type of support as characters in this section (for example: support for traumatic events, a safe house or sanctuary, experiencing loss, and more).

 

Activity Ideas:

  1. Invite students to use collaborative storytelling to explore the significance of the story of the fisherman (200).
  • Have students work in small groups.
  • One person begins by retelling just the first part of the story in their own words.
  • The student then passes the telling to the next person in the group who continues the telling.
  • Students “pass” the telling of the story until the end, making sure each person in the small group has a part.
  • Have students change places in the sequence and tell the story again. Be sure students know that every time they tell the story, there can be variations in the telling (as they are not memorizing it but retelling it in their own way). Encourage the storytellers to enhance the story by inventing relevant details.
  • Invite small groups to tell their story for the class and debrief.
  • Challenge groups to create and tell an original story with a similar theme.

 

  1. Invite students to explore a key concept in this section through blackout poetry.
  • Begin by sharing examples from sources such as this blog by NCTE: https://ncte.org/blog/2019/04/blackout-poetry/
  • Encourage students to choose a concept from the section such as: memories flooding back out of a locked past; feelings of loss; coping with trauma through sketching; the idea of a “stolen” youth and restoring youth for children; the idea of play and childhood; feeling understood and comforted; people advocating for others, or kindness. Be sure to invite students to choose an idea of their own.
  • Students might choose to create blackout poetry right on the book page if it’s their own book or they might show the message around words in others texts such as newspapers.

 

  1. Continue exploring Author’s Craft:

Flashback (190; 194-195): Rania flashes back to life in Pakistan.

Varying the length of sentences (200): “There the words were perfect! Crystal sharp.”

Imagery (200): “The sun is tipping lower in the sky, spreading across the ground in a golden glow. The smell of old grass and dirt hovers over us. Carlos slaps his knees, stands, holds out his hand.”

 

Part VI: The Road Back (pgs. 215-234)

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Rania reflects, “I was so focused on what was ahead, that I didn’t understand what was behind me. It was too complicated. It didn’t make a clean story. What good is a story if you don’t know all the parts?” (215)
  • What are the parts Rania’s story that have been restored?

 

  1. We know that asking questions is important to Ammi. How is this idea further explored this section? (217)

 

  1. Now that Rania has the big picture of her mother’s “whole story,” she has an epiphany. What does she realize?
  • Consider the quotation: “Now I understand: her iron pride, her secrecy. Maybe when she went for her interview, the judge sensed it was not he whole truth. She would not beg. She would not fit into a neat box.” (223)

 

  1. How does Rania convince Salim Uncle to make a statement for their appeal, having him to consider Ammi’s perspective? (225) How does this challenge his thinking that asylum is “for poor people”? (224)

 

  1. How has Rania added voice to her family’s asylum case?
  • What does a “certain story” mean? (229)
  • Who will be judging their story? (227, 229)

 

  1. How do you think the author chose the title? What is the meaning conveyed? (231; and review back to 65-66, 175)

 

  1. Why can’t Rania finish Ammi’s story for her? (233)

 

  1. Discuss what Ammi means when she says: “There is room for us, in this country.” (233)

 

  1. What lessons are presented in this last section? What do readers learn about why characters behave the way they do?

 

  1. What do you think about the story’s ending? What lingering thoughts do you have?

 

Vocabulary:

small-minded (221)

 

 

Author’s Craft:

Imagery (including gustatory) 217: “I feel a wave of nausea. A sour taste on my tongue. I set the cup down.”

 

Research Ideas:

  1. The 75th anniversary of Human Right Day is coming up on December 10, 2023. Human Rights Day celebrates the milestone day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

 

  1. Have students research the themes and meanings in Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (233) with online resources including the poetryfoundation.org or poets.org.

 

Activity Ideas:

 

  1. Invite students to explore Spoken Word Poetry and perform Rania’s poem Disappeared.
  • Begin by sharing and discussing videos of Spoken Word Poetry from collections such as Project V.O.I.C.E. (http://www.projectvoice.co/

 

 

  1. Have students create a poem for two voices to examine a changing relationship between two characters and each character’s point of view.
  • Share examples of poems for two voices, such as the examples on Laura Purdie Salas’ blog: https://laurasalas.com/writing-for-children/poems-for-two-voices/
  • Locate a moment in the text that reveals a relationship change. For example, when Rania says, “I thought Fatima and I were the same.” (215). In this case, students would compare and contrast the points of view of Fa-Fa and Ra-Ra in their poem for two voices.

 

  1. Challenge students to work in small groups to find a powerful way to show, through visual art, music, movement, storytelling, poetry, or drama, the concepts of disappearing /restoring and moving from one to the other.
  • Have them incorporate the idea of a whole story and parts of a story.

