Lesson Plan - The Fight Over the Nile

About the Article

Learning Objective

Students will learn about a new dam in northeast Africa and analyze a map of the area.

Curriculum Connections

• Ethiopia and Egypt

• The Nile River

• Energy and the Environment

• Climate Change

• Latitude and Longitude

Key Skills

Social Studies:

• Understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world

• Explore tensions between national interests

• Use latitude and longitude to pinpoint locations

English Language Arts:

• Identify central ideas and key details

• Analyze causes and effects

Key CCSS Standards

RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.7, WHST.6-8.4, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.7, W.6-8.4, SL.6-8.1

Essential Questions

  • How do countries deal with disagreements?
  • How can people help protect the environment?
  • How do latitude and longitude help us determine locations?

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan

1. Preparing to Read

Build Knowledge and Vocabulary

Use the interactive atlas and almanac to display information about Ethiopia. (Select “Atlas & Almanac” in the top menu at junior.scholastic.com. Zoom in on Ethiopia and click its name.) Have students write three sentences with facts about Ethiopia. Then use Words to Know to preteach domain-specific terms. Have students refer to the Skill Builder as they read.

2. Reading and Discussing

Read the Article

Read the article aloud or have students read it independently. Ask students to underline or highlight the main idea of the article.

Answer Close-Reading Questions

Have students write their responses or use the questions to guide a discussion.

  • What is the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam? How will it help people in Ethiopia? (Key Details)
    The dam is a huge new structure being built on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. It will be able to hold almost 20 trillion gallons of water and will help provide electricity to about 75 million Ethiopians.
  • Why are people in Egypt concerned about the dam? (Central Ideas)
    Many Egyptians are worried that the dam will reduce the water supply they rely on from the Nile. They say it could hurt crops and farmers’ jobs. Egypt wants Ethiopia to take more time to fill the dam.
  • According to experts, why is the Nile at risk? (Cause and Effect)
    Experts say that the Nile is mostly at risk because of other threats, not the dam. The number of people living along the river is increasing. Also, temperatures are rising because of climate change. These threats are causing water levels to fall and could lead to water shortages for 250 million people.

3. Skill Building

Practice Latitude and Longitude

Have students answer the questions about the map on page 29 independently or in groups. Use the Latitude and Longitude lesson from our Map Skills Boot Camp to give students more practice. The full curriculum of 13 lessons is at junior.scholastic.com/mapskills.

Assess Comprehension

Assign the 10-question Know the News quiz, available in PDF and interactive forms.

Differentiate and Customize

For Struggling Readers: Build students’ background knowledge about dams before reading by having them watch a video about hydroelectricity, such as the one from Student Energy.

For Distance Learning: To have students answer the map questions digitally and send you their responses, click the “Interactive” button to copy the activity to your Google Drive. Then you can “View/Edit” it or “Assign” it.

Printable Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan (1)
Text-to-Speech