The Kite Runner Lesson Plan

Michael Benson

CI 401

Second Lesson Plan

Text: The Kite Runner

Brief Plot Summary: The Kite Runner follows the story of an Afghani boy named Amir. The story is divided into 3 sections:

Part 1: The first section deals with Amir and his relationship with Hassan, his friend. Amir is from a wealthy family, and Hassan is the son of a servant in their household. Amir struggles to gain acceptance in his father’s eyes, something easily obtained by Hassan. After winning a kite running contest, Amir is eager to return home to tell his father of his success. Along the way he encounters Hassan being brutally beaten after defending Amir. However, Amir does not help him and instead returns home. Guilty, Amir avoids Hassan, and eventually frames him for theft to have him sent away.

Part 2: After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Amir and his father are forced to leave their prosperous lifestyle in Afghanistan for living in a run down apartment in California. Amir becomes a writer and marries while his father works in a gas station, which is a vast departure from his career in Afghanistan.

Part 3: After hearing about the fates of his friends and family who stayed behind in Afghanistan, Amir goes back to help. There, he learns of the death of Hassan and of his orphaned child Sohrab. In an attempt to rescue this child, Amir runs into the man who beat Hassan as a boy, who is now a member of the Taliban. After surviving capture, Amir returns to America with Sohrab and adopts him.

Overview: This lesson plan will focus on parallel stories which will get students to think primarily in a world-conscious way, but also about characters within the story. For each section of the story, students will write two short reflections, the first in class and the second at home with more reflection. The first will focus on their personal thoughts of where the story will go based on its setting, and the second will focus on what they think the characters will do at crucial points in the story.

Standards:

A. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.3a Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation and its significance, establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.

B.  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.8.10 Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two).

C. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.3e Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative.

Procedure:

Part 1-

Day 1: (In class) The first lesson will begin with an open discussion about what the classroom knows about the country of Afghanistan. Based solely on what the students have learned from the news or other sources, we will establish a brief history, culture, and background of the country. The students will then be asked to take the role of Amir, an Afghani boy in the 1970s, and partake in a short-write about their day to day lives in a journal. After the students finish they will share what they wrote. After the class gets an idea of what they believe Amir’s life is like, we will begin reading of the story to see if our predictions were correct. As we read on in the story, students may see that their image of Afghanistan might not match the picture of the country in the story.

Day 2: (Take home) On Day 2 we will focus on the betrayal of Hassan by Amir. Students will be divided into two groups, Amir and Hassan, and asked to write in their journals as the character they were assigned, specifically about how they feel about the incident, why they let it occur, and what will happen next in their relationship with either Amir or Hassan. As we read on, we will see if our predictions are correct, and if they are not, we will try to figure out why the characters reacted the way they did.

Part 2-

Day 3: (IC) The third journal entry will focus on Amir and his father’s move to America. From the perspective of Amir, students will determine how their family’s situation will change, and if America will provide a better situation for them. Along with this, students will need to figure out whether this move will erase Amir’s guilt about Hassan, and what may be necessary for him to forget what he did.

Day 4: (TH) Students will once again be divided into two groups. The first will be Amir, and the second will be Amir’s father, Baba. The Amir group will be asked to reflect on the difficulties of starting a new life in America, and the Baba group will reflect on the difficulties of moving from a prosperous life in Afghanistan to working a low paying job as a gas station attendant in America.

Part 3-

Day 5: (IC) For the fifth journal entry all of the students will once again take on the role of Amir. They will be asked to identify how life in Afghanistan has changed since the Soviet invasion years earlier. Once finished, the students will be provided background info about the events and changes which occurred in Afghanistan since the invasion in 1979 which drove Amir’s family to America.

Day 6: (TH) After finishing the story, students will write a final reflection from Amir’s perspective. From what they currently know about Afghanistan and Amir’s character, they will write a final reflection about both whether or not they feel redemption from their betrayal of Hassan and what their relationship with Hassan has meant to them in their lives, and also about how they feel about the nation of Afghanistan, specifically about how it has shaped the person they have become. This journal entry will be lengthier as it will sum up what they have learned throughout the lesson.

By the end of the assignment, students will observe how their understanding of both Amir’s character and the nation of Afghanistan has grown.

Assessment:

A. Throughout the writing process, students will be observed to see if they are gaining understanding of the characters and direction of the story through their reflections on crucial points in the story for its characters.

B. Reflections will range from in-class writing to take home reflections. Students will be assessed based on if the work and effort put into the journal matches the timeframe and setting in which they were allowed to complete it.

C. The final, longer journal entry will be assessed on the way that it shows knowledge of the overall character arcs within the story, and about how the setting of Afghanistan influences the story as a whole.