Emily Mullins

5-3-09

TE 408 Borsheim

Multicultural Unit Re-Write

A Critical Look at The Kite RunnerGrade Level: This unit was created with a suburban 11th grade classroom in

mind; however, it can be adapted for any high school class.

Concept: The concept of this unit is about using critical lenses to change

how one reads a certain text. According to Appleman, certain lenses may

affect or increase understanding, as well as changing our reading of the

world through a literary text. Changing the way a text is read will change

not only the understanding of the text but also what readers get out of it.

Most readers interpret texts through a variety of texts each time they read,

and there is nothing to say that one is better than another, they are just dif-

ferent lenses of comprehension.

Essential Questions:

• Why should we use critical lenses to look at a text?

• What is the importance of these lenses?

• How do they aid in a student’s understanding and interest in a text,

literary or otherwise?

• How does looking at a text through a different lens affect our under-

standing?

• What is the importance of reading The Kite Runner through these

lenses?

• How does the cultural significance of the novel affect the reading of

The Kite Runner?

• How will the knowledge of these lenses help with future readings?

• How can you analyze this text in terms of your own life?

• How can you analyze a text “not only from the inside out, but from the

outside in?” (Appleman)

Rationale: As a multicultural unit using critical lenses as the main focus,

The Kite Runner is an excellent novel because of its multitude of themes,

characters, events, relationships, as well as historical and cultural rele-

vance. Using these critical lenses will be a good introduction to the stu-

dents’ future readings and textual analyses. It will also allow them to be

able to critically assess texts surrounding them, other than literary ones.

This can include “cultural texts such as music videos, television ads or pro-

grams, print ads, billboards, or films” (Appleman). When looking at this mul-

ticultural text, students will be able to also take into consideration other

viewpoints and perspectives. By encouraging students to look at texts

through varied ‘perspectives’, some they would normally not engage with,

students will be able to understand how many different angles texts can be

assessed and read. Exposing them to these lenses will foster more critically

informed, open-minded, and culturally aware students. For me, this means

challenging students and starting conversations about cultural and world is-

sues, utilizing multicultural literature. It is important to expose students to

texts like The Kite Runner and multiple perspectives so they can learn and

grow to become more critically aware. This will allow students to not be

passive members of society, but active thinkers and questioning members of

society who promote and are capable of change.

Each assessment will vary based on the lesson or lens through which

they are looking, but each will aid in helping students to look at the novel,

as well as the world in a different context and understanding there is more

to reading, than just a surface read through their own eyes with blinders on.

This unit will help students to remove the blinders which give them tunnel

vision. It will force them to dig a little deeper and go beyond a superficial

understanding.

Objectives: Students will...

• Be able to understand the novel in a variety of ways

• Gain new insight into the novel

• Be able to be critically aware and be able to assess texts that sur-

round them, other than just those of the literary nature

• Express their opinions of how they saw the novel or certain aspects of

the novel though the lens they are using

• Be able to see how their viewpoints or opinions might have changed

• How certain aspects of the novel fall in and out of focus depending on

the lens they are using

• Implement their understanding of lenses in a final summative paper

• Understand that even if they are using a lens, it does not necessarily

mean they have to agree with that reading

• Understand the importance of historical context

• Acknowledge and participate in the use of other lenses/readings

• Be able to analyze a text

MI State Standards Addressed: 1.1, 1.3, 2.1, 2.3, 3.4

Texts Used:

- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

- Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide by Lois Tyson

- Critical Encounters in High School English: Teaching Literary Theory

to Adolescents by Deborah Appleman

Formative Assessments:

- Literature Circles

- Journals

- Discussion/Participation

- Group Work

- Written Responses

- Reading

- Critical thinking

Summative Assessments: At the end of the unit, students will take their

knowledge of the different lenses and readings of texts, especially The Kite

Runner and complete an in-depth analytical essay from one of the lenses

discussed in class and apply it to the text.

Introducing Critical Lenses (2-3 days)Grade: 11th

Unit: A Critical Look at The Kite Runner

Objectives: Students will...

