Hi Everyone... I'm away today because my back injury has taken a turn and I can't take the pain anymore. I'm off to Physio, etc.

Please take today's tasks seriously. We are all really enjoying this engrossing novel, so let's keep progressing. Here are your tasks for the day:

- Find the pile of tests from yesterday (on my desk, on the far right). Hand them out (not to their owners) to finish the marking process. The key is somewhere in the pile of tests with a yellow sticky on the top of it. Collect them all back at the end. If there are some questions that are contested just let me know and I will make adjustments.

- Group Work: ask students to organize into groups or pairs and quickly discuss/review what happened in Ch. 8.

- Whole Class Discussion:

• Hassan has endured a horrible trauma. We never get to know what it is that he is thinking/feeling because of the first person point of view. What do you imagine is going through Hassan mind through the course of chapter 8?
  
• AND How are you as readers feeling about Amir right now? Should we pardon him because he has been an emotionally neglected child?

- Reading: Please read chapter 9 - teacher or student read (this can go on for 20 minutes)

- Maybe assign some silent reading too... or see if the library or netbooks are available to use so that they can have time to work on their journal entries.

Journal Topics - Ch. 4-6

Ch. 4
- How did Ali come to be taken in to Baba's family? Why is this important?

- Respond to one of the following quotes:
"Never mind any of those things. Because history isn't easy to overcome. Either is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara."

- "Amir and Hassan: the Sultans of Kabul. These words made it formal, the world was ours."

- How do you think the divergent reactions of Rahim and Hassan to Amir's story affect Amir? What do their reactions reveal about them all?

- Amir's story is dark. This novel is dark. Why is so much literature about the unhappy parts of life?

Ch. 5
- What is it that Hassan sees for the first time on his father's face? Why is this significant? What might it mean to Amir?

- Amir tells us that Assef is a sociopath. Modern psychology tells us that as many as 5 in 100 human beings are to some degree sociopathic. Without using names, have you ever met someone who cared not at all for how other people feel? How did you react to that person?

- Hassan is remarkably brave in this chapter. Describe the scene and imagine how Amir must feel by comparison. Afterall, he just wanted his dad to show up and save the day. Is Hassan a role model for us all or a fool?

Ch. 6
- Respond to any of the following quotes:

"If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty, then he'd toy with me, and challenge my integrity." p58

"That was the thing with Hassan he was always so goddam pure, you always felt like a phony around him." (this is an allusion to a classic bildungsroman, Catcher in the Rye)

Chapter 7 - discussion

1) Silent Reading (for those of you who for got to read up to Ch.7)

2) Groups - discuss Chapter 7 - what happened? How did you feel as a reader? Collect two quotes to share and discuss with the whole class.

3) Whole class discussion

4) Out Loud Reading

5) More Journal Questions - time to work on... Use this time wisely!!

Journal Questions - Ch.1-3

Remember that for the KR journal you have to produce 20 paragraph responses. It does not matter what the 20 topics are, these are just suggestions. Feel free to come up with your own topics/ideas.

Ch.1
- Can you bury the past? Amir begins the novel by suggesting that "the past always claws its way out." Why do you think he feels this way? Do you agree?
- Rahim suggests to Amir that "there is a way to be good again." Is redemption really possible? Can someone come back from "evil" behaviour?

Ch.2
- Three father/son relationships are portrayed in this chapter: Amir/Baba, Hassan/Ali and Amire/Rahim. What characterizes each relationship? You could answer these questions in the form of a diagram or labeled drawing.
- The Hazaras are described in many different ways - describe these and then speculate on the why's and the reasons for this discrimination.

Ch.3
- Describe Baba. Why does Amir sometimes hate him?
- Describe Amir. Why does Baba sometimes hate him?
- How do the traditional expectations for the roles of men play into the ideas of the novel so far?
- "Children aren't colouring books. You don't get to colour them in with your favourite colours." Respond/react to this thought.

Thursday - To Do...

1) Return some work - feedback and examples

2) Discuss Chapter 4

3) Teacher Read Aloud - Chapter 5...

4) Silent Reading

5) Discuss Map of Middle East

6) Chapter Notes Rubric and sample online

7) Journal Rubric

8) Time to work on journal...

Kite Runner Notes

Here is the example set that I made: Chapter One.

The Chapter Notes Rubric will be handed out in class.
Twenty entries are required... start now!

Afghan History Nutshell

The novel takes place from 1970's - 2002. But the novel refers back to history from the early 20th century...

Here is a nutshell overview:
- Prior to 1919 owned by England (a colony)
- 1919 King declared independance
- USSR was the first country to accept the new country
- 1920's various regimes, turmoil
- 1933 - 1973 Monarchy ruled by King Zahir Shah
- 1973 Coup. Prince Dahoud seizes power, Republic with "elected" president (the prince). Lots of corruption. Russians upset because they has been able to use the King as their puppet. The newly declared President was less willing to listen to them. A tense time.
- 1978 Violent overthrow. Prince/president Dahoud and his entire family murdered by Russions. PDPA (People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan) declared (but run by Russions and corrupt Afghanis) Marxist.
- conservative social and political changes begin to occur... infighting... more turmoil
- 1989 Russians withdraw (post-cold-war Berlin wall falls)
- PDPA remains in power
- 1992 converts to Islamic state
- Violent in-fighting... culture, architecture, economy all begin to crumble...
- After Sept. 11, 2001 - US, CAN, BRITs invade...