Paired Texts > Malala Yousafzai's Nobel Peace Prize Lecture

by Malala Yousafzai

2014

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

6th Grade Informational Text 820L
Malala Yousafzai: A Normal Yet Powerful Girl
  • NPR Staff
  • 2013

Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala is from the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban has banned girls from attending school. Malala, whose family ran a chain of local schools, publicly stood against the Taliban’s actions and launched an international movement, surviving an assassination attempt by the Taliban on October 9th, 2012. The article discusses this incredible young woman and her continuing advocation for universal women’s education.

Pair “Malala Yousafzai: A Normal Yet Powerful Girl” with “Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” to provide students with additional information about Yousafzai. What has contributed to Yousafzai’s beliefs and passion for education? How do the two texts explore the various forms of gender inequality that exist in the world?
8th Grade Informational Text 980L
Why Afghanistan’s ‘Underground Girls’ Skirt Tradition to Live as Boys
  • NPR Staff
  • 2014

In this informational text, how young girls resist oppression in Afghanistan by dressing up as boys, also known as “bacha posh,” is explored.

Pair “Why Afghanistan’s ‘Underground Girls’ Skirt Tradition to Live as Boys” with “Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” and ask students to consider how this practice in another Middle Eastern country relates to the issues that Malala discusses in her speech. What does this cultural practice reveal about gender expectations in Afghanistan? Ask students to consider what Malala would likely say about this practice.

8th Grade Speech 950L
Emma Watson’s United Nations: “HeForShe: Gender Equality is Your Issue, Too” Speech
  • Emma Watson
  • 2014

“Emma Watson’s United Nations ‘HeForShe: Gender Equality is Your Issue, Too’ Speech” explores Watson’s own experiences with gender inequality and the need for the participation of men to end it.

Pair “Emma Watson’s United Nations: ‘HeForShe: Gender Equality is Your Issue, Too’ Speech” with “Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” and ask students to discuss how gender can influence how a person is treated. In addition to access to education, in what ways do women not have the same rights or opportunities as men? In what ways does this inequality impact girls’ futures?
9th Grade Speech 1500L
Nelson Mandela's Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
  • Nelson Mandela
  • 1993

In “Nelson Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture,” Mandela accepts the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize and discusses his work ending South Africa’s system of segregation.

Pair “Nelson Mandela’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” with “Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” and ask students to discuss how the two speakers describe their visions for the world. How do the values of Yousafzai and Mandela compare? How did the two speakers go about creating change in the world, and how is this reflected in their speeches?
8th Grade Speech 790L
Elie Wiesel's Nobel Acceptance Speech
  • Elie Wiesel
  • 1986

In “Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Acceptance Speech,” Wiesel discusses his experiences with injustice and how peace can be achieved in the future.

Pair “Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” with “Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Acceptance Speech” so that students can compare the perspectives of two Nobel Peace Prize winners. Ask students to consider how both Wiesel and Yousafzai used their personal experiences to seek change and peace. Ask students to contrast the tones of both speeches and discuss what accounts for the difference in tone between the speeches.

7th Grade Poem
Freedom Summer
  • J. Patrick Lewis
  • 2013

In J. Patrick Lewis’s poem “Freedom Summer,” James Chaney narrates the moment when he and two other volunteers were kidnapped and killed by the KKK.

Pair “Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” with “Freedom Summer” and ask students to discuss how people respond to change. What kind of changes create the most backlash? How did the KKK and the Taliban attempt to resist the change that is discussed in both texts? How did Yousafzai and the Freedom Summer volunteers attempt to enact change? Were they successful in their efforts? Why or why not?
7th Grade Biography 1100L
Mother Teresa
  • Jessica McBirney
  • 2017

In the informational text “Mother Teresa,” Jessica McBirney discusses Mother Teresa’s missionary work and her lasting legacy.

Pair “Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize Lecture” with “Mother Teresa” to provide students with information on a fellow Nobel Peace Prize recipient and her work. What kind of change does Malala Yousafzai want to create, and how does it compare to Mother Teresa’s mission? How did both women capture the world’s attention?
8th Grade Informational Text 1110L
Boko Haram & The Chibok Schoolgirls Kidnapping
  • Barrett Smith
  • 2017

In the informational text “Boko Haram & The Chibok Schoolgirls Kidnapping,” Barrett Smith discusses the kidnapping of 276 girls in Nigeria by a terrorist organization.

Pair “Malala Yousafzai’s Address to the United Nations, July 2013” with “Boko Haram & The Chibok Schoolgirls Kidnapping” and ask students to discuss why Malala Yousafzai would be a vocal supporter for the Chibok schoolgirls. How were the lives of the Chibok schoolgirls and Yousafzai impacted by terrorists? How did terrorists attempt to control or deny Yousafzai and the Chibok schoolgirls’ access to education?