• Be introduced to the concept of critical lenses

• Begin to apply these critical lenses to cultural texts they are more fa-

miliar with

• See how certain perspectives that may differ from theirs will change

the meaning of a critical text

• See how they might have a completely different perspective than they

thought in general, or on a certain issue (media or otherwise)

Rationale: As this unit is all about critical lenses and applying them to texts,

I thought it would be best for students to have some practice applying any

of the lenses, as many of them have not hear of literary and critical theory

before. I thought using texts they were familiar with and had probably sub-

consciously been critical of would help to scaffold them before we took on

each lens more in-depth.

I might begin by framing this lesson as being about perspective, it will

allow me to introduce the critical lenses fairy tale activity from Appleman.

Appleman’s Chapter 2, called, appropriately, “Through the Looking Glass:

Introducing Multiple Perspectives,” will show how taking on a different per-

spective as a reader can change the meaning. I thought the fairy tale genre

was excellent because of its audience of children. Most students would

never have thought to look at these from a different perspective. This would

be a great engaging and scaffolding activity for students. This activity, al-

though it mostly focuses on showing that there is more than one side to any

issue, will help lead into students being able to see “how events, in litera-

ture and in life, are multifacented and have different sides, cast different

light, depending on the viewer” and they will be able to see things “from

other viewpoints heartily argue positions that they don’t believe in, inhabit

other ways of being or habits of mind” (Appleman 17).

MI State Standards Addressed: 1.5.1, 1.2.3

Day 1:

Materials: “Little Miss Muffet” by Russel Baker, The True Story of the 3 Lit-

tle Pigs, by A. Wolf

Agenda:

1. Read “Little Miss Muffet” and introduce the story through a variety or

perspectives via Baker’s essay. Ask students why they think we are doing

this? What is the point? How is this going to help our future readings? 10

minutes

2. Divide into groups, then pass out a nursery rhyme to each group. Ask

each group for the next 25 minutes or so to recast the story from a per-

spective other than that of the one telling the story, or from the most obvi-

ous point of view (maybe someone who’s only barely mentioned in the

story or not even at all). 20-25 minutes

3. Before students present their ideas, read to them The True Story of

the 3 Little Pigs for fun and for one more example of a changing perspec-

tive. 10 minutes

4. Have a few group member present one of their ideas from a different

perspective. Ask why they chose that perspective to look at the nursery

rhyme from? What kind of experience was it looking at it from a different

point of view? What does this mean for us when reading other literary

texts?

Then ask:

But what if you don’t want to change the meaning, merely look at the text in

terms of only one aspect of the text?

Leave them with this open-ended question, and ask them to bring in a cul-

tural text for tomorrow, examples being an image, a magazine cover or ad-

vertisement, an appropriate YouTube video, or a short written piece.

Day 2:

Materials: Cultural texts each student will bring in

Agenda:

1. Begin by explaining that most students, when in the classroom, are

never taught there are multiple ways of reading a novel, or any text for

that matter. The activities in this lesson and the lessons that follow, will

show that certain perspectives may take more of a reach, as they will not

always stem from personal experience, as in Reader-Response, or prior

knowledge. Each lens offers a different colored tint to the ‘glasses’ you

are using to read. It will make certain aspects of The Kite Runner come

into focus, while others fall by the wayside.

2. Then explain the difference between being critical and criticism. Ex-

plain that if you are being critical it means you are carefully reading and

analyzing and not taking the novel merely at its words, but what the

words mean. It doesn’t mean saying, “This book is awful” or “I hate this

book.” I think this might be an important distinction to make, seeing as

some kids might have only heard the word critical with negative connota-

tions.

3. Pass out a handout with the psychoanalysis lens, the Marxist lens, and

the feminist lens definitions and examples. Have students get into groups

of 3 or 4 and to apply whichever lens they choose to their cultural text.

For example, if they brought in a n ad with a scantily clad model, they

could use the feminist lens to depict how this is derogatory to women, or

they could push a little further, and use the psychoanalytical lens to see

what this may be doing to the young impressionable minds of the women

who are looking at these ads daily and wishing they could look like them.

