Novel Unit
The Kite Runner
By Khaled Hosseini
Kate Ammerman, Lucy Gilroy, and Jamie Jurkovich
December 12, 2006
Unit Organizer/Curriculum Map
Literature Unit: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Essential Question (Unit Goal): What does great literature offer beyond an entertaining story? What value or purpose does literature hold within a society?
Standards |
1. Students read and understand a variety of materials.
2. Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.
3. Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
4. Students apply thinking skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.
5. Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.
6. Students read and recognize literature as a record of human experience.
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Unit Objectives
| Content
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- An understanding of literary strategies: foreshadowing, setting, characterization, parallelism, theme, imagery, and symbolism.
- Awareness of the culture and context of Afghanistan.
- An understanding of the events, characters, ideas, and plot of the story
| Skills
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Identify literary devices at work
Identify and analyze themes of the text
Critically examine and empathize with the relationships between characters
Synthesize information into a meaningful, well-structured essay
Locate and present findings on an aspect of Afghanistan
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Using The Kite Runner the class will examine what value and purpose literature has in a society. To accomplish this goal, we will examine a number of literary aspects including themes, setting, writing techniques, characters, and plot. During this unit, students will also have research opportunities to learn about a different culture with the goal of enhancing both their understanding of the text as well as the broader purposes of literature. Students will also present and share their learning to others in both spoken presentations as well as written essays. These performances will offer students the chance to polish, refine, and revise their work to develop a high quality final product.
| Student Body
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The class is an 11th grade class in suburban Colorado. There are 30 students, who are seen every day for 50 minutes. Eleven students are Latino, and 19 are Caucasian. Three students are considered learning-disabled, but can keep up with help from classmates and pull-out time with a literacy specialist.
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Materials Needed
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Text – The Kite Runner, poster board, glue, variety of magazines, newspaper, scissors, paper, AV equipment, student journals, and rubric.
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Teaching Logistics
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Access to computer lab for Afghanistan research.
Possible trip to public library
Class space constraints and clean-up issues for Afghanistan project and symbolic kite collage
| Assessment
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Pre-Assessment
Essential Question Graffiti Wall
Gallery Walk
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Formative Assessment
*Class activities listed below
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Post-Assessment
Essay, Fill-In-the-Blank Literary Term Quiz, and Essential Question Class Banner
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