Healer of the Water Monster

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Healer of the Water Monster Song”

After reading about Nathan’s adventures in Healer of the Water Monster, students create original songs based on details from Young’s novel.

You’ve just read about Nathan’s adventures in Healer of the Water Monster. Music plays an important role in his heroic journey. Your goal for this activity is to create an original song that presents the most important events in the novel.

• Choose 10 important moments that trace Nathan’s character development over the course of the novel.
• Using this list of 10 events, write a song about Nathan’s adventures. Include all 10 moments from the story in your lyrics.
• End the song with an important lesson that Nathan learns because of his adventures. This lesson should connect to one of the novel’s main themes, which are Finding the Hero Within, The Importance of Respecting Nature, and Family as a Source of Both Love and Pain. Please present the lesson or message in your own words rather than simply restating the name of the theme.
• Give your song a unique, creative title that is different from the novel’s title.
• When you have finished working on this activity, you will turn in:

o A written copy of your song lyrics, complete with a creative title, 10 moments from the novel, and a lesson or message about life.

o A recording in which you perform your song.

Teaching Suggestion: Students can complete this activity individually, with a partner, or in small groups. Some students may enjoy the creative freedom of choosing their own musical genre, melody, and rhyme scheme. Others may crave a little more structure and benefit from setting their lyrics to a tune they already know. If time permits, consider allowing students to share and discuss their songs.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with executive function and attentional challenges may benefit from working in pairs or small groups to brainstorm the most important moments in the novel and place them in chronological order. A graphic organizer such as a timeline may help them structure their ideas during this phase. This activity can also be an opportunity for students to share their interests. Students with high musical intelligence may wish to submit recordings in which they play their songs on instruments. Students with high kinesthetic intelligence might add dance moves.