Welcome to Division 4 Humanities!
Our class, “East to West”, focused on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the study of Islam in the third trimester.
Students first completed a series of three short stories based on the style of the short story collection (set in post-Partition Pakistan) In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin. Students developed a theme, character, setting, or some other combination of elements to use as threads between each story, just as Mueenuddin does in his collection.
Students also read the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. While reading the novel, students also studied Afghan history, both ancient and modern. Within this unit, students wrote ghazal poems (a type of poetry that dates back to ancient Persia), conducted a debate role play on the current situation in Afghanistan, and created blackout poems and found poems to showcase their understanding of the themes in A Thousand Splendid Suns. In addition, students read a number of suras from the Qur’an and we discussed topics ranging from women in the Qur’an to violence (or lack thereof).
Lastly, students created intricate and detailed geometric designs in their study of Islamic art and architecture.
Please enjoy interacting with our work!
