Before reading
Australian Curriculum: English sub-strands: Literature – Literature and context | Literacy – Interacting with others
Conduct a polarised debate / Anticipation Guide. Display statements such as:
- People who wear different clothes should be treated differently.
- If you don’t share the same beliefs as someone, you can’t possibly be friends.
Students move to areas designated as ‘Agree’ or ‘Disagree’ based on their response to the statement. Students can be asked to justify their position.
Students will: Consider position in relation to given statement. Justify position taken and listen to the reasons of others. Record position taken and reasons in a learning journal which they will revisit after studying the novel.
Assessment for learning
Australian Curriculum: English sub-strand: Literacy – Interacting with others
Gain an idea of students’ existing knowledge about the country of Afghanistan and topic of Refugees through use of KWL charts (what we Know, what we Want to learn, what we have Learned).
Students will: Construct a KWL chart about the country of Afghanistan. Construct another on the topic of refugees. Complete the K and W columns prior to reading the text and L column at completion of the unit.
Book bits
Australian Curriculum: English sub-strands: Literature – Literature and context | Language – Expressing and developing ideas
Share a variety of ‘book bits’ from the novel with the students. Choose words, sentences or extracts from the text to share one at a time with students,for example in the beginning of Chapter 1 — Mahtab ached. Icy air seeped up from the floor. All she could taste was diesel and dust. Choose snippets, for example on Page 2 When had the fog of darkness wrapped itself around the house?
Students will: Discuss what selected extracts might mean in the context of the book.