This module is based upon the novel Letters from Rifka by Karen Hesse. The staff development program introduces and familiarizes teachers with the content and teaching strategies specific to the novel. Teaching guides and procedures for implementing student programs and discussed. Student activities are presented and modeled. The five student programs are sequenced around the reading of Letters from Rifka. This book is a delightful, hopeful story in which the students read, enjoy and learn about the life and struggles of a young girl as she emigrates from Russia to America in 1919. As students become fully engrossed in the novel, active experiences help them become better readers, writers, and discussants.