Investigating themes in the narrative "The Breadwinner" by Deborah Ellis
Introduction
Mrs. Roberts's English Year 8 Class
"The lesson here, my daughters," he looked from one to the other, "is that Afghanistan has always been the home of the bravest women in the world. You are all brave women. You are all inheritors of the courage of Malali." (2.61)
Welcome to your first webquest! You have successfully read "The Breadwinner" by Deborah Ellis and now it is time to embark on a journey of courage to discover some of the themes in this book. You will investigate three of the following themes: education, freedom and confinement, gender, war, and family. You will create a prezi, powerpoint or slide presentation of your findings on these themes. Please carefully consider and keep this essential question in mind before starting your task: What lengths would you go to, to protect the ones you love? All the best and have fun!
Please watch the clip below and reflect on how war can affect the course of one's life drastically.
Your task is to create a prezi, powerpoint or slide presentation and present your findings to the class. Using websites that have been provided, you will research and explore three of the five themes: education, freedom and confinement, gender, war, and family. You can pick any three!
Questions will be given to help guide you in this process! Do your best and remember, to have fun!
Process
Your prezi or powerpoint should be approximately 10 slides.
It should consist of a title page that has the following information: title of this project and your full name.
Each theme should consist of no less than three slides each, so you should have at least a total of 10 slides.
Finally, you should have a bibliography (credits) slide at the end, to cite sources (websites) and images you have used.
Now here comes the fun part. Choose 3 of the 5 themes.
Education: You are exploring education in The Breadwinner. As you have read, Parvana's parents value education above all else—they're both university-educated themselves—and instill this value in their children, even though the Taliban forbid girls to go to school.
Why is the Taliban threatened by educated women?
How do Parvana's parents teach her to value education?
What kind of education does Parvana receive watching her parents overcome obstacles?
Is education essential to the rebuilding of Afghanistan? If so, why?
Use evidence from the text to support your answers. Here is an article of Afghan women striving to further their education.
Freedom and Confinement: You are now investigating the need for freedom and the effects of confinement. The Taliban restricts people's freedom in order to control them, and they use prison and violent oppression to assert their power and enforce obedience to their regime. In The Breadwinner, Parvana's family has been confined to their tiny apartment for almost a year and half with little hope in sight.
How does confinement affect the younger children's development?
Why does the Taliban restrict women's freedom?
How does Mother deal with her lack of freedom and confinement?
Why isn't Parvana affected by women's lack of freedom as much as the other women in her house? Is her disguise a sort of confinement too?
Use evidence from the text to support your answers. Here are just a few restrictions women had to endure under the Taliban.
Gender: The Taliban spends so much time and energy thinking of ways to hold women down inThe Breadwinner, but Parvana and the women in her family just seem to get stronger and stronger in the face of their oppression and inspite of their gender.
How does Parvana feel about becoming a boy?
Do Parvana and Nooria fight so much because they are both girls?
What does Mrs. Weera's character reveal about the power of women?
How does the burqa change a women's self-esteem?
Use evidence from the text to support your answers. Read this interesting article on being veiled.
War: Violence comes in all forms in Kabul—bombs, beatings, apartment raids, amputations—no one is safe, and there seems to be no end in sight. In The Breadwinner, the landscape has been shaped by war.
Parvana's brother was killed by a land mine. How has this affected the family?
Was Parvana's family wrong when they sent her out as Kaseem to make money and buy food? How could they subject her to Kabul's violence?
During this time of war in Kabul, are there any signs of peace?
Are there any times in the book in which you forget Parvana's family is living during a war? If so, how are these scenes written?
Use evidence from the text to support your answers. Take a look at this slideshow of Afghanistan from before the war.
Family:Family is always pretty complicated, but Parvana's family doesn't stop at blood relatives, and Mrs. Weera becomes a pretty important member of their clan too as well as Shauzia, who is like another sister to Parvana.
In what ways is Shauzia's relationship with her family different from Parvana's relationship with her family?
What are roles Parvana's family play in their day to day life?
Why is Nooria so eager to marry out of her family?
How does Mrs. Weera fit in with Parvana's family? How does she help?
Use evidence from the text to support your answers. Here are some interviews with kids about life in Afghanistan.
Now: After answering the questions, create your powerpoint or Prezi. Remember to use some creativity and include appropriate images or visuals.
Finally: Check your work for spelling errors and practice presenting. View this clip on tips for presenting.
Evaluation
See the Classroom for Rubric.
Conclusion
I hope that you enjoyed investigating and learning more about the themes in The Breadwinner. Like any well-written book, you can peel back the layers to discover how characters are affected by events and how events affect the characters. Continue to ask questions and reflect on why characters act the way that they do. In doing so, you will not only understand books better, but you will also empathize with your fellow humans!
This webquest is aligned with the Cambridge Curriculum Secondary 1 - English framework codes:
8Wf1 Identify the most appropriate approach to planning their writing in order to explore, connect and shape ideas.
8Wf2 Apply skills in editing and proofreading to a range of different texts and contexts.
8Wf3 Develop ideas to suit a specific audience, purpose and task.
8Wf6 Experiment with different ways of presenting texts, bearing in mind the audience and purpose.
8Rf1 Recognise implied meaning, e.g. expression of opinion, inference of character, meaning contained in an image, ironic effect. Rx •
8Rf2 Identify relevant points, synthesising and summarising ideas from different parts of the text.
8Rf3 Explore the range, variety and overall effect of literary, rhetorical and grammatical features used by poets and writers of literary and non-literary texts. Include study of informal or formal style as well as the choice of words to create character.
8Rf4 Comment on how the writer’s use of language contributes to the overall effect on the reader, using appropriate terminology.
8Rf5 Broaden their experience of reading a wide range of texts and express their preferences and opinions.
8Rf6 Trace the development of a writer’s or poet’s ideas, viewpoint and themes through a text and relate these to other texts read.
8Rf7 Compare poems from different cultures and times, commenting on different poets’ use of language and imagery to develop similar themes and elicit responses from the reader.
8Rf8 Explore how different audiences choose and respond to texts.
8Rf9 Explore why certain texts are important within a culture and show awareness that the context in which the text is written and read affects its meaning.
8SL1 Give short presentations and answer questions, maintaining effective organisation of talk.
8SL2 Adapt speech, non-verbal gesture and movement to meet an increasing range of demands.
8SL3 Explore complex ideas and feelings, both succinctly and at length.
