Introduction
What's It About?
Young Amir and his servant, Hassan, have been raised together since birth, and are now best friends. As the two boys come of age in Afghanistan in the 1970s, however, they learn that the world is more complicated than they imagined.
Their friendship is threatened as they learn more about their differences. Amir is a member of the Pastun tribe, the dominant group in the country, while Hassan is a Hazara, a much-hated minority group. When bullies torment the two boys for spending time together, Hassan is always ready to defend their friendship. Amir is not so brave, since he has other things to worry about. Amir's own father seems ashamed that Amir prefers writing to sports. Amir, determined to win his father's approval, vows to win the upcoming kite fighting tournament, aided by Hassan, the best kite runner in all of Kabul.
So why do we need to know background information before we read this novel?
This novel is full of cultural references that tie into the understanding of the plot. If you do not know much about the country in which this story take place, the people who live there, the history of war in this country, the culture and ethnicities, and the psycology of certain disorders, you will have a difficult time understanding the motivations of the characters and why things happen the way that they do. Afghanistan is a very unique country, different from what we know here in America, but you would be surprised at the similarites that we share as we grow up.
Continue to "Task"
Task
Your task in your assigned group is to collect the proper background information on your assigned topic. You will be presenting this information via PowerPoint to the rest of the class to take notes on. There will be a quiz on this information later in class. What you teach the class will help them to understand the novel as we read. Make sure to cover your topic completely, for if you do not, your group will lose points.
Read the following instructions carefully:
1. Assign each group member some of the questions. Search for the answers to the questions using the link provided to you under the "Process" tab. If you feel that you don't have enough information, supplement your search by doing a google search to find supporting facts.
2. Create a PowerPoint Presention to compile all of your information.
PowerPoint Requirements:
- Title Page which includes all group members' names
- An introductory slide that introduces the main idea of your information
- One slide for each question with the answer
- One picture for each slide to help illustrate the information
- color and fonts to make your presentation more appealing
- A Concluding slide that sums up your main points
*Suggestion: Google Drive can be used so that all group members have access to one document. Gmail is required.
3. Save the presentation. EACH MEMBER MUST HAVE A COPY OF THE POWERPOINT. YOUR GROUP WILL PRESENT, REGARDLESS OF WHO IS PRESENT OR ABSENT ON THE PRESENTATION DAY. If your group does not present when scheduled, the entire group will recieve zero credit.
4. Presentations will occur, in order, on one day in class. Everyone will take notes on other groups' presentations.
Continue to "Process"
Process
Scroll down to find your individual group's assignment. Follow the links provided and answer the corresponding questions. Use this information to create your PowerPoint Presentation.
Group A: Afghanistan
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Geography_of_Afghanistan.html
1. Show the class a current map of the country and its surrounding countries. Point out the capital.
2. Summarize the first two paragraphs of the webpage as your first two or three slides, including the key details as information
3. What are the Hindu Kush mountains?
4. Use the links to Wikipedia on the bottom of the webpage to find the following information (summarizing the important points, one topic per slide):
- Terrain and Agriculture
- Borders
- Rivers and Lakes
- Vegitation
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/afghan/afghan-narrative.html
5. How is the climate in the country? Use the webpage above to create 3-4 slides that cover all aspects of the climate.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/7798/Afghanistan/226122/Languages
6. What are the different languages in the country and who speaks them?
Group B: The Author
http://khaledhosseini.com/biography/
1. Where and when was Khaled born?
2. What did his parents do?
3. Describe why and where his family moved.
4. Where did he go to school?
5. What was he before he became an author?
http://khaledhosseini.com/videos/
6. Outline the important points of his video (link above) on becoming an author.
7. Do the same as #6 on the video of criticizing his work.
Group C: The Culture of Kite Fighting
http://www.afghana.com/Entertainment/Gudiparanbazi.htm
1. What is the name of "kite fighting" in Afghan?
2. How did kite fighting start?
3. What did kite fighting have to do with honor?
4. What is "The Unit"?
5. Describe the kites.
6. Describe the wire and the drum.
7. Describe the elements of the fight.
8. What is Azadi Rawast?
9. What is the Sharti?
10. What are the dangers of kite fighting?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiOFpLd1jKE
11. When was kite fighting banned? (use video link above)
12. What was one of the weird places they would fly kites?
Group D: The Shahnameh
http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/shahnameh/
1. What is The Shahnameh?
2. Who is the author?
3. When was it written?
4. What are the three stages of the chronicals?
5. How long did it take for the author to complete the writing?
6. What language were the stories written in?
7. How are the stories usually told?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rostam_and_Sohrab
8. Using the link above, give a summary of the story of Rostam and Sohrab.
Group E: The Taliban
http://www.cfr.org/afghanistan/taliban-afghanistan/p10551
1. What is The Taliban?
2. When did they hold power in Afghanistan?
3. What group of people formed the Taliban and why?
4. What does Taliban mean in Pashtun?
5. What major overthrow occurred in 1996?
6. What types of things did the Taliban ban?
7. Under what condition did Mullah Omar allow al-Qaeda refuge in Afghanistan?
8. Who did not follow his word to Mullah Omar? What was a result of this?
9. What happened to the Taliban between 2001 and today?
Group F: Religions in Afghanistan
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Afghanistan-RELIGIO…
1.What is the majority religion in Afghanistan? What percent?
2. What are the types of Muslim?
3. What terrorist group was practicing Islam?
4. Define using google: What is a zealot?
5. How were the women treated during Taliban rule?
6. How were the men treated?
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Islam.aspx
7. What is Islam?
8. What is the Koran?
9. What do we call a practicer of Islam?
10. What does Islam translate to?
Group G: Soviet Invasion of 1973
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1977-1980/soviet-invasion-afghanis…
1. What area did the Soviets take over?
2. Why did the Soviet Union invade?
3. How long did they have control of Kabul and surrounding areas?
4. Who is Mohammad Daoud and what did he do?
5.What happened to Mohammad Daoud in April of 1978?
6. Why did the United States send troops into Afghanistan at this time?
7. What was the reason Osama bin Laden took over?
Group H: Violence and Social Structure
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/antisocial-personality-di…
1. What is antisocial personality disorder?
2. What are the symptoms of antisocial personality disorder?
3. What are the two main causes for antisocial personality disorder? Give examples for each.
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/3/81.03.06.x.html#c
4. What is a common belief about rape, that is not true?
5. What is the real reason that rape occurs?
6. Why is rape a severely unreported crime?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence
7. Why is wartime sexual violence committed?
8. What did this have to do with defeating the enemies?
Evaluation
Your group will receive a grade based on the following rubric:
Completion: all information is included and correct _____/20
PowerPoint Elements: all instructions were followed
and are correct from the "task" section _____/10
Group Presentation: all group members participated
and had a speaking role; spoke clearly and loudly _____/10
PowerPoint Visual: PowerPoint is unique and
visually appealing _____/10
Total Possible Points: _____/50
Conclusion
Make sure you take notes during all presentations! The background information for this novel will be on a quiz shortly! You will need to STUDY your notes in order to do well on the quiz and understand the play!