Book Talk : Acceleration

Craft Lesson - Perspective/Point of View in Persepolis

Materials:
· History Textbook or Text on the Islamic Revolution
· Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Purpose: To help students understand the impact of using different perspectives. Help students analyze perspectives and bias when reading historical and other texts.

Lesson:
Completely discussion based lesson. Read both texts.

Teacher: Class, can you help me understand what point of view or perspective is?
Prompts – a way of seeing things, reflection on events, an opinion
Definition:
Point of View
1. a specified or stated manner of consideration or appraisal; standpoint

2. an opinion, attitude, or judgment

3. the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters.

Perspective
1. the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship

**Definitions retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com

Now let’s take a look at the texts:
HISTORICAL TEXT or TEXTBOOK
Leading Discussion Questions:
What perspective is this text written from?
o Prompts: historical perspective, very factual (“Just the facts ma’am. Just the facts.”), no emotion or feeling at all, no detailed descriptions, limited visual representation
How does that perspective help you understand the time period and events?
o Prompts: helps us understand the technical details of the events and time period, provides an overview to work from
Why is this type of text important?
o It does provide us with the factual information from which to work and gives a broad overview of the things that occurred.
Is there any bias in this type of text?
o There can be – think of Persepolis pages 44 & 73 where they are tearing pages out of the history book and closing universities so that students are not “led astray”.
o How does bias get into this type of text? You would think the facts are generally pretty unbiased…
§ Government influence, writer bias, editorial bias
§ Think of other events where this might have occurred - Holocaust, Indian relocation, discovery of the Americas, establishment of the United States of America, etc.

PERSEPOLIS
Leading Discussion Questions
What perspective is this book told from?
o Prompts: 1st person, child/teenager, female, clinical; Is it also historical, factual??
How does this perspective add to your understanding of the events?
o Prompts: provides emotion, feelings, first-hand account of the events
Why is this type of text important?
What does it provide that the other does not? What does the other provide that this perspective does not?
o Prompts: a link to the emotional humanity of the events, a deeper understanding than simple facts can provide, an in-depth look
What bias is there in this type of text?
o Quite a lot, because you are only seeing one side of the story.
o A child’s point of view could be skewed due to parental protection, misunderstanding of events, misinterpretation of words, events, expressions, etc.
o Removed because this is being written by a woman who is looking back at her childhood growing up in this era instead of being written at that exact time, like Diary of Anne Frank. Therefore, she has had time to interpret the events in a mature way

Wrap-Up: What is the importance of reading multiple perspectives on a topic? How does looking at things from several perspectives help us make more informed decisions and take thoughtful stances?

TEKS: Social Studies: High School: World History: Standard 25; English III: Standard 7, 8, & 11

Book Review: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

This book provides an interesting look at a relatively dark and largely misunderstood period of time. Told from an interesting point-of-view – that of a child – and in a unique way – as a graphic novel, this book brings new insight to this time in history.

As the story begins, the young girls are being forced to wear head coverings, yet the young ones do not understand why. As the story progresses, the reader begins to understand the vast difference between what is portrayed in popular media and what actually occurs. The reader also begins to understand that the thoughts and beliefs of the people are not always reflected in their government. The book tells the story of the rebellion of the Iranian people against their government. What makes it more interesting is that the book is told from the perspective of the child of revolutionaries. We see her parents participate in protests, her parents’ friends arrested and tortured, the vast class differences that exist in that culture and their real implications on the people who live in that society, and finally, we watch as her parents send her away to receive a better education and “better life” in France.

The other aspect of this book that makes it so intriguing is that it is a graphic novel. The drawings are all black and white two dimensional drawings with short dialogue, much like you would find in a comic book only without the color. These drawings actually help the author treat the violence very clinically. The drawings evoke a lot of emotion and convey a lot of information and feelings without any of the gore or graphic images.

This book would be well suited for a history classroom, especially side-by-side with a true historical text or textbook. Using this book this way helps provide students with multiple perspectives on a series of historical events. It could also be used as a primary source, because the woman writing this book is doing so from her first-hand account of the events.

A word of caution…this book should be used with high school students or older. Younger students may not be mature enough to fully understand the content.

This review can also be viewed on Amazon.com

Red Hot Salsa

What a beautiful collection of poems!!  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  The poems are beautifully written and poignant.

I especially enjoyed the variety of poetry.  There were some poems that made me laugh (Taco Bell is NOT Mexican food) and others that deeply touched my heart (Invisible Boundaries).  Each poem held a depth of meaning beyond the words of poetry and touched an inner part of me.  Though the collection is geared toward young Latinos, the themes are universal - a desperate need for love, acceptance, freedom, freedom to be yourself, searching for your own unique identity, the fear of being invisible and insignificant.  These themes can be understood and related to regardless of the reader's background or ethnicity.  

I also really enjoyed reading the Spanish translations.  This gives the book an extra dimension, especially in light of the proposed audience.  The Spanish language is such a beautiful and romantic language and it was a wonderful experience to read the two side-by-side.

