There Is No Long Distance Now

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There Is No Long Distance Now: Very Short Stories | Naomi Shihab Nye 
Greenwillow Books | 2011 | ISBN: 0062019651 | International

Synopsis

In this collection of extremely short stories, Naomi Shihab Nye gives the reader small glimpse of the turning points in peoples’ lives and shows us that the world isn’t as small as it used to be. The stories focus on different individuals going through transitions that will somehow shape the future. These poignant stories tackle many different issues including post 9-11 discrimination against Arab and Muslim Americans, divorce, alcoholism, loss of a parent, aging and immigration. The stories also reflect our global society by being set in all different states as well as internationally. Each story offers the reader a brief glance through a struggling teenager’s eyes of an increasingly small, increasingly troubling society.


Teaching Ideas

Rationale for Use in the English Classroom    
The thematically connected short stories would be a great way to differentiate content in an ELA classroom. Content differentiation is much more difficult than product differentiation.

Before/During/After Reading Activities
Before reading, have students try to write a journal entry in less than 100 words answering the following question: “How have globalization and technology changed the way people are connected to each other?” This journal previews the thematic content of the text, as well as the interesting procedural requirement the author followed while writing this book.

During reading, have students work in groups to do a theme placemat activity to see if students can come up with a common theme amongst different stories in the book. (NOTE: this will be done after a lesson on theme) Have each of the six students in the group read different stories and give each group a piece of chart paper with a circle in the middle and the outside divided into six sections. Have each student write down the theme of their story in the one of the six sections. Have students explain their story and why they chose that theme for their story. While each student is sharing, have the other students identify trends and commonalities among the themes. Challenge the students to come up with a common theme for all six stories. Then have students share their common themes with the whole group and compare to see and have students, as a class, try to identify a common theme for the whole text.

After reading, have students try and compose their own stories, under 1000 words using the common theme the class decided. Encourage students to use all different contents and settings for their stories. Compile these stories into a classroom collection, creating a collection similar to There is No Long Distance Now.

Connections to Other Content Areas  There is No Long Distance Now would most likely be used in an ELA classroom, however, because the stories are all thematically similar, yet all based on different contents, teachers in different subject areas could use specific stories. World History Teachers could use some of the stories in a unit on the modern day Middle East, or government teachers could use some of the stories that focus on current events. The length of the stories lends well for use in other content areas, because it doesn’t require a large commitment. I also think this would be a great book to use in a creative writing or journalism class because of the length requirements.