Shooting Kabul

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Mariam’s Story”

In this activity, students complete a creative writing exercise in which they write a diary entry from the perspective of Mariam.

Although the novel follows the lives of Fadi, Noor, Zafoona, and Habib to the US, a significant portion of the narration focuses on reuniting with Mariam. Furthermore, while the novel ends on a positive note, the reader does not receive any insight into Mariam’s story while she is separated from her family. In this activity, you will write a diary entry from Mariam’s perspective in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Consider the following questions to guide your narration:

• What happened to Mariam in the first moments of separation?
• Who took care of her after she was left behind?
• How did she cross the border into Pakistan?
• What was her experience living in the refugee camp?
• How would she feel knowing that she will be reunited with her family?

Teaching Suggestion: This activity encourages students to think creatively about Mariam’s voice and her perspective of being left behind. In addition to the questions above, you might consider asking if Mariam blames any of her family members for her experience. This would connect the activity to the recurring motifs of guilt and shame. It might be engaging for students to share their diary entry with a small group.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students for whom creative writing is a challenge, or for English language learners or those with processing challenges, this activity can be amended to a group activity in which each group focuses on one of the questions for their creative writing. Then, students might come together to put their different answers together to form a diary entry. For this differentiation, students may benefit from more guided-writing activities to support their writing, such as a graphic organizer and/or sentence starters.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced students or students who have an inclination for creative writing, you might consider asking students to write a chapter about Mariam rather than a diary entry. This challenges students to write in the third person limited point of view and to write an extended narrative.