Book Study: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Build Background Knowledge

Before reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, use this activity to help learners build background knowledge and make connections to their own lives! In the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, fourteen-year-old William Kamkwamba builds a windmill to generate electricity for his family's home. This pre-reading activity invites readers to research and compare electricity sources in their neighborhoods to electricity sources in Malawi, William's country.

Designed for seventh- and eighth-grade students, this one-page handout provides research prompts and background information to help students learn more about electricity and wind power. As they conduct research and answer the questions, students will learn where wind is used to generate electricity, explore advantages and disadvantages of using wind power, and reflect on why William chose wind to generate electricity.

To learn more about electricity in your community, use the Energy Information Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and your state’s energy agency as resources. And for more book-specific activities, be sure to check out our full set of worksheets related to The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.