Vocab and Stuff

1) Chapter 18 - two question quiz:

• Why does Amir now call Baba a thief? 1 mark
• Why does Amir decide to go to Kabul? Explain. 4 marks

2) Vocabulary - check... one student per word... Friday vocab quiz - sentences.

Hazara Kids

3) Life is a lottery - Hazara or Pastun?

4) Read

5) Time to work on journals and chapter questions...

Secrets

1) True Story - once upon a time I lived in an old house with my best friend, Shauna. We were young students. We worked hard. We played hard. We were tough cookies. We had it all going on... then, one day the phone rang....

2) Quiet Think - heads down.... remember a time when you told a big lie, maybe to cover up something you did, maybe just because you weren't really thinking... whatever the case, you knew what you were saying was wrong, maybe you even knew that people would get hurt, as a result. Remember it? Now, ask yourself, has the truth been told? If not, should you clear the air and come clean? Would it be better to hold the lie? Would it be healthier to tell the whole story?

3) Class Discussion - Way back when, I asked, "Why Do We Lie?"

Today, I am asking you, "Why do we sometimes decide to stop lying and tell the truth?"

4) Review Chapter 16 - quick summary.

Read Chapter 17 - all stay... this is one of the most important chapters in the book.

Your job, as you listen, is to think about how this peripheral character, Rahim Khan, is integral to the whole of The Kite Runner. What would this book be without him? What does he represent?

5) Time for journals, chapter questions, vocabulary. 

6) Read to the end of Ch. 18 for homework. And, get vocab sheet done.

Chapters 11-13 Review

1) Chapter 11-13 - review chapters - discussion questions on board.

2) 

Journal topics - what makes you happy? What keeps you from being happy? In your opinion, why do people become unhappy? Why is Amir becoming happy?

What is love? Why do we want/need it? Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

3) Reading and working time...

Monday!

1) Discussion - you were supposed to read up to the end of Chapter 13. With your partner, or in a group of up to four people, discuss the following:

• According to traditional Afghani views, what should men be like?
• According to our own North American views, what should men be like?
• According to traditional Afghani views, what should women be like?
• According to our pop culture and internet culture, what should women be like?
• Who is more right? Us or them? Why? How do you know?

Even consider our differing notions of female beauty:

Young Afghani Woman

Young Pop Star

Send one person up to the board to write down you most interesting insights on one of the boards.

• What are the rules of courtship/dating/marriage according to traditional Afghani culture?
• What are the rules of dating/marriage here?
• What could we learn from the Afganis?
• What could they learn from us?

Send one person up to the board to write down you most interesting insights on one of the boards.

NEW JOURNAL TOPIC(s) - any of the above questions.

2) Reading - teacher to read Chapter 14... (others can go out to the halls and read)

3) Time to work on journals and questions and vocabulary.... (the new question sets and vocabulary handouts are somewhere in the mess of Kite Runner stuff on the table at the front of the class by the door. (Not in one of the binders... just in a pile somewhere).

4) VOTE: Tomorrow is Drop Everything and Read Day. Do you want to have a giant read-in? I'll bring hot chocolate... vote.

Speed Mash and Review!

1) Group Review of Part One of the novel - 10 groups 

• Each group has a chapter... 
• Find a way to present a highspeed re-telling of the chapter that you have been assigned. 
• Here's the odd add-in.... you must mash your re-telling with a genre/style that makes your review memorable.
• Operatic chapter one, cowboy chapter two, heavy metal chapter three, Star Wars chapter four, Shakespearean chapter five, Sesame Street chapter 6, etc.... you get the idea.... 

2) Reading time - Chapter 11

3) Next set of questions

4) HOMEWORK - read to the end of chapter 12.

Chapter 7 and 8

1) Pop Quiz - 13 marks

The Lamb

BY WILLIAM BLAKE

Little Lamb who made thee 

         Dost thou know who made thee 

Gave thee life & bid thee feed. 

By the stream & o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing wooly bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice! 

         Little Lamb who made thee 

         Dost thou know who made thee 

         Little Lamb I'll tell thee,

         Little Lamb I'll tell thee!

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb: 

He is meek & he is mild, 

He became a little child: 

I a child & thou a lamb, 

We are called by his name.

         Little Lamb God bless thee. 

         Little Lamb God bless thee.

2) Discussion - chapter 7 and 8

• Why does Amir completely fail to react in that alley way? 
• After the fact, why does Amir not tell the truth?

3) Reading - chapter 9

4) Time to work on journal, questions, vocabulary...

A block Tuesday

B block English 11 is in an assembly today.
To be fair, and keep you all at an equal pace, we'll make today a work day! :)

Things TO DO:
- catch up on your journal
- answer the chapter questions
- start defining the vocabulary list (put a check mark beside the words you already know)

OR - Participate in the Globe and Mail Student question: Have you learned anything in school that helped prevent bullying? (You can use the ipods - they are working now!)

