Using Literature in the Language Classroom: Using a Modern Novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Safa Nasher, Turkey, and Carol Griffiths, Turkey

Safa Nasher obtained a bachelor degree in TEFL from the Lebanese International University, Sanaa/ Yemen branch. She is currently working on her master degree in English Language Teaching, at Fatih University, Istanbul,Turkey.

Email address: jtr.snasher@yahoo.com

Dr Carol Griffiths has taught in many places around the world, and is currently Associate Professor in the ELT Department at Fatih University in Istanbul, Turkey. She has also published widely and presented at many conferences around the world.

Email address: carolgriffiths5@gmail.com

Menu

Teacher’s guidelines
Student’s worksheet: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Reading text: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Part 1)
Reading text: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Part 2)
Listening text: adapted from the movie “The Kite Runner”
Follow up

Teacher’s guidelines

Using a novel, poem or short story in a classroom always motivates students and makes them feel passionate about the lesson no matter what age they are or what class it is. In a language classroom specifically, using literature does not only motivate the learners, it also enriches their language skills consciously and subconsciously. The following lesson plan explains how focused planning can help develop learners’ speaking, reading, writing and listening skills, as well as their underlying linguistic knowledge (grammar, comprehension, vocabulary and pronunciation). The Kite Runner, which is a novel written by Khaled Hosseini, is used in this lesson plan. Because of its somewhat sensitive nature, it is suggested that this novel along with its lesson plan be used with mature learners.

1. Reading: since it is a long text, it is divided into two parts. The class should also be divided into two groups and each group should be given a part of the text to read silently. If you have a large number of students, you can divide the class into an even number of groups and give each group a part of the text to read.
2. Speaking: Ask the students to discuss what they read with their group members. Then ask a number of students from each group to swap places with an equal number of students from the other group. Let them speak to each other about their own part. Ask them to discuss their opinions about the characters. This way, everyone will get the whole story and will know what happened in the part of the story he/she didn’t read.
3. Comprehension: Make sure students understand the story by answering some prepared questions about the text. Let them work in pairs.

Teacher’s answer key: comprehension questions

1. What was the tragic event that made Amir and Hassan drift apart?
   Hassan’s rape.
2. How did Amir succeeded in making Hassan and his father leave the house?
   He stuffed money and a watch under Hassan’s pillow and told Baba that Hassan stole them.
3. What did Amir’s father do for living after they left Afghanistan?
   Selling used goods at a flea market.
4. What was the real relationship between Amir and Hassan?
   They were brothers.
5. Where were Hassan and his wife killed?
   Inside Baba’s house.
6. Why did Sohrab try to kill himself?
   Because Amir told him that he might have to go back to an orphanage.
7. How did Sohrab’s attempt to kill himself affect him?
   He stopped speaking entirely.
8. What can we infer about the culture in which the story is set?
   Students should be allowed to come up with their own answers to this question: there is no right/wrong. If you have any Afghan students in the class, be sure to capitalize on their background knowledge. Be careful to avoid cultural stereotyping

4. Vocabulary: If you think your students will struggle with the vocabulary, deal with it before you hand out the reading texts. But if you think they can manage to work out the meaning of unknown words from the context, deal with the vocabulary after the reading.

Teacher’s answer key: vocabulary

5. Pronunciation: Deal with how the vocabulary in stage 4 is pronounced. Draw students’ attention to where the stress comes in each word, and the pronunciation of the vowel in the unstressed syllables. Pronounce them yourself and ask the class to repeat after you, or ask a native speaker (if available) to do this.

6. Listening: BEFORE HANDING OUT THE TEXT, give the students the listening questions to read before they listen to the audio for the first time, so that they listen for a purpose. The audio can be played twice before handing out the audio text to the students to ensure that they are listening and not reading. You can record your own voice, read clearly to the students or ask a native speaker to read the listening text.

1. Hassan described the rulers of Afghanistan using the word “savages”. (not given)
2. It was mentioned in the letter that Rahim Khan was very ill. (not given)
3. Rahim Khan and Hassan taught Sohrab how to read and write. (True)
4. Hassan described English as a “tricky” language. (True)
5. Hassan did not want to learn English. (False)
6. Hassan dreamed of a good future for Afghanistan. (True)
7. Hassan wanted his son to grow up and be like himself. (False)

7. Grammar: hand out an exercise that was developed from items in the text and ask the students to work on it in pairs. The exercise below would be suitable to practice past tense formation, but you can manipulate the exercise to suit any grammar that was introduced to the students recently.

