The kite runner - Methodology

Title of Activity
The kite runner

Description of educational activity
Duration: 45 minutes
Pupils’ age: 15-19
Organization of the class of pupils: group work

The aim of the lesson: The aim of the activity is to develop reading literacy of pupils, to support their reading skills, to use their competencies to analyse and compare source texts, to reinforce their language skills when verbalizing their findings, to develop their vocabulary. The ability to present their findings, their opinions and the ability to accept opinions of the other members of the group are important here.

The aim of the activity is to be able to understand the chosen excerpts from the book, to understand the nature and depth of the excerpts from the book. To be able to find connections between the book and the real world. To be able to analyse and accept multicultural differences between the countries. One of the aims is to improve the analytical thinking of our students and to support the tolerance of other cultures and nations.

Support materials:

Some short excerpts of a book are chosen, e.g. 3 of 4 (see appendix 1) Each student is given all of them. The excerpts which show a personality of characters or socio-political situation are appropriate. Because the story takes place in Afghanistan, a few questions about a current situation in the country can be prepared. It is advisable to prepare some information about the author of the book.

First excerpt: page 26 - 27 (There was a pomegranate tree………. Enough for a harmless prank.)
First excerpt: 43-44 (I wished I too had some kind of scar ………..Because that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling.)

Third excerpt: 100-101 (But it rained the afternoon Baba took Ali……..that the life I had known since I´d been born was over)

Activities:

The author and the book are introduced. The texts are handed out.
Each text is read out loud. After each part there is a discussion. Students are explained some possible problematic parts either lexical or connected with the meaning (e.g. loans). All the texts are analysed.
After that students are divided in to six groups. Each group is given a different task, A0 piece of paper and colourful markers. The results of their findings are written down on the pieces of paper

Tasks for different groups:
First group - Annotation

Students have to write a summary of the story (excerpts). They try to create an annotation of the book based on the excerpts.

Second group – Portraits

The aim is to work out characteristics of the characters mentioned in the excerpts. They have to find key words which characterise the characters and to think about relationships between them and define them.

Third group – Connector

This group tries to find the connection of the story with the outside world, so everything that connects the story with the outside world. Students have to find out the time/period when the story takes place, socio-historical events which could influence the story and to think about the author´s link to the story.

Fourth group – Word masters

This group tries to find the words or phrases which are new, unknown for students or the words which are for some reasons interesting for them. They write them down and explain their choice. They also register the paragraph, line in which they found the word.

Fifth group – Interesting passages

Students try to find the passages which are interesting for them and explain why they chose them. They may be the passages which contain information which surprised students, which students consider to be important or funny. Students try to describe emotions awaken by those passages.

Sixth group – Cultural context

The group think about the cultural differences between the country they live in and the country where the story takes place. They explain the differences. The Internet can be used here.

After the time limit the individual groups present their results. Students can ask the present group questions or they can add some information. In the end a teachers sums up all the findings.

Evaluation and assessment method:

Throughout the lesson, ensure that your students are backing up their choices with accurate supporting details.
Teacher's observations of student preparedness, student work samples, and participation in group activities.

Effect of the activity on RSP reading:

Practices that support students´ choice, collaboration, and shared control of learning outcomes can be linked to self-expressed interest in reading and engaged reading behaviours.

Teachers can organize reading instruction to develop self-efficiency, competence, and engagement in teenage students.

Connection to curriculum

Grade: 3^rd and 4^th grade of bilingual studies

Bilingual curriculum: The study of literature is focused during the second year on reading comprehension of literary texts which are more serious and are dealing with deeper ideas, e.g. multiculturalism, intolerance. The students should be able to understand the influence of the author´s cultural background on the story. The aim of the curriculum is to teach students to work with the text, to analyse the texts and to understand the importance of the cultural and historical backgrounds. Understanding texts, weighing their merits, and utilizing the information they offer are skills that teenagers draw on throughout the curriculum.

Knowledge:

Students understand a text being read.
Students find characters in the text and they differentiate supporting characters from the main character.
After reading the excerpts they can identify the main characteristics of the characters.
They identify the narrator of the story.
They identify the topic of the excerpts.
They select information.

Skills:

Students analyse texts.
They work with different sources of information.
They search for and classify information.
They can identify and interpret correctly the feelings of the characters in the books
They can put the particular excerpts in the correct order according to some links.
They are able to work in groups.
They can create a characteristic of a character based on the excerpts.
They can complete the tasks successfully

Competences:

They can identify and interpret correctly the feelings of the characters in the books
They are able to work in groups and individually, too.
They can accept other members of the group
They accept and understand the cultural differences between the nations and cultures
They can understand the emotions of the characters, they are emphatic.

Bibliographic reference to be used during the activity

Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner Publisher: Bloomsbury

ISBN: 9781408824856

Page count: 324

Year of issue: 2011

Digital sources

A number of adaptations were created following publication, including a 2007 film of the same name, several stage performances, and a graphic novel.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419887/

Graphic novel: https://mrkmpsc.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/the-kite-runner-graphic-novel.pdf

Results

The expected outcomes of the lesson are:

The students will be able to understand through different cultures, they will be able to compare cultures, cultural elements, traditions and hence they will be able to understand the text from different perspectives. The ability to develop demonstrations will be enhanced.
To connect ideas and themes across texts.
To offer observations, make connections, speculate, interpret, and raise questions in response to the excerpts.

Recommendations

Both the teaching method and the text can help in increasing students’ interest in reading. This text promotes two male characters but from a different cultures and they belong to different social classes. The teacher monitors the students so as to make sure they cooperate effectively. The volume of given fragments of books can be adapted to the potential of a group - fragments can be shorter - by cutting less important paragraphs, or be expanded to additional fragments of the same novel.