4. I would use several examples, either from kids in the class who

brought in really good cultural texts or ones I found on my own, and dis-

cuss the application of the different lenses. Make sure each one is thor-

oughly touched on.

- What is the significance of the text?

- What lens might you use to help you better understand this cultural

text?

- How might that lens affect or increase your understanding?

- Why is important to read it critically?

- Using the critical analysis and visual or written connotations of the

cultural text, what conclusions can you draw?

5. Ask them to think about if they have ever analyzed a cultural or liter-

ary text through one of these lenses without thinking about it.

Assessment: Participation/discussion and interaction with group members,

along with helping out group members will be the biggest aspect of this as-

sessment. Did they help their group members see a nursery rhyme from a

different perspective? Were they able to understand the use of applying cer-

tain lenses to texts? Were they able to do this with their own cultural text?

Were they able to look at different perspectives or through lenses they may

be completely unfamiliar with?

These lenses provide us with a way of recognizing and naming other visions

while promoting our own ways of thinking/seeing, while understanding

other ways of thinking/seeing. “Critical lenses helps us to recognize the es-

sential quality of other visions: how they shape and inform the way we think

and read texts, how we respond to others, and how we live our lives. Critical

lenses make the invisible visible, the unsaid said” (Appleman 75).

Discovering the Marxist Lens (2-3

days)Grade: 11th

Unit: A Critical Look at The Kite Runner

Objectives: Students will...

• Critically think about societies, cultures and politics through the

Marxist lens

• Engage in discussion relating to The Kite Runner and the relevant

Marxist lens

• Convey their understanding of the Marxist lens and its context in the

novel through writing

• Understand how reading and interpreting the text through this lens

will help them to better understand the political, socioeconomic, and soci-

etal context of the novel

• See the ways in which politics and class plays out in the novel

Rationale: Using the Marxist lens when reading a text can make for a more

rich and palpable understanding of the text. Introducing this kind of cul-

tural and class criticism will encourage them to view literature through a

more political mind frame. The Marxist lens considers power and oppres-

sions topics in text often just taken as the historical or contemporary sys-

tem. They help is “to consider the kinds of prevailing ideologies that help

construct the social realities in which we participate (or sometimes become

unwilling participants” (Appleman 58). This lens will help touch on back-

ground knowledge, including cultural and historic aspects, especially when

dealing with multicultural literature. Using this lens will also help students

to consider the political content of the text, as well as the historical and so-

ciocultural context of the work. In terms of this multicultural text, how do

the student’s own lives and their own positions socially, culturally and politi-

cally relate to that of the novel’s characters? How are they distinctly differ-

ent? The Marxist lens provides a great conceptual background knowledge

and insight to begin both the study of lenses and The Kite Runner. This lens

also places the study of literature in the context of important social ques-

tions; it also allows students to see past their individual response, and con-

textualize their new knowledge in terms larger than themselves. They will

be able to place their own particular situations and the texts they read into

a larger system or set of beliefs. Using this perspective “students can con-

sider the issues presented in the text through the lens of the prevailing ide-

ologies of the author’s political and historical context” (Appleman 61).

MI State Standards Addressed: 2.1.2, 1.1.1, 3.1.5, 3.4.1

Materials: PowerPoint with historical context of Afghanistan, Google Earth

Day 1: Begin with brief historical context as students have begun reading

The Kite Runner and will have some questions if they are not familiar with

the political and class regime of the Middle East, Afghanistan specifically.

1. Find Afghanistan using Google Earth

2. Ask students what they know about the Middle East (i.e. politics, soci-

ety, class, gender roles, patriarchy, Taliban, etc.)

3. Brief history PowerPoint of class issues, economy, political powers,

war, political policies, changing powers, etc. of Afghanistan, concentrat-

ing mostly on the time frame surrounding when Amir is young, the 1970s.

(This will include the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the So-

viet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United

States, and the Taliban regime.

