Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students are challenged to contemplate issues related to current world affairs. Our fall storyline was a book topic, written on Deborah Ellis’ book, The Breadwinner.
Our Storyline topic followed the book, immersing students in the life of Parvana, a twelve-year-old girl living in Afghanistan right after Russia leaves, and before the Taliban fully takes over.
Students began by creating the characters and the setting. Throughout this story, students did a lot of writing, for example, thinking about why the author dedicated this book to the “children of war,” contrasting Parvana’s life to that of their own, and putting themselves in Parvana’s life.
This story is very emotional and students used several opportunities to transfer their emotions into artwork. Once, they listened to several different Afghani music selections and used different media to create examples of what they were hearing.
Another time, students painted pictures of themselves and then cut out representations of things which freed them and which imprisoned them, and then added those to their paintings in a surrealist style.
Students also used drama and theater to represent how the characters were feeling. They acted out scenes. They also practiced their writing and dramatic skills as they created skits and dialogs to accompany pieces of text with great action and no spoken language.
Throughout the story, more characters are introduced, and students created the items belonging to them. Then, students thought about what items were most important to them, thus turning the tables from a focus on the text to a focus on themselves.
Parvana and her sister, Nooria, undergo many changes during the story. Students wrote benchmark essays analyzing the character changes that Parvana and her sister went through. They used the text to support their thoughts and to draw conclusions. Technology was interwoven as student worked in teams to research current humanitarian issues and then wrote expository reports about their findings and detailing the issues.
The Breadwinner, the first of a trilogy, leaves the audience wondering what will happen next… Students brainstormed ideas about future events, and connected them with current text. In the end, students shared all of their writing and ideas with their families.
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