3. After Reading Activites

After-Reading Activities

Welcome to the Reader Support Kit for Does My Head Look Big in This? While reading this book you will most likely come across many terms and cultural customs that are unfamiliar to you. To help facilitate your understanding and create a better understanding, I have designed the following pre-reading activities. From the list of five activities, please complete at least one of them prior to reading the book. Remember, for this book you need a total of five activities with at least one from the three different sections: pre, during, and post.

Post-Reading Activity 1 - Conversing with Amal

Now that you have finished reading the book, take some time to reflect on what Amal’s character is like based upon your knowledge of her. For this post-reading activity, write a letter to Amal and a response from Amal to your letter. The letter can take any format (e-mail, lengthy text message conversation, Facebook messages, etc) but must have sufficient depth: each half of this conversation should be at least 600 words.

Post-Reading Activity 2 - It Doesn't Always End Well

Once Leila returned from running away the novel drew to a close as events drew to a close. Imagine that Leila does not return, instead envision what happens to Leila. Where does she go? Does she survive? Does she prosper? Does she leave Australia, if so how? There are many ways you could depict what happens because Leila doesn’t return. You can take the vantage point of any one in the novel to tell this story. Responses can be written, visual; any format that offers sufficient depth and explanation is acceptable.

Post-Reading Activity 3 - What's The Community Thinking?

Now that you’ve finished the book and read a perspective of what it like to wear the headscarf it’s time to find out what other perspectives of the headscarf our in your community. This activity has you interview a series of people about their views on the headscarf. You may interview anyone you know, and need to interview at least 2 people. Once you have completed the interviews/conversations reflect/report on your friends’ and families’ think about women who wear the headscarf. You may present the information in any way you see fit. Some examples might be to record the interview conversations, and then reflect on them to make a podcast, or you can utilize video to create a small documentary. If you prefer to respond in a traditional written method that is acceptable as well. The key here is capturing authentic responses from the people you interview and reflecting honestly on those interviews.