Sidenote: Students must then understand that, to use the Marxist lens and

to understand the historical situation and economic conditions (material cir-

cumstances (Tyson)), they must understand that all human events and pro-

ductions have specific material/historical circumstances. Marxist analysis of

human events and productions focuses on relationships among socioeco-

nomic classes, both within a society and among societies, and it explains all

human activities in terms of the distribution and dynamics of economic

power.

This question can be asked later on in the novel when the Taliban

comes to power: What drives politics? Desire for power? Is it money, ideolo-

gies, or hatred and contempt for people unlike them?

4. Focusing mostly on Amir’s and Hassan’s relationship and how their

differences in socioeconomic class divides them, how do we see other divi-

sions in the novel and in our own contemporary society? i.e. religion,

race, class, ethnicity, or gender. Do we think these division play such an

obvious role in our society? Are some differences acknowledged more

than others? In our world, as we see in The Kite Runner, there is a big

difference between the “Haves” and the “Have-nots,” and Amir points out

this is even acknowledged by physical distinctions such as Hassan’s cleft-

lip. What physical distinctions are there in our society between the

“Haves” and the “Have-nots?” Clothing? Schools? Do you think it’s right

to have a class that controls the politics and the way a society, culture, or

even a country is run/governed? We have class distinctions, but how are

they less apparent than those between Pashtun and Hazara in the novel?

Is it right that the members of the highest class should permit differences

in religion, race, ethnicity, or gender to separate them into warring fac-

tions that accomplish little or no social change?

5. Define the bourgeoisie class and the proletariat class for the students.

Identify these people in the novel. Determine how the novel depicts each

person as belonging to a certain class using textual evidence. How does

the author observe the striking differences in socioeconomic lifestyle

among the groups in the novel. How are the members of the lower class

economically oppressed? How are the members of the upper class eco-

nomically privileged? Then ask, why doesn’t the economically oppressed

fight back? What keeps the lower classes ‘in their place’ and at the mercy

of the wealthy? Why do those in power often perceive the lower class as a

threat to the power structure? Students will journal on these questions

that have been written out on the board.

Assessment: This class period will be about engaging with the Marxist lens

more thoroughly while looking how it plays out historically and socioeco-

nomically in the novel’s setting. I will assess the ability to apply the Marxist

lens to the novel in discussion and in their journal entries they will turn in.

Day 2:

Agenda:

1. Begin with a journal answering the following three questions: What

are the characteristics of society? What defines class? What is an ideol-

ogy? 10-15 minutes

2. After discussing the three answers, focus on ideology, as a belief sys-

tem that is a product of social conditioning. Provide examples, such as

capitalism, communism, and patriotism (all that have been discussed in

prior units or history classes). What ideologies exist in the book? Classism,

that one group of people are better than another? That men are biologi-

cally superior to women? Tell the class that Marxism works to make us

constantly aware of all the ways in which we are products of material/his-

torical circumstances and of the repressive ideologies that serve to blind

us to this fact in order to keep us subservient to the ruling system. Dis-

cuss. What ideologies exist in the mind of Amir? Hassan? Amir’s father?

Assef? Are their ideologies consistent with their socioeconomic status?

Their age? 20 minutes

3. Watch clip of The Kite Runner when Amir and Hassan come across As-

sef. Also, look at one depicting the relationship between Amir and Hassan.

In both scenes, who knows they have the power? Who does not? What

happens as a result? 10 minutes

4. For homework have students read the handout on the Psychoanalysis

lens, and ask when they are reading for homework, to try to apply the lens

to the reading having a specific character in mind. I could go over the

handout in class as well. 5-10 minutes.

Assessment: Discussion mainly.

Psychoanalyzing a Novel (3 days)Grade: 11th

Unit: A Critical Look at The Kite Runner

Objectives: Students will...

• Be able to identity certain core issues characters have in the novel by

way of Tyson’s list of issues and fears

• Be able to find certain passages that will show how this core issue

plays out in the novel

• Consciously read through this lens and see how characters may be un-

conscious of their issues

• Assess a character’s issues even if the story is not told through their

point of view?

