COMMON CORE ACTIVITY: A Close Reading of Kublai Khan ...

Common Core Unit:A Close Reading of, Kublai Khan: Balancing Mongol and ChineseIdeas.UNIT SUMMARYThis unit has been developed to guide students and instructors in a close reading of the nonfictionreading on Kublai Khan: Balancing Mongol and Chinese Ideas. The activities and actionsdescribed below follow a carefully developed set of steps that assist students in increasing theirfamiliarity and understanding of Kublai Khan through a series of text dependent tasks andquestions that ultimately develop college and career ready skills identified in the Common CoreState Standards.Reading Tasks: Students will silently read the passage, first independently, and thenfollow along with the text as the teacher and/or students read aloud. The teacher will then leadstudents through a set of concise, text-dependent questions that compel students to rereadspecific passages and discover the structure and meaning of Kublai Khan: Balancing Mongoland Chinese Ideas.Vocabulary Tasks: Most of the meanings of words in this selection can be discoveredfrom careful reading of the context in which they appear. This practice is both called for by thestandards and is vital. Teachers must be prepared to reinforce it constantly by modeling andholding students accountable for looking in the context for meaning as well.Discussion Tasks: Students will discuss the passage in depth with their teacher and theirclassmates, performing activities that result in a close reading of Kublai Khan: BalancingMongol and Chinese Ideas. The goal is to foster student confidence when encountering complextext and to reinforce the skills they have acquired regarding how to build and extend theirunderstanding of the text and their expression of that understanding.Writing Tasks: Students will paraphrase different sentences and paragraphs of KublaiKhan: Balancing Mongol and Chinese Ideas and then write an analytical essay on theirunderstanding of Kublai Khan. Students will be afforded the opportunity to rewrite theirexplanation or revise their in-class paraphrases after participating in classroom discussion,allowing them to refashion both their understanding of the text and their expression of thatunderstanding.Text Selection: During the 13 th Century Kublai Khan was an important figure inMongol and Chinese history. He forged an empire that blended cultures by creating the YuanDynasty. This was the first foreign controlled dynasty in Chinese history. This biographydescribes the influences on his early life that affected his philosophies of upholding Mongoltraditions while embracing Chinese culture.