1. Amir succeeded (success) in making Hassan leave the house.
2. When Amir won (win) the tournament, Hassan set (set) off to run the loosing kite.
3. Because of the change (changing) in the political climate.
4. The Soviets were (was) forced out.

8. Writing: Ask the students to write a short story about betrayal, loyalty, or friendship. You can motivate the students by putting the best ones in the school’s/institution’s magazine, or printing them and putting them in the aisles or around the walls of the classroom, or sending them to a magazine such as HLTmag to be considered for publication.

Student’s worksheet: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Speaking: After reading your part of the story, discuss what you have understood with your group.

Comprehension questions

1. What was the tragic event that made Amir and Hassan drift apart?
2. How did Amir succeed in making Hassan and his father leave the house?
3. What did Amir’s father do for living after they left Afghanistan ?
4. What was the real relationship between Amir and Hassan?
5. Where were Hassan and his wife killed?
6. Why did Sohrab try to kill himself?
7. How did Sohrab’s attempt to kill himself affect him?
8. What can we infer about the culture in which the story is set?

Vocabulary: Match the following words from the text to their meanings

Pronunciation:Check how the words in the vocabulary list are pronounced. Notice where the stress comes in each word, and the pronunciation of the vowel in the unstressed syllables. Listen to your teacher and/or the recorded voice and practice pronouncing them yourself

Listening: Listen to Hassan’s letter and write “true”, “false” or “not given” in front of each of the following sentences:

1. Hassan described the rulers of Afghanistan using the word “savages”.
2. It was mentioned in the letter that Rahim Khan is very ill.
3. Rahim Khan and Hassan taught Sohrab how to read and write.
4. Hassan described English as a “tricky” language.
5. Hassan did not want to learn English.
6. Hassan dreamed of a good future for Afghanistan.
7. Hassan wanted his son to grow up and be like his father, a free and important person.

Grammar: Use the words from the text to form correct sentences.

5. Amir ………….……. (success) in making Hassan leave the house.
6. When Amir ………… (win) the tournament, Hassan ……………. (set) off to run the loosing kite.
7. Because of the …………………. (changing) in the political climate.
8. The Soviets ………………. (was) forced out.

Writing: Write about what you would have done if you were in Amir’s shoes, seeing Hassan being raped by Assef.
OR
Write about what you think of what Amir did in his attempt to make Hassan and his father leave the house? Would you have done the same? Why?
OR
Write a story from your own experience about betrayal, loyalty or friendship.

Reading text: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Part 1)

Reading Text: adapted from Sparknotes (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-kite-runner/summary.html). Retrieved 01/03/2016

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Part 1)

Amir recalls an event that happened twenty-six years before, when he was still a boy in Afghanistan, and says that that made him who he is. Before the event, he lives in a nice home in Kabul, Afghanistan, with Baba, his father. They have two servants, Ali and his son, Hassan, who are Hazaras, an ethnic minority. Baba’s close friend, Rahim Khan, is also around often. When Afghanistan’s king is overthrown, things begin to change. One day, Amir and Hassan are playing when they run into three boys, Assef, Wali, and Kamal. Assef threatens to beat up Amir for hanging around with a Hazara, but Hassan uses his slingshot to stop Assef.

The story skips to winter, when the kite-fighting tournament occurs. Boys cover their kite strings in glass and battle to see who can sever the string of the opposing kite. When a kite loses, boys chase and retrieve it. This is called kite running. When Amir wins the tournament, Hassan sets off to run the losing kite. Amir looks for him and finds Hassan trapped at the end of an alley, Wali and Kamal hold him, and Assef rapes him. Amir runs away, and when Hassan appears with the kite, Amir pretends he doesn’t know what happened. Afterward, Amir and Hassan drift apart. Amir, who is racked by guilt, decides either he or Hassan must leave. He stuffs money and a watch under Hassan’s pillow and tells Baba that Hassan stole it. When Baba confronts them, Hassan admits to it, though he didn’t do it. Shortly after, Ali and Hassan move away.