• Investigate the inter-workings of a character’s mind

• Identify the reasons different characters behave, act out, or relate to

others

• Identify the emotional symptoms certain characters have resulting

form certain experiences, relationships, and whether or not they have

risen above their socioeconomic condition (whether it is good or bad)

• See the role psychoanalysis plays in the novel, as well as in character

analysis

• See how reading through a psychoanalytic lens may help us to inter-

nalize an analysis of our self in relation to our own society and culture

• Understand the human condition

Rationale: This lens is particularly interesting because often it can touch on

personal experiences of readers they may not have understood before. Psy-

choanalytic concepts have become a part of our everyday lives, so it should

take on a more familiar approach than that of the Marxist lens. Psychoana-

lytic concepts such as sibling rivalry, inferiority complexes, teenage rebel-

lion, and defense mechanisms are in such common use that it may be help-

ful to define these to those who may feel they already know their meaning.

It is also going to be a more difficult task if students assess themselves be-

cause it invades our most private thoughts, feelings, and beings. But when

assessing the characters in the novel, and understanding some key concepts

about human experience offered by psychoanalysis, we can begin to see the

ways in which these concepts operate in our daily lives in profound rather

than superficial ways, and students will begin to be able to understand hu-

man behavior, especially in terms of this literary text, one that is very much

about human behavior. This lens helps us look at each individual character,

each with their own psychological history that may begin long before the

novel did.

MI State Standards Addressed: 2.2.2, 2.1.2, 1.1.1, 3.1.5, 3.4.1

Day 1:

Agenda:

1. Introduce the psychoanalytic lens. Ask the questions: When you say

someone is ‘kinda crazy,’ or that person ‘has issues,’ what do you mean?

What kinds of issues? What kind of crazy? 5-10 minutes

2. Use excerpts from Tyson that are important in defining the lens--put

together on a handout. Discuss each one including fear of intimacy, aban-

donment, betrayal, self-esteem, insecure or unstable sense of self, oedipal

fixation, etc. Ask if students can provide examples from other texts

(movies, TV, novels, etc.) that helps to understand this kind of issue. Talk

about each one in depth. Also, discuss the notion that human beings are

motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which

that are unaware, or unconscious. 25 minutes

3. Use family as the basis for the psychoanalytic argument. Do we think

familial relationships and situations are a main reason people have these

core issues? Are we a product of the role we are given in the family-com-

plex? How do we define ourselves in terms of our family and the begin-

ning and ongoing stages of our lives? Journal about their own positions in

their family. This can be turned in anonymously, but they also do not have

to get into the nitty-gritty of their self-definition.

Assessment: Discussion and the ability to relate the new lens to the novel in

the most basic ways.

Day 2:

Agenda:

1. Put a list of characters on the board. Next, write their certain traits, rela-

tionships, flaws, and core issues.

a. How is each character having this issue addressed throughout the

novel?

b. Do their issues intertwine?

c.As core issues stay with us throughout our entire lives, and unless ef-

fectively addressed, they determine our behavior in destructive ways,

ways in which we are usually unaware.

Have student look for textual evidence to back up these thoughts including

page numbers. 20-25 minutes

2. Show short clip of Amir later on in life saving Hassan’s child from the Tal-

iban/Assef, to clear his guilt for what he had done to Hassan when they

were children. Students can speculate other reasons to why Amir felt he

had to do this. Also, talk about the kinds of issues Hassan’s son might have

in his life after this disturbing beginning of his childhood. 10-15 minutes

3. Using one of the core issues and one of the characters, have students be-

gin to take notes how this core issue relates to the character. 10-15 minutes

4. Assign a short essay (2-3 pages) to depict the core issue as the stu-

dents sees it represented in the book through a character in a certain sit-

uation or conflict. This will be due in two days.

a. Things to consider before writing:

a.What character will you focus on?

b.Does their issue get resolved, or does it merely manifest itself in an-

other way, or in response to another issue?

c.Does their issue worsen with time or are they finally able to come to

terms?

d.Remember sometimes, because many of you may not be using

amir’s first person account, you may have to speculate. This doesn’t

mean make things up, but reasonably and logically assess what

might have happened or what could happen.

e.Also, a given core issue can result from another core issue or can

cause the emergence of another issue, has this happened for the

character you are analyzing?

f. Are the conscious or unconscious of their issues?

g.How has their identity been formed around this issue?

h.You can also do research on other psychological issues that may ap-

ply that we might have not covered in class.

