Lesson: My Roots

A. Picture Discussion (Picture not provided)

Look at the picture and the caption below it.

1. How do you feel looking at the photo?
2. Why do you think people take such risks to go home and celebrate Eid?

(Note: Please refer to the picture and caption provided with your original lesson materials.)

B. Reading

The Pull of Our Roots

Eid is the main religious festival for Muslims in Bangladesh. Eid is happiness. Everyone wants to share this happiness with loved ones. So, most people living away from home for various reasons have a strong desire to return home during the Eid vacation. As a result, there is a mad rush to board buses, trains, or launches to go home. This often causes transport accidents, which claim many lives. However, these tragedies cannot stop people from going home to meet their families, relatives, or friends.

What makes people rush toward their homes despite such serious hazards? It is nothing but people’s desire to return to their roots. Do human beings have roots like trees? The answer is yes, but unlike the roots of trees, human roots are invisible; they lie in our minds. These roots are the bonds between us and our family members, in-laws, friends, neighbors, and even the land where we were born and raised. In that sense, our families, our birthplace, our relatives, our culture, traditions, and surroundings are our roots.

Wherever we live, we feel the power of our roots. Our roots develop our identity, making us who we are. When we lose that connection, we become rootless. Human beings who have no roots are non-entities. They have no identity. They don’t know where they are from or where they are going. This often makes them feel empty and lost.

(Picture: People crowding onto a ferry to travel home for Eid)

C. Question Formation

Read the text in the speech bubbles. Construct questions based on the bubbles, and then compare your questions with a partner’s.

(Note: Please refer to the speech bubbles in your original lesson materials.)

D. Grid Completion

Complete the grid with appropriate information from the text in Section B:

| What Makes Our Roots | The Problems of a Rootless Person | |---------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------| | 1. | 1. | | 2. | 2. | | 3. | 3. | | 4. | 4. | | 5. | 5. |

E. Discussion

Work in pairs. Discuss the following questions:

1. Do you have any roots other than the place where you are living now? If so, where is that place, and who lives there? If not, why not?
2. How do you categorize your roots?
   • I have my roots in…
     • a remote rural village
     • a village
     • a semi-urban area (upazila)
     • a small town
     • a mid-size city
     • a suburb
     • a city
3. Do you feel any draw toward your roots? Any pull on your heart?
4. How do you nourish your roots?
5. What, in your opinion, are the reasons why people become rootless?

F. Classroom Survey

Conduct a classroom survey and create a chart that shows the types of roots your classmates have.