Essential QuestionsAfter leaving one’s homeland, how does someone recreate home?
Who is home? What is home? What is one’s role in creating a new sense of place? What are other factors that have impacted this process? What things connect us to the place we think of as home? Possible Summative TasksPrompt: What are ways that you have created a sense of home or place? Who is home to you? What is home? What other factors have impacted your sense of home?
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Activities and Lessons with Texts
The texts are placed in a suggested order in which to teach. I also included possible activities, exercises, and links as starting points to lesson plan. This is definitely not an exhaustive list!
1. The Arrival
2. Keeping Up My Mien Heritage
3. The ABCs of Chinese Americans
4. Texas Doughnut Shop
5. Speaking for Islam
6. Inside Out and Back Again
7. Going Home
8. Shooting Kabul
1. The Arrival
- An animated version of the book can be found on vimeo.
- Lesson plans and activities can be found on TeachingBooks.net and The Universal Classroom
- Blog post from an English teacher in Cambridge, England about teaching this graphic novel
2. Keeping Up My Mien Heritage
- Print out the transcript and have students follow along. Students can then use the text for close reading.
- Guiding Questions: Who has played a role in helping Kasey keep up her Mien heritage? How? What is Kasey's idea of home? What has she done to create her idea of home?
- With a Perspective lesson plans: can be used for summative task
3. The ABCs of Chinese Americans
- Guiding Questions: How do the different groups of Chinese Americans view each other in this piece? What are the young people doing to try to fit in? How are they creating their place in the United States?
4. Texas Doughnut Shop
- Guiding Questions: When does work become home? Should work become home? How does the uncle feel about the doughnut shop? Does the aunt feel the same way about it? Explain.
5. Speaking for Islam
- Print out the transcript and have students follow along. Students can then use the text for close reading.
- There is rich imagery in this audio piece. Have students illustrate the images that come up for them.
- Guiding Questions: What does 4th of July mean to Norhan? How does the attacks of September 11 affect Norhan? How does it change her idea of what home means to her?
6. Inside Out and Back Again
- Book trailer
- Author reads from her book - have students illustrate descriptions of images
- Many lesson plans and additional resources at TeachingBooks.net
- Lesson plans for close reading
7. Going Home
- Divide the film into sections and pause throughout so the class can storyboard the family's journey using a graphic organizer
- Guiding Questions: Who is trying to find a sense of home in this film? How are the family members trying to find a sense of home? Why is this film titled Going Home? What ideas come up around home?
8. Shooting Kabul
- Students create a photo journal based on the photographs taken in the novel
- Reading Guide from Simon and Schuster
- Interview with the author