Persepolis+Themes

War (Sarah Babler)
Immigration & Emigration (Megan Deutschman) Refugees (Kathy Kepulis) Revolutionaries (Danielle Cesare) Repression (AH) Discrimination (AH) Civic Engagement (Kaite Sweval) Religion (Nick Schreiber) Class conflict (Susan Steffen) Power (Susan Steffen) Nationalism (Kaite Sweval) Freedom (Kaite Sweval) Political Asylum (Kaite Sweval) Religion as a tool of war (MarkD) Role of women in different cultures(MarkD) Rebellion (SS) Coming of age in a divided nation (Kathryn Love) Psychology of refugees (Kathryn Love) Freedom of Speech (SN) Innocence Lost (MQ) Search for Identity (SM) Expression (TRH) Memoirs (Emily Hamer) Sexism (Emily Hamer) Feminism (Susan Steffen) Women's Rights (Georgia) Racism (Georgia)

**__Suggested paired texts (Contemporary or Classic)__**
__The Diary of Anne Frank__ (Sarah Babler) __What is the What__ by Dave Eggers __Montmorency's Revenge__ By: Eleanor Updale (Danielle Cesare) MAUS I & II (AH) __First They Killed My Father__ by Loung Ung (Kaite Sweval) __A Complicated Kindness__ by Miriam Toews (Nick Schreiber) __Dawn__- Elie Wiesel (Susan Steffen) __Night__- Elie Wiesel (Susan Steffen) __The Painted Bird__- Jerzy Kosinski (Susan Steffen) __Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey__ by GB Tran (Kathryn Love) __Revolutionary Brothers__ By John Ellis (Susan Nelsen) __Persepolis (Part II)__ by Marjane Satrapi Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (MQ) __Chicken with Plums__ by Marjane Satrapi (SM) __Palestine__ by Joe Sacco (TRH) __Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq__ by Thura Al-Windawi (Emily Hamer) __Myne Owne Ground__ by T.H. Breen (Georgia Wagner)

**__Projects or Activities__**
The students could do a Diary Comparison. Allow students a certain time period to write about their life, so it could be a week, a month or the length that you are reading the book and then at the end of it they take their journals and compare what they wrote to the words in Anne Frank. (Sarah Babler)

IN RESPONSE TO ABOVE: I just did a comparison of Persepolis/Anne Frank in my 7th grade Western Civ class. (We only had the video version of Persepolis, and watched only the first half...the rest gets kind of questionable for 7th grade in Yangon.) The purpose was to highlight recurring theme of repression in history--it's certainly still happening here! Although we're not allowed to talk about that...

We watched a documentary on Anne Frank (Anne Frank Remembered?) and then clips from Persepolis. Half the class wrote letters as Marjane to Anne Frank. Half the class wrote letters as Anne Frank to Marjane. They each received a letter from the other "girl" and had to respond to the problems, questions, etc raised in the other letter. The kids really liked it. I wish we could talk about how it's related to what's happening in Burma...but that's part of the repression here. We can't. (Andrea Holck)

Students can work with a partner of group to try their hands at creating a graphic story or paragraph. This would involve writing a short paragraph or story and adding images/drawings that elaborate, enhance, or describe the words. The layout would be graphic novel style. Comic strips from the Sunday Funnies could also serve as a layout example. (Kathy Kepulis)

The students could make their own comic strip that would be the seed for a graphic novel. They would choose one of the above themes as a starting point. (Megan Deutschman)

The students could make a newspaper about what went on during the Iran revolutionary war. Making sure to write about each section of a typical newspaper: Cover page story, Business (media, advertising, world business, economy of the country...), Science (things happening in teh medical world today, outerspace, things happening in our environment), Health (new medicine, fitness and nutrition, new health care policies, and mental health and behavior), Sports ( baseball, basketball, football game...), Weather. (Danielle Cesare)

Student groups could choose a theme from the book, such as religion, and create a short digital video where they act out a scene from the book that strongly shows/presents that theme. In tandem, they could individually write a one to two page paper discusses how the theme is developed in the book, its importance to the book, and how it is important or not important in their own life (Nick Schreiber)

Create roles for each student such as the demonstrators, the police, the politcal leaders and have them research and debate based on the group they were assigned. (SN)

Students would write a creative writing piece/prediction of what they think may lie ahead for Marijane in Austria on her own. Students could share their stories with classmates by making a digital story podcast. After writing, if the teacher was comfortable with the full version of Persepolis, the students could read the second part (although, I certainly wouldn't be comfortable with it!) (Kathryn Love)

Students could create a time line, a digital collage, or imovie to educate others about the Iranian Revolutionary. (Kaite Sweval)

Students might find a connection to Marji in the text and do a two part comic illustration that parallels Marji's problem or their connection to her with drawings of how their life relates to Marji's. (Kaite Sweval)

Students could perform a small play or skit in class, involving each of the main characters in Persepolis. This might help them have a better understanding of how it might feel to live in a country like that. (MQ)

Students create a list of all the things they do on a particular day, then examine how that list would change if they were living in the environment presented in __Persepolis__. Have small group discussions on these changes, and student's reactions. (TRH)

Students could explore the genre of memoirs and write their own, a fake memoir about a fictitious character or about chosen or assigned historical figures. (Emily Hamer)

Students could explore this history of Iran at this time. They could do a role play/simulation/reader's theater on one of themes listed above, supporting it with supplemental literature. It could be beneficial for them to do some compare and contrast between their lives and the life of Marji and other women and men during the Iranian Revolutionary War. (Georgia)