PERSEPOLIS
Jacky Heckendorn
Patrick Gaulier
Julie McCracken
Context
· 11th grade, Rural or Urban
Texts
· Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
· Students will generate and bring together their own texts to form their cultural/contextual understanding of Persepolis.
· Internet resources, encyclopedias, journals
Themes/Concepts
· Reconciling feminism and religion
· Coming of age
· Making mistakes
· Identity
· Individuality
· Friendship
· Relationships
· Family structure
· Revolution
· Religion
· Academia
Essential Questions
· Reconciling Western and Iranian identities?
o How is identity represented? Western identity? Iranian identity
· How will America be represented? How is it represented?
· What does it mean to be a woman in Iran?
· Questions about Religion? Patriotism? Extremism? Regime?
· What role does family play in people's lives in Iran?
· What life lessons are learned? How do choices you make shape identity and reveal consequences of actions?
· What is integrity? morality?
· What does it mean to be true to yourself?
· What is the difference between identity and individuality?
Rational
Given that Iranian literature is an unknown and greatly unexplored facet in the literary cannon approaching a text about Iran is very important for students and teachers. This lesson aims to illuminate stereotypes and challenge those stereotypes students may have regarding the identity, culture, and religion of Iranians. As a multi-cultural text, Persepolis offers the perspective of the coming of age of a young woman in Iran, a voice rarely heard. It challenges assumptions made about the education, freedom, expression, and life of Iranians. Though an Iranian voice may seem to be alien to many students in our given context, the character develop and identity struggle of Marjane is greatly familiar to many students' experiences in high school.
The graphic novel format is much more accessible for many students because of the inherit visual nature of the text. Many LD students will be able to approach the text with little or no apprehension because it is a different type of reading - it is not all words and paragraphs that run into each other and intimidate readers who find reading daunting. This allows students to visually follow along and read the thought progression of characters. They will be able to read in details into the story based on their interpretation. This is not just beneficial for LD students, but all students. For those that are advanced readers, they will be challenged by the complexity of the novel and characterization, and on the other end of the spectrum will be able to simply follow the plot line.
This text also lends itself well to prepare students for the ways we will engage students in different modes and genres of texts in the Mulit-Genre Research Unit that will follow. In other words, this text will scaffold the learning that is to come regarding multi-genre reading.
Inventory
· IEP's
· Research conducted by students to inform their reading
· KWLish lesson
· Knowledge from classroom discussion
· Analysis of visual texts in previous units
· Small group work
· In-class writings
· Reflection journals
Goals
· Introduce different genres of texts
· Introduce coming of age
· Have students use their prior knowledge to address their understanding of identity
· We want students to be able to look beyond genre to see literary merit of a text
· We want students to authentically connect to another culture
· We want students to be able to construct knowledge using technology and begin to understand how to do research
· Students need a tangible product that shows their own recursive thoughts
· Scaffold for next unit
Michigan Standards
1.1.1 - 1.1.3, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.2.4, 1.3.7, 1.4.4, 1.4.6, 1.5.1, 1.5.4, 2.2.1 - 2.2.3, 2.3.5, 3.1, 3.3
Final Assessment
Our goal is to assess how they can apply themes in Persepolis to their own lives. It is important that students walk away with a product that shows their understanding of how their identity has been shaped throughout the entire unit. This lends itself to allowing students to reflect on how they have changed throughout the process of reading Persepolis.
· K-W-L(ish) type of assessment
· Journal/Portfolio
· Final Portfolio
o Journals: character journals, self-reflective journals
o Activites: e.g. character development, research, group work
o Close readings/analysis
o Watching how themes develop through pictures
o multi-modal representations of the students' understanding
Sources/Citation
McCann, Thomas M, et al. Reflective Teaching, Reflective Learning: How to develop Critically Engaged Readers, Writers, and Speakers. NH: Heinemann. 2005. 83-117.
Milner, Joseph O., and Lucy F. Milner. Bridging English. 3rd edition. Prentice Hall. 2002.
Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English By Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units. 2008. NH: Heinemann.
Zemelman, Steven, and Harvey Daniels. A Community of Writers. Heinnemann. 1988.
DAILY LESSON PLANS
Day 1 - Introduction to Visual Image Analysis
1. Goals: Students will be able to interpret images in order to obtain an intended meaning.
2. Rationale: Persepolis is a graphic novel, thus, to scaffold for understanding students need to understand how to interpret images.
3. Assessments: A description about what they think the two images taken from the text mean.
4. Objectives (SWBAT):
§ Discuss different examples of advertisements that include the "Techniques of Persuasion" (as described on the handout)
§ Utilize their peers as resources of different interpretations of advertisements.
§ Collaborate to provide an advertisement analysis
§ Present the group's advertisement analysis to the class in order to provide examples of analysis
§ Interpret a double-paneled image from the upcoming text Persepolis.
5. Tasks: (A how-to carry out the lesson of that day…1/2 page-ish. Include any scripting here that will help you prepare for important transitions, directions, conceptual moments, etc.)
§ Begin with class warm-up. Prompt: What types of images do you see in the media? How do these types of images influence you? How does the media use symbols and images to portray meaning?
§ Present "Techniques of Persuasion" - have students give examples of each technique that they remember seeing.
§ Explain activity: Tell students they will be working in groups of 3 to analyze an advertisement that they are given. They need to interpret by answering the questions on the advertisement analysis handout.
§ Hand out advertisements and break students into groups of 3 while doing so.
§ Allow students time to analyze advertisement.
§ Discuss their analyzes as a large group
§ Hand out Persepolis images and allow students to have 5 minutes to look at the image
§ Have students write down two ideas that they notice about the image
§ Students will then use the same group as they were analyzing the articles within, to share ideas
§ Collaborate as a large group for a discussion about the image and any meaning that can be interpreted.
6. Materials:
§ Techniques of Persuasion handout
§ Magazine advertisements
§ Advertisement analysis worksheet
§ Copy of Persepolis images
7. To-Do List: (Task Analysis for self!)
§ Make copies of all of the handouts
§ Write the prompt on board prior to class starting
8. References:
§ Sarah Rholf's lesson on Advertisement Analysis.
Day 2 - Research on Iran & Student Presentations
1. Goals: To have students gain a greater understanding of Iran. This will allow students to contextualize Persepolis prior to beginning to read the book.
2. Rationale: The context of the book is necessary to understand the meaning of the book and the author's perspective. Therefore, with this type of student based research, they will acquire the knowledge necessary to formulate meaning once the book is read.
3. Assessments: Group presentations and wikispace posts with information/references.
4. Objectives (use SWBATS):
§ Understand the importance of contextualizing the text.
§ Synthesize various sources of research
§ Present the information found to other groups.
§ Gain a new understanding and perspective of Iran.
5. Tasks: (A how-to carry out the lesson of that day…1/2 page-ish. Include any scripting here that will help you prepare for important transitions, directions, conceptual moments, etc.)
§ Begin with class warm-up. Prompt: What do you know about Iran? What comes to mind when you think about Iran? What do you imagine Iranian culture to be like?
§ Discuss warm up. Write out what students discuss.
§ Explain informal research activity. Tell them that in groups they will go to the Media Center and find links to the topic that is assigned to their group. Students will then post their research links to the wiki and present to each other what they found.
§ Break students into groups. Assign topic.
§ Bring groups to Media Center.
§ Allow them to do research for 20 minutes or so on their topic.
§ Give them a 5 minute warning and tell them to post their findings on the class wiki for Persepolis.
§ Come back to class. Have each group present their findings about Iran. Help them to see how their research on different topics will inform their reading. Show them how their research sets the context for the book.
