Kite Runner

We started teaching the Kite Runner on Monday as our second book of the summer. I should clarify since I'm teaching juniors and seniors, this is the junior / Lit class.

For the students who are keeping up with the reading, it seems like they're getting sucked into the book like I was when I first read it. I don't remember the year, but I was on tour in Japan and brought this as my travel read. I started it one night in the hotel and was up way too late. By the next day I was hooked, and whenever we had downtime, I snuck off to eat alone and keep reading. I knocked it off in about two days, which is fast considering I'm a slow reader (for an English teacher.) I'm hoping some kids hit that point this weekend.

Tomorrow is where it gets interesting though. Tonight's reading covers the rape scene in chapter 6, and tomorrow we have a Socratic Seminar covering the book so far. I'm a little worried, as many of these students can be homophobic and might miss the point that Assef wasn't raping Hassan for sexual reasons. For those that haven't done SS before, the idea is that the teacher launches a question and then steps back and lets the class discuss and ask their own questions.

Tough scene, we'll see if that makes for a tough class.