Justification

This justification explains the rationale behind the design and structure of this digital literature lesson on Persepolis, a graphic memoir by Marjane Satrapi. The unit is aligned with pedagogical principles explored in the Teaching Literature course, particularly in its integration of visual literacy, critical thinking, student voice, and social justice themes. Grounded in Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, Task-Based Learning (TBL), and Van den Akker’s Spiderweb model, the unit engages students in a multi-modal, student-centered learning experience. It is structured around seven key components:

1. Choice of Text and Canon Justification

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is a unique autobiographical graphic novel that contributes to a diverse and inclusive literary curriculum. As a non-Western, female-authored text, it challenges Eurocentric literary traditions by amplifying the voice of an Iranian girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution. The text powerfully explores themes such as oppression, identity, exile, and resistance, offering students insight into historical events and sociopolitical systems through the intimate lens of a coming-of-age narrative.

By presenting history through images and personal experience, Persepolis encourages students to interrogate dominant narratives and broaden their understanding of world literature. It supports the course’s commitment to representation and cultural identity, as explored in modules on Canon Wars and Global Perspectives.

2. Theme and Learning Goals

The overarching themes of the unit are identity, resistance, and freedom. Through Persepolis, students explore how individuals navigate cultural expectations, political repression, and personal transformation. The novel invites reflection on issues such as censorship, nationalism, and gender politics, encouraging learners to connect historical realities to contemporary global concerns.

The learning goals are mapped onto Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and include:

• Understanding the historical and cultural context of the Iranian Revolution

• Analyzing how Satrapi uses the graphic novel form to convey complex themes

• Reflecting critically on the role of voice, resistance, and identity

• Creating visual and written responses to interpret and reimagine scenes

• Debating ethical dilemmas and expressing informed opinions

3. Bloom’s Taxonomy Alignment

The lesson sequence follows Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, building from foundational knowledge to higher-order thinking:

• Remembering/Understanding: Pre-class videos and historical timelines build essential background knowledge, while early assignments encourage comprehension of key events.

• Applying/Analyzing: Activities like the "Cause & Effect Challenge" and visual panel analysis require students to apply knowledge and examine relationships between visual elements and sociopolitical themes.

• Evaluating: Structured debates, roleplays, and group discussions challenge students to evaluate perspectives and ethical choices within the novel and broader contexts.

• Creating: Students produce original visual narratives and argumentative essays, synthesizing learning into creative expressions of identity, resistance, and voice.

4. Task-Based Learning (TBL) Application

This unit embraces the TBL framework by organizing learning around meaningful tasks that simulate real-world problem-solving. Each week follows the three TBL phases:

• Pre-Task Phase: Students complete multimedia preparation (videos, timelines, author background), ensuring they enter the text with contextual awareness.

• Task Phase: In-class tasks include roleplays, collaborative debates, comic panel creation, and decision-making challenges. These tasks prioritize student autonomy, negotiation of meaning, and perspective-taking.

• Post-Task Phase: Reflective discussions, presentations, and essays encourage synthesis and personal interpretation, consolidating understanding in both verbal and visual formats.

5. Van den Akker’s Spiderweb Elements

The unit design reflects coherence across the ten Spiderweb components:

• Rationale: To foster critical awareness of global conflicts, identity politics, and visual storytelling through literature.

• Aims & Objectives: To develop empathy, analytical skills, cultural literacy, and expressive capacity through engagement with Persepolis.

• Content: Centralized around the novel Persepolis, supported by historical resources, pre-reading materials, and cross-curricular links (e.g., art, drama, ethics).

• Learning Activities: Diverse and inclusive, ranging from Mentimeter polls to roleplays and digital storyboard creation, ensuring multimodal engagement.

• Teacher Role: Facilitator and guide, scaffolding interpretation while encouraging student-led inquiry and collaboration.

• Learner Role: Active participant, analyst, and creator. Students interpret, question, and produce, rather than passively receive knowledge.

• Materials & Resources: Canva, StoryboardThat, Mentimeter, historical videos, and Google Classroom are used to ensure accessibility and creativity.

• Grouping: Peer collaboration is emphasized through small group work, paired discussions, and full-class activities.

• Location: The unit is adaptable to blended learning, with online materials for pre-class work and classroom space for collaborative activities.

• Time: Organized into five weekly modules, each with a structured timeline and clear deadlines to support consistency and flow.

6. 21st Century Skills Integration

The Persepolis unit integrates critical 21st-century skills, including:

• Critical Thinking: Through analysis of symbols, political themes, and ethical debates.

• Creativity: Via comic panel design, visual storytelling, and reimagined narratives.

• Collaboration: Group tasks encourage negotiation, cooperation, and shared interpretation.

• Media Literacy: Students examine how visuals communicate ideology and emotion, supporting digital awareness and interpretive skills.

7. Connection to the Teaching Literature Course + APA References

This lesson embodies the course’s emphasis on inclusive literary practice and the power of literature to cultivate empathy and global awareness. It responds to Guillory’s (1993) critique of canon formation by centering a Middle Eastern female voice. It reflects Rosenblatt’s (1995) transactional theory by inviting students to bring personal meaning to the reading experience, and applies Anderson and Krathwohl’s (2001) taxonomy to scaffold cognitive development.

Task-Based Learning (Ellis, 2003) frames the unit’s structure, while the Spiderweb model (Van den Akker, 2009) ensures cohesion across curriculum elements. Digital tools enhance student interaction, autonomy, and engagement in line with Beers and Probst’s (2017) vision of active, purposeful reading.

Through its creative, dialogic, and critical tasks, this unit provides students with the tools to engage literature not just as a story, but as a lens to view and shape the world.

References

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Longman.

Beers, K., & Probst, R. (2017). Disrupting thinking: Why how we read matters. Scholastic Inc.

Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and teaching. Oxford University Press.

Guillory, J. (1993). Cultural capital: The problem of literary canon formation. University of Chicago Press.

Rosenblatt, L. M. (1995). Literature as exploration (5th ed.). Modern Language Association.

Van den Akker, J. (2009). Curricular development research as a specimen of educational design research. In T. Plomp & N. Nieveen (Eds.), An introduction to educational design research (pp. 37–50). SLO.