6. Materials:
§ Computer lab
§ Wikispace for class, with tab for this specific unit
7. To-Do List:
§ Make sure the wikispace is ready to be posted on
§ Reserve space in the Media Center
8. References: A History of the Arab Peoples by Albert Hourani
Day 3 - Anticipation Guide, Intro to Assessment, and Intro to Text
1. Goals: Students will begin to read the text. They will finish through page 39 for the next class.
2. Rationale: We want students to have a good assessment about what to anticipate before going into the reading, including having students prepare to relate their culture to the culture of the text. The anticipation guide will be part of their portfolio so they can continue to revisit their thoughts and see what they thought at the beginning and what they thought at the end.
3. Assessments: Discussion of the anticipation guide.
4. Objectives (use SWBATS):
§ Answer questions on the anticipation guide.
§ Talk about culture from multiple perspectives (religion, politics, gender, family) and norms
§ Follow along as the teachers reads and will be able to know how to read a graphic novel
5. Tasks: (A how-to carry out the lesson of that day…1/2 page-ish. Include any scripting here that will help you prepare for important transitions, directions, conceptual moments, etc.)
§ Begin class with warm-up. Prompt: Anticipation Guide
§ Pass out anticipation guide
§ Have students, individually, make predictions about characters and themes based on the work they did on Iran the previous day
§ Students will then discuss these predictions as a class
§ Students will put individual anticipation guides in their journals
§ Assign reading pages 1-39 (begin reading in class)
§ Begin reading, assigning students different characters in the story
§ Allow students to pause the reading to discuss a certain theme or a striking image
6. Materials: Books, Anticipation guide
7. To-Do List (Task Analysis for self!):
§ Create anticipation guide and make copies
8. References:
§ Our own brilliance
§ McCann
§ Smagorinsky
Day 4 - Religion and Family
1. Goals: Read and discuss in class nuances and pictures in the text.
2. Themes:
§ Religion
§ Family
§ Identity
3. Rationale: Students will connect their interpretation of the religion and family thematic elements of the text in order to start building a character analysis of Marjane.
4. Assessments: Discussion and journal
5. Objectives (use SWBATS):
§ Analyze the text to interpret themes about religion that are presented through images and thoughts of the characters.
§ Discuss how religion may affect the main character in the future (foreshadowing...).
§ Refer back to passages and images in the book to support their interpretations.
6. Tasks:(A how-to carry out the lesson of that day…1/2 page-ish. Include any scripting here that will help you prepare for important transitions, directions, conceptual moments, etc.)
§ Begin class with class warm-up. Prompt: How could religion affect life goals and aspirations? How does family affect your life goals and aspirations?
§ Start discussion by having students speak about the prompt for a moment, either from their own answers or in general
§ Move conversation towards the content of the book
§ How does what Marjane go through relate to the prompt this morning?
§ For each claim a student makes, they will reference where in the text it appears
§ Students will hold each other accountable for full academic disclosure
§ Homework: Assign pages 40-71
7. Materials: Book, engaged students
8. To-Do List (Task Analysis for self!):
§ Prepare prompt
§ Identify passages and images from the homework reading to point out.
9. References:
§ McCann
§ Wiggins & McTigue
Day 5 Change and Politics
1. Goals: Students will have their first experience with effectively reading this type of text on their own. Students will gain an understanding how meaning is constructed in those images.
2. Themes/Concepts:
§ Family
§ Revolution/Counter-revolution
3. Rationale: Students need to get familiar with reading the text on their own. They also need scaffolding to pull meaning from the specific visual imagery.
4. Assessments: Discussion and effectiveness of the activity with images of death in Persepolis.
5. Objectives (use SWBATS):
§ Continue to think about how the author consistently portrays certain images (dead bodies, God)
§ Ask questions about how imagery informs meaning
§ Understand how images vs. reality create different meanings or how they can have the same meaning.
§ Create meaning from prior research of the book
6. Tasks (A how-to carry out the lesson of that day…1/2 page-ish. Include any scripting here that will help you prepare for important transitions, directions, conceptual moments, etc.):
§ Begin class with prompt: How did the reading go for you the night before? Did anything strike you? Was anything confusing? What do you think about Marjane's character? How could religion affect life goals and aspirations? How does family affect your life goals and aspirations?