The story jumps to March 1981. Because of the changing political climate, Amir and his father are forced to leave Afghanistan. They move to America, where he and his father lead a modest life in California, earning money by selling used goods at a flea market. Amir successfully pursues his dream of being a writer, and marries Soraya, an Afghan girl he meets at the market. They hold the wedding quickly because of Baba’s health, and Baba dies a month later. Amir and Soraya try unsuccessfully to have a baby while Amir works on his writing career.

Amir gets a call from Rahim Khan. Rahim Khan is sick and wants Amir to see him in Pakistan. Amir meets him a week later, and Rahim Khan tells Amir about the devastation in Kabul. He says things only got worse after the Soviets were forced out. Now the Taliban rule by violence. He has a favor to ask of Amir, but first he needs to tell him about Hassan.

Reading text: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Part 2)

When Baba and Amir left Afghanistan, Rahim Khan watched their house. Out of loneliness and because he was getting older, he decided to find Hassan. He convinced Hassan and Hassan’s wife, Farzana, to come back to Kabul with him. Farzana and Hassan eventually had a little boy, Sohrab. A few years later Rahim Khan went to Pakistan for medical treatment, but he received a call from a neighbor in Kabul. The Taliban went to Baba’s house and shot Hassan and Farzana and sent Sohrab to an orphanage.

Rahim Khan wants Amir to go to Kabul and bring Sohrab back to Pakistan, where a couple lives that will take care of him. He tells Amir that Baba was Hassan’s father, and Amir agrees to do it. In Afghanistan, Amir finds the orphanage where Sohrab is supposed to be, but he is not there. The orphanage director says a Taliban official took Sohrab a month earlier. If Amir wants to find the official, he will be at the soccer stadium during the game the next day. Amir goes to the game, and at half-time, the Taliban put a man and a woman in holes in the ground and the official Amir is looking for stones them to death. Through one of the Taliban guards, Amir sets up a meeting with the official.

When they meet, Amir tells the official he is looking for a boy, Sohrab, and the official tells the guards to bring the boy in. Sohrab is wearing a blue silk outfit and mascara, making him appear more feminine and suggesting that the men sexually abuse him. The official says something Amir recognizes, and suddenly Amir realizes the official is Assef. Assef says he wants to settle some unfinished business. He beats Amir with brass knuckles, breaking Amir’s ribs and splitting his lip. Sohrab threatens Assef with his slingshot, and when Assef lunges at him, Sohrab shoots him in the eye, allowing Amir and Sohrab to escape. As Amir recovers in the hospital, he finds out there never was a couple that could care for Sohrab. Amir asks Sohrab to live with him in the U.S., and Sohrab accepts.

The adoption officials tell Amir that adopting Sohrab will be impossible since he can’t prove Sohrab’s parents are dead, and Amir tells Sohrab he may have to go back to an orphanage. Amir and Soraya figure out a way to get Sohrab to the U.S., but before they can tell Sohrab, Sohrab tries to kill himself. He lives, but he stops speaking entirely. Even after they bring Sohrab to California, Sohrab remains withdrawn. One day, they go to a park with other Afghans. People are flying kites. Amir buys one and gets Sohrab to fly it with him. They spot another kite and battle it. Using one of Hassan’s favorite tricks, they win. Sohrab smiles, and as the losing kite flies loose, Amir sets off to run it for Sohrab.

Listening text: adapted from the movie “The Kite Runner”

Director: Marc Forster Hassan’s letter to Amir – The Kite Runner (Listening Script) “In the name of god the merciful the compassionate, Amir agha, With my Deepest respects. My wife and son and I pray this letter finds you in fine health and in the light of god’s good graces. I’m hopeful that one day I’ll hold one of your letters in my hands and read of your life in America. I’m trying to learn English. It’s such a tricky language, but one day agha! I miss your stories!

Hassan”.

Follow up

There is a very good, thought–provoking movie of this story. As time permits, it would be a good idea to let students watch the movie to add an extra dimension to the text as presented in this lesson. Teachers should be aware though, that some scenes in the movie might be disturbing to some students, so it might be necessary to exercise some pedagogical judgement regarding this issue according to the particular students involved.

Please check the English Language Improvement for Adults course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology & Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.