7th-8th Nonfiction Reading Passage with Questions: Africa’s Hidden Tribes

Item description

Convince your students that nonfiction reading is stimulating! This 2 1/2 page ELA/SS reading comprehension unit will capture your students’ attention. It introduces one of the world’s most secluded cultures, the Great Rift Valley’s Mursi, and explains why it and other tribes reject modern society.

The product’s focus, learning academic vocabulary in context, will provide you with time to prepare for standardized testing. Fifteen comprehension questions will assist you with that process by assessing proficiency in skills such as inference, central idea, author’s purpose, and supporting details.

Examples of Academic Vocabulary: anticipation; complexity; consequently, potential

Aligned with Common Core Standards, this print-and-go, no-prep unit about the world’s hidden cultures will provide busy teachers with a user-friendly resource for emergency substitutes.

If your students need to learn content area vocabulary and are curious about their world, this product is for you!

Student Resources

Academic Vocabulary

Integrated Reading Passage: “Africa: The Uncontacted Tribe of the Great Rift Valley”

• Our Restless Earth

• Africa’s Flood-Fed Agriculture

• The Great Rift Valley’s Isolated Tribes

• The Mursi’s Native Foods

• The Mursi’s Spiritual Beliefs

• The Mursi’s Daily Life

• The Mursi Bride Price

• The Mursi Ritual: Leaping of the Bulls

• The Rift Valley’s Natural Resources

• Defending the Mursi

15 Comprehension Questions

Teacher Resources

Vocabulary Strategies and Games

Answer Keys

Reading and Vocabulary Worksheets

Vocabulary Review

Vocabulary Quiz

Bonus Writing Assignment

Excerpt from Passage

On a globe, Earth’s continents command our attention. However, if we could travel back in time, we would observe that our planet has changed. The U.S. Department of Interior explains. “From about 280-to-230 million years ago, the land we now know as North America was continuously [joined] with Africa, South America, and Europe. They all existed as a single continent called Pangea.

Additional Suggestions for Using this ELA/SS Resource

1. Debate whether these isolated tribes should retain the legal rights to their homelands and natural resources.

2. Research one of the world‘s uncontacted cultures. Write a persuasive essay convincing the reader of your opinion on these statements:

a. Members of modern societies should attempt to ensure this uncontacted tribe’s right to live in seclusion.

b. Modern societies must force this uncontacted tribe to accept medical care, education, well-built homes, and essential services such as running water.

3. Write a narrative essay about a member of the world’s uncontacted cultures. Describe the first moment the protagonist encounters a visitor from our modern world.