 

 

 

Author’s Note (pgs. 235-236)

 

  1. Discuss the meaning of the following:

“When Rania stands before the Brooklyn Bridge, she invokes the spirit of Walt Whitman, who keenly understood the transformative possibilities of America, which has always been changed and replenished by each new, surging wave of people.” (235-236)

 

  1. What are the two major backdrops that inform this story in regard to immigration policies? In regard to journalists? (236)

 

 

Acknowledgments: (pgs. 237-238)

 

Invite students to research the Montclair Writers Group’s reading of immigrant literature called “Borders of the Heart” a fundraiser for families stranded at the border.

 

The author lists these two websites for more information: Committee to Protect Journalists: cpj.org; National Immigration Project: nationalimmigrationproject.org

 

After Reading Explorations:

  1. Return to the Cover Art. Invite students to explore Ekphrastic poetry and create an ekphrastic poem inspired by the cover artwork.
  1. Explore ghazal poems on Poets.org https://poets.org/glossary/ghazal and Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ghazal
  2. Invite students to explore civic engagement in regard to immigration policy reform. What are teenagers doing to get involved and make a difference? Consider how activists use Spoken Word Poetry to protest: https://ncte.org/blog/2018/04/civic-engagement-poetry/
  3. PechaKucha Book Talk: Have students synthesize, summarize, and respond to the text as a whole by creating a book talk using the presentation form of PechaKucha.

 

Essay Choices:

 

  1. How does Rania grow and change over the course of the story? What experiences and people impact her growth? Choose two key scenes that illustrate Rania’s character development. Explore her internal conflict and her external conflict with larger, societal forces. Has Rania restored all the parts of her whole self, or is she still searching?

 

  1. Choose a relationship between two characters in the story (ex. Rania and her mother; Rania and Fatima; Rania and Kamal; Rania and Carlos; Ammi and Kamal; Kamal and Carlos; Lidia and Rania). Explore the development of the relationship over the course of the novel. Consider the complexities of the relationship and how the relationship advances the plot.

 

  1. Analyze references to disappearing and appearing throughout the text. What is the impact of having only parts of one’s life story? How do characters begin to restore their full selves throughout the book?

 

  1. Choose a symbol in the text and analyze its meaning.

 

  1. Explore the idea of items and memories kept tight in locked boxes, both figuratively and literally. What physical items are in boxes and suitcases? How and when do memories of the past emerge?

 

  1. Determine a theme and analyze its development over the course of the book. Include references to passages and quotations that illustrate this theme. Examples include: protection; identify; family; trust; sense of belonging; survival; freedom, hope and more.

 

  1. Consider the lived experiences of asylum seekers and undocumented teens in the text. What do Rania, her family, Carlos, and other characters experience? What instances in the book encourage readers to consider concepts of luck, fairness, just, unjust, and rights as they relate to the landscape of immigration?

 

  1. Why do you think the author chose the title? What is the meaning conveyed? Consider specific references to the title in the text.

 

  1. What is hidden throughout the story and why? Consider objects, emotions, secrets, stories, the past, memories, people, or parts of the truth. Locate references to hiding, secrets, or lies, and explain the significance. Do these instances protect or hurt characters? How? Do you agree with Ammi’s approach to protecting Kamal and Rania by not telling them the full truth and/or lying at times? Why or why not?

 

  1. Choose another text (another YA novel, picture book, poem or other) with the topic of asylum or undocumented teens. Analyze the similarities and differences in how the authors approach the storyline, themes, and background knowledge.

 

  1. How do the arts create community, identity and amplify marginalized voices? Consider Rania’s poetry; ghazals/songs; Carlos’ visual art and more. How do the arts make visible the invisible?

 

  1. When does the author draw from, or transform, material from other literacy works? (Peter Pan quotation in preface); Jack Kerouac’s On the Road (10); Taming of the Shrew (120); the tale of the fisherman (200); Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (233); George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss (231) and more. How does each reference amplify meaning in the text? Consider instances of how characters create inclusion by inscribing themselves into literary traditions and landscapes.

 

Note: Be sure to give students the option of designing their own essay question. For example, students might be interested in analyzing how the author draws from paintings in the book.

 

Author Questions:

  1. What background information is important for readers to know?

On one level, readers should be able to read We Are All We Have and just be swept along—as Rania is—in this journey of self-discovery, flight, and safety.  And yet there are many other layers that are at work in the story: the backdrop of 2019, when there was a zero tolerance policy toward immigrants and refugees, igniting ICE raids in our country; the families who were separated at the border; the political situation in Pakistan and the repression and violence against journalists, particularly in the years when Abu was reporting; and finally the complicated layers of the immigration system and what it means to be a political asylum seeker.

 

  1. In your experience, what is the power of storytelling?

 

In the case of a novel such as We Are All We Have, a story—a fictional story—can bring a distant headline close to us, as readers.  We see, feel, and hear these experiences as if the are our own; we root for and sometimes get annoyed at our main characters; we are moved and perplexed by their choices, or, their lack of choice.  And we want to know—more—about how this story can ever be resolved, if it can be.  Storytelling, in other words, structures and speaks to our emotions, reminding of us of our own humanity.  At the same time, it allows us to step into the imagined experiences of others.  Storytelling, at its best, is our greatest human and global connector.