Assessment: Discussion, reading, and ability to find and apply textual evi-

dence

Day 3:

Agenda:

1. Looking at psychoanalysis and self: Are some character traits/issues

more easily identified? Is it easier to examine our own character traits or

that of someone else’s? Would it be easier to write a list of your issues or

that of your friends? Was it easy for Amir to acknowledge his guilt or

would it have been easier for him to assuage it?

Journal about this topic. 5-10 minutes

2. For the end of the class period, students will get in pairs and will have

to create a mock therapy session. One of the students will be a character

in the book, and the other the therapist. Using everything we’ve learned

about the psychoanalytic lens, ask questions that probe the ‘character’ to

honestly think about their lives and their experiences and their relation-

ships. Students can write out a script or the therapist can just have a list

of questions. This will be performed at the end of class.

3. Remind students of their character-core issue essay due tomorrow, as

well as the final unit essay due in less than two weeks. If any time left

they can work on the short psychoanalytic character essay for tomorrow.

Assessment: Participation, group activity, discussion, journals, and applica-

ble short essay.

Fishbowls for The Kite Runner (1 day)Grade: 11th

Unit: A Critical Look at The Kite Runner

Objectives: Students will...

• Be able to more fully engage with the lens of their choice for the final

essay

• Be able to participate in an activity that will create a multi-perspec-

tive and large-group discussion venue

• Gain fellow classmates’ assessment of the application of a particular

critical lens

Rationale: This lesson will create a safe and comfortable environment for

students to participate in and engage with fellow classmates, making for a

more dialogic class than a monologic one. It will also cut out the teacher

mostly from the equation. This will be most efficient if students have had

practice with this before or have seen a model fishbowl. This way they will

know how to conduct themselves and that everyone must at one point be in

the inner circle. It will help them to establish rules and guidelines for re-

spectfully listening, but also arguing with their peers. They will be able to

appreciate other perspectives and opinions while also soundly advocating

for their own. When done right, fishbowls can be very educational, informa-

tive, and good practice for similar classroom activities.

Agenda:

1. Students create a large circle with their desks with three desks in the

middle facing each other, labeled Marxist, Feminist, and Psychoanalytic

for the three lenses we’ve covered.

2. Question/prompts will be given to the three students in the middle

and they will begin a discussion, each student defending it from their

chair-assigned literary lens. When a student feels they have sad enough or

made the point they wanted to make, they can return to the outer circle,

and someone else will take their place. (Only those in the middle can talk,

but everyone is listening).

3. Those in the outside circle should take preparatory notes, keeping

track of important points so they can make direct comments once they are

inside the inner circle.

Assessment: Participation in circle, participation as a note-taking and re-

spectful audience member, and a written response to the activity.

Final Assessment for the Critical Lens Unit:

Students will write a final essay on The Kite Runner applying the lens of

their choice. If they choose to go outside the three lenses discussed, I can

provide them reading material on other lenses. Students may have to do re-

search as well, especially if doing the Marxist or Feminist lenses. Students

should also be sure to use textual evidence from The Kite Runner.

The paper should answer the following questions:

• What lens are you using?

• How does it apply to the novel: history, politics, gender roles, eco-

nomic situation, culture/traditions, relationships, character, etc.

• What claim are you making about the lens in relation to the text?

What do you want to argue? (Students will have had thesis statement

lessons prior to this unit)

• What textual evidence can you find to support your claim?

• Can you find any outside sources to support your claim as well?

• Did you cite your sources according to the MLA format?

~I decided not to re-do the calendar. I would’ve kept it mostly the same,

with only a few changes.