Source: Wide Angle: "Back to School"
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
Nanavi 2006
(Video)
National K -12 Subject:
Lesson Plans Using this Resource:
In this video segment from Wide Angle, Nanavi is a nine-year-old girl who lives in a remote village in Benin, West Africa. Typically, girls her age would be initiated into the traditional voodoo cult and readied for marriage. However, Nanavi has been selected to take a different path in her life. She has been recruited to attend school as part of a nationwide effort to educate the girls of Benin. As a country, Benin has one of the worst literacy rates and biggest educational gender gaps in the world. For more about Nanavi, see the video segment "Nanavi 2006.”
Download and ShareThe following Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions are best suited for elementary or middle school students using this video in an English language arts or social studies lesson. Be sure to modify the questions to meet your students' instructional needs.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame (ELA) What are character traits? What clues tell us what a character is like in written text? What clues tell us what a character is like when watching a film or video?
Focus (ELA) What clues in the video segment help describe or define Nanavi’s character?
Follow Up (ELA) By watching the segment about Nanavi, in your opinion what might be some reasons why Nanavi was selected for the educational program for girls? What personality traits or characteristics do you observe? Do you think selecting Nanavi was a good choice?
Frame (SS) Are all children in countries around the world able or allowed to attend school?
Focus (SS) In the country where Nanavi lives, many people cannot read or write. Often girls are not offered the opportunity to be educated. Note some of the reasons for this practice.
Follow Up (SS) Nanavi’s mother says, “Since I work mostly on the farm, I’d like my daughter to work for a hospital or for the government. She could live better that way and earn more money.” From the quote, do you think Nanavi’s mother has more of an economic concern, a social concern or both, when it comes to Nanavi’s future? Explain your answer. What is valued more, work on a farm, in a hospital or for the government? Why?
NANAVI TODENOU: My name is Todenou Nanavi. I hate stealing and I always like to tell the truth.
NARRATOR: Once upon a time girls in Koutagba, West Africa were destined to spend their school years being initiated into the voodoo cult.
Here in the French-speaking country of Benin, nine-year-old Nanavi would have spent at least five years under the voodoo priest’s guidance and readied for marriage.
But just this year the priest gave his permission for at least one girl from every family to go to school. Nanavi is that girl.
The oldest of four siblings, Nanavi is the biggest help on the farm. Given the demands of work at home and the decree of the priest, it’s unlikely that any of her sisters will ever join her in school.
KEKE AKODA, NANAVI’S MOTHER: Since I work mostly on the farm, I want my daughter to choose a respectable job. I want my child to look like those nurses we see around here.
NARRATOR: Because there’s no school nearby, Nanavi must leave her family during the week to live in her great-grandmother’s village about a mile away.
Nanavi has been recruited as part of a nation-wide effort to educate the girls of Benin - a country with one of the worst literacy rates, and biggest educational gender gaps in the world.
Every girl living away from home or considered at risk of dropping out is also assigned a Dada, or godmother. Marguerite is Nanavi’s Dada - a local girl who comes every morning to get her ready for school.
Because Nanavi is apart from her mother all week, twelve year old Marguerite is both care-taker and role model. An excellent student herself, it’s her job to ensure that Nanavi does well at school.
NANAVI’S GREAT-GRANDMOTHER: Me, I’m just an old woman and the only thing I do is to watch Nanavi. I know with Marguerite she’s in safe hands. She won’t be led astray.
MARGUERITE: Nanavi works very well. She has trouble writing the number three and I’m helping her with that.
STUDENTS SING IN FRENCH: A l’?ecole, a l’?ecole, on travaille, on travaille. Jamais la paresse, jamais la paresse. Travaillons, travaillons.
(The teacher instructs students in French)
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