Irony, Vocabulary, and more...

1) Irony:
A literary device where the opposite of what you expect occurs.

That is, it is ironical when there is a difference between what is spoken and what is meant (verbal irony), 
what is thought about a situation and what is actually the case (situational irony), 
or what is intended by actions and what is their actual outcome (dramatic irony). 

This guy is young and way funnier than me. Let him explain the three types of irony to you.

2) Review Chapter 6 - Winter, a symbol? Kite running introduced. Lying and eating dirt. "Maybe you'll win." Television, a symbol?


Kite Running Short Doc:

3) Chapter 7  - see psychological dissociation at work...

4) Time to work - add in vocabulary...

Why all this sad stuff?

1) Discussion: New story about bullied girl, my own sad news...

From the Amanda Todd video.

Why should we reflect on sad stories 
(in the news, in literature)?

2) Time to Read - Ch. 5.

3) New journal topic - same as discussion topic.

4) Time to work on journal, notes, questions...

5) Homework: read to the end of Ch. 6

Symbols, Motifs, Buzkashi

Buzkashi Video, as promised... what does this video teach us about Afghani culture?

1) sym·bol/ˈsimbəl/

Noun:

A thing that represents or stands for something else, esp. a material object representing something abstract. A symbol's meaning can shift to represent more than one thing, especially in a longer piece of literature. Examples from the Kite Runner (so far). What do these represent? Hassan's Hairlip The Pomegranate Tree "Feeding from the same breast" Kites

2) mo·tif/mōˈtēf/

Noun:

A recurrent and distinctive feature or dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition.  Examples from The Kite Runner: Tragedy and Loss Father and Son Relationships Wounds/Scars/Disabilities The Connection between the Social and Political Discrimination (Pashtuns vs, Hazaras) What is Masculine?

3) Other terms - foreshadowing, metaphor

4) Next Journal Topics (pick one or two):

• Characterize Baba and Amir's relationship. Why does "hate" enter into their father/son relationship? What quotations show us, the readers, the raw truths about their feelings towards one another?
• Children are not colouring books.
• Much of this novel is about discrimination and cultural divides across political/social/religious lines. Is it human nature to hate the "other"? Do we in Canada have our own stories of ugly discrimination? Or, what about right here in the hallways of Highland, what ugly divides and discriminations happen here? How can we deal with this sort of hatred?
• Do you identify with Amir in any way? Most students see at least a glimmer of themselves in the complicated relationship he has with his father. In what ways are you like Amir?

5) What is reflective writing? 

Reflection is a form of personal response to 
experiences, situations, events or new information. 
It is a ‘processing’ phase where thinking and learning 
take place. There is neither a right nor a wrong way 
of reflective thinking, there are just questions to 
explore. 

Reflective writing is:
• your response to experiences, opinions, events or new information
• your response to thoughts and feelings
• a way of thinking to explore your learning
• an opportunity to gain self-knowledge
• a way to achieve clarity and better understanding of what you are learning and thinking about in class
• a chance to develop and reinforce writing skills
• a way of making meaning out of what you read and discuss in class

Reflective writing is not:
• just conveying information, instruction or argument
• pure description, though there may be descriptive elements
• straightforward decision or judgement (e.g. about whether something is right or wrong, good or bad)
• a summary of course notes
• a standard formal essay

6) Time to work on journals or questions...

Post-Turkey Tuesday

1) Ch 4 Quiz

Kabul, Afghanistan - in the 60's and 70's before the wars.


2) Review Ch. 3 and 4

3) Read Ch 5

4) Questions and vocabulary work....

5) Tests back.

6) Tomorrow: Symbols, Motifs...

Into The Kite Runner

1) Take out The Kite Runner - B block, please silent read to end of Ch.2
2) Discussion: Think back - who was your best friend when you were about 7 or 8? Did you ever do something "bad" with them? Do you remember how you felt? 

Are there absolute rights and wrongs?

Terms/ideas to Consider - are we all designed to avoid pain?

Hedonism - pursuit of or devotion to the pursuit of pleasure.

Altruism - Unselfish concern for the welfare of others. An altruist is not concerned with pursuing pleasure.

What is a False Dichotomy?

3) Review first two chapters - characters chart

4) Read: Ch. 3

5) Journal Topics: 

• How did you learn what was right from what was wrong? Can you remember and describe a specific event?
• What is it like living in a world that preaches good, but exemplifies wrong? Let`s look at what`s in the headlines right now. Tainted meat, unfair death of civilians in Syria, Harper celebrated for being the most deceptive prime minister yet, and so much more in the world of celebrity worship... and all the ordinary stuff of your world that is so not cool. How does this relate to our novel?

HOMEWORK: Read to the end of Chapter 4 - note takers for chapters 2, 3, 4

Wednesday!

1) Who needs to finish the test?

2) Wanna finish the movie? Vote.

3) The E word.

4) Afghanistan World Cafe

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text