Name: ___Mikayla Rivers___________________________________________________

Lesson #: _3__

Lesson Title: _The Breadwinner Roleplaying _____________________

Date: _________

Day of Week: ________

Time (Class Period) ______________________

Central Focus
Students will navigate the story of The Breadwinner by experiencing it themselves
in roleplaying the characters and writing about their experience.
Instructional Focus
How does this lesson connect with and build on the previous lesson(s)?
We have just finished reading chapters 1-3 in The Breadwinner. Now, we will bring
the story to life by seeing what it was like to live in a small room with a family and
having to fetch heavy buckets of water like Parvana.
Standards Addressed
Common Core/Georgia Performance Standards
o ELAGSE7RL6: Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different
characters or narrators in a text.
o ELAGSE7RI3: Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text.
o ELAGSE7RL1: Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Learning Objectives/Learning Targets
Objective/Target
Assessment
o Students will analyze how the author (Deborah Ellis) develops and contrasts the
points of view of different characters in The Breadwinner.

Roleplaying characters
Journal entry
Teacher monitoring

o Students will analyze the interactions between individuals,

events, and ideas in a text.

Roleplaying characters
Journal entry
Teacher monitoring
Journal entry

o Students will cite several pieces of textual evidence to support

analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences
drawn from the text.
Academic Language/Language Function Objectives
Analyze, author, develops, contrasts, points of view, characters, interactions, events, ideas,
roleplaying, cite, textual evidence, analysis, explicitly, inferences
Assessments
Roleplaying characters
Journal entry
Teacher monitoring
Instruction Strategies and Learning Tasks (Procedures & Timelines)
Time
Instructional Strategies/Learning Tasks
Purpose
Teacher rereads pages 22-23 and 36 while
Activate prior
3 min
students follow along in their copies of The
knowledge
Breadwinner.
Remind students of
where Parvana and her
family are living
Students get to actively
As a class, we create an area that is the
5 min
create their own
same size as Parvanas familys room
stage and realize how
(ten regular steps one way and twelve
small it is. Students
regular steps the other way).
need to be kept active,
We use cardboard, chairs, desks, sheets,

and blankets to secure an area.

25 min

5 min

There are six roles (Mom, dad, Parvana,

Nooria, Maryam and Ali). The students
give preferences as to who they would like
to play by raising their hands when the
teacher announces a character. There are
five of each character. The teacher
allocates the roles.
Parvana must fetch two large buckets of
water for the family supplied by the
teacher.
Each group of six is in the family room for
five minutes acting like their assigned
character.
All other students watch the first groups
enactment to get an idea of what living in
a small space is like.
Students must answer a journal prompt
that is on the projector when it is not their
turn to roleplay. They may choose one of
the two prompts to answer.
Whole class discussion on the students
experience and answers to the journal prompts.

so they can focus and

learn.
Students get a glimpse
at what it would be like
to live in a room that
small as a family of six.
They get to put
themselves in the
characters shoes. For
the students who play
Parvana, they get to
experience how heavy
buckets of water are.
Student-centered
learning (John Dewey)

Vygotskys sociocultural
learning theory

Student Supports
o Reading from book before acting
o Roleplaying characters to better understand them
o Discussion
o Choice in character
o Choice in journal prompt
Materials and Resources
Handouts & PowerPoints
o Projected journal prompts
Materials needed in class
o The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
o Journal
o Writing utensil

Journal Prompt
CHOOSE ONE
Write AT LEAST five sentences. Draw your inferences from quotes in the book and cite
the page numbers in your journal entry.
1. How might it feel to live in that space for a year and a half without ever going
outside? What would you do inside all day? How does your character that you
played treat other members of the family? Would you cherish the moment when
the beam of light comes through the window every day? Why or why not?

2. How would you feel if you were Parvana? Would you mind fetching heavy
buckets of water and carrying them upstairs? Would you feel sorry for the rest
of your family who did not go outside? Would you feel like you have too much
work to do as an eleven year old?