From education reform to Californian ranchers to the French Revolution and now pre-Taliban Afghanistan, there are few collections as varied in content and style as what sophomores read in English classes.
The accelerated English 10 classes just finished Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” after over a month of working through the classic. The novel required frequent in-depth class discussion.
However, Mrs. Melissa Sullivan’s accelerated English class is planning to complete their last book of the quarter, “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini in a week. Mrs. Johanna Gordon’s class will also read the novel after spring break.
Sophomore Hyoung-Jun Lee said, “It’s an interesting contrast between our life here and life in Afghanistan.”
As the book is written in modern English and features a fairly fast-paced plot, classes move through it relatively quickly and students often read ahead.
Honors English classes already read the “The Kite Runner” while the accelerated classes read the Dickens novel.
Lee said, “‘A Tale of Two Cities is definitely better because it has more plot development.”
“The Kite Runner” is a widely-praised modern classic about a boy’s childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan and later his adult life in California during the time of the Soviet invasion and the Taliban takeover of his home country.
Sullivan said, “It’s a Common Core requirement for sophomores to analyze a particular point of view or culture outside of the the United States.”
To get background of the culture of Afghanistan students researched and presented on various aspects of the Middle Eastern country before beginning the novel, exploring elements such as the role of Afghani women and the impact of the Taliban.
It is certainly a different genre and experience than “A Tale of Two Cities,” but the English classes will work on projects tying the two pieces together after returning from break. This will be the last project before sophomore debates in fourth quarter.