Introduction
"If people are given the chance to experience life in more than one country, they will hate a little less. It's not a miracle potion, but little by little you can solve problems in the 'basement' of a country, not on the surface. That is why I wanted people in other countries to read Persepolis, to see that I grew up just as other children do."— Marjane Satrapi 1
For this unit, students will be examining the ways their eyes see other cultures, in particular, Middle Eastern culture. The graphic-novel-memoir Persepolis will be the central text. This unit will encourage students to question their own perceptions and will also allow them to recognize the ways in which different countries and cultures are seen from different points of view. Many of my students are limited in their exposure to other cultures. Many of them rarely leave the city of Chicago. Most of their knowledge of other countries and cultures comes from the Internet, books, or television; the messages they receive through these mediums, however, are often not critically analyzed in the classroom. In order to analyze cultures outside the United States, students must first reflect on their own values, reflect on how those values were formed, and then must question them. The goal for this unit is for students to discover a wider global lens by learning about the Middle East and analyzing their own perceptions.
Now, more than ever, we are a visual society. Students must learn to make meaning and interpret information from images the same way that they learn to make meaning of words on a page. In her book, The Graphic Novel Classroom, Maureen Bakis defines visual literacy as "the ability to interpret, negotiate, and make meaning from information presented in the form of an image, as well as to produce visual messages." 2 Visual literacy must be explored in the English class curriculum in order to prepare students for our visual world. In addition, to be prepared for the global world, students must have an understanding of cultures from outside the United States. By reading the graphic-novel- memoir Persepolis, other supplementary texts, and by seeing photographs and videos, students will learn about Iranian history and culture. Furthermore, they will take ownership in the development of their visual and verbal literacy through various activities.
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