I can see this book being used in multiple ways in the classroom - everything from being used as part of learning poetry to discussions on culture and use of language.  Overall, this was a wonderful book and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Poet Slave of Cuba

This book was very interesting to me. I was not sure what to expect between the genre and the subject matter. I have never experienced a novel told through poetry the way this one is. The poetry is absolutely beautiful in this novel. Margarita Engle does such a wonderful job of weaving this haunting biography together through the use of multiple voices/perspectives to create a tapestry. The characters are developed so well through the poetic vignettes that we truly feel as though these characters are sitting in front of us telling their story.

I found myself rushing through the portions where Juan Manzano tells about the punishment and torture he received, thanking Don Nicholas for his kindness, hating La Marquesa De Prado Ameno for her cruelty, and feeling the anguish of a mother watching her child suffer with Maria Del Pilar. Each voice tells a different story; portrays a unique yet equally important aspect of the slavery. This novel provides the reader with perspectives not often explored in a slavery discussion. It also provides a different background setting instead of the Deep South/Cotton backdrop, and yet it still gives us insight into the history of this country as well as Cuba.

I think this would be a good book to use with the entire class in some form or fashion. It is very emotional and graphic in places, that I think it would be difficult to leave students alone with it, particularly middle school students.

Up Before Daybreak

This book was very interesting to me. Having grown up in cotton country, I realized just how little I know about this part of the world and our history. I also did not realize what an integral part cotton played in the Industrial Revolution and what an instrument of change it really was. I have always known that cotton played an integral role in our nation's history and obviously still affects our lives in significant ways even now, since many fabrics are based from cotton. I have a good friend who farms cotton and struggles to make ends meet now; I cannot even imagine what it would have been like for him to have been farming at that point in history.

What I really like about this book is that it puts historical facts side-by-side with primary sources; first-hand accounts of the time, whether it was the testimony of a former slave or a mill worker. These sources help bring this time period alive. It helps us understand the times on a more personal level. We can relate and to some degree try to put ourselves in their shoes. I also thought the photographs in this book were fantastic and very well placed. The photos helped me understand more about the text. Visual images can be so powerful in improving our comprehension and helped give me a deeper understanding and I think they did exactly that in this book.

I would most definitely use this book in a history classroom, especially in the classes that talk about "King Cotton" and slavery. I would also use this book when discussing the Industrial Revolution and the changes in the rights of women and children.

Book Review: Daisy Kutter and The Last Train

Daisy Kutter is an action packed story that gives the reader a little bit of the Old West combined with a flare for the futuristic/sci-fi. This graphic novel does a wonderful job combining dialogue and art to create a very well-rounded story.

Daisy Kutter is the story of a strong female personality "saving the day" against robots in the Old West. Daisy, a former gunfighter, gives up that life for the slower scene - owning a general store. One day, a mysterious card shark comes to town and beats her in a poker shoot out. After he takes her for everything she has, he offers her an enticing deal. He needs her to rob a train. The catch - it's his train!! She takes the deal and embarks on a great action-packed adventure with classic gunfights and plenty of drama!

The drawings in this book really make the story. The dialogue is intriguing, but the reader must "read" the pictures in order to grasp the full story. The drawings are so compelling and tell so much of the story that the dialogue is lost without them.

Overall, a compelling story with an interesting backdrop (Old West and Sci-Fi) complemented by wonderful pictures.

Uploaded to Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/review/product/0975419323/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1)

Book Talk: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Craft Lesson 2: Inferencing - Learning to Read More than Words

Materials:

Daisy Kutter by Kazu Kibuishi

Photos - Historical, Fun, Nature, People

Purpose: Many authors, particularly in new YA literature, often use more than just words to tell stories. In the world outside of the classroom, students are bombarded with advertisements and media that often has very little words to go with it. Pictures, drawings, photos, advertisements are powerful mediums to communicate ideas, values, thoughts, etc. It is imperative that students begin to learn to "read" more than the words on the page; learn inferencing; learn to dig deeper. These also become powerful modes of communication for students themselves as they begin to learn to effectively communicate their own ideas and beliefs.

How to Teach It: In the graphic novel, Daisy Kutter and the Last Train by Kazu Kibuishi uses a combination of words and drawings to communicate the story. The words tell only half the story; the pictures tell the rest. The pictures often help us make sense of the story and piece together the dialogue to make better sense of the story. This process is that of making an inference. To infer is "to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence" (www.dictionary.reference.com). To help us understand the importance of this process and the importance of visual mediums in this process, let's take a look at these photographs.

Take one of the photos and show it to the class. Ask them to tell you about the photo. Probe them with questions as to what emotions/memories/thoughts it evokes. Ask them to help you piece together the "story" behind the photo.

"Now it's your turn" (Pass out the photos now).

"What I would like for you all to do now is take a few minutes to study your photograph. After you have studied it for a few minutes, I want you to write about it - no specified length or requirements, just your thoughts. What story does this photo tell? What emotions does it arouse in you? What part of your life or memories does it bring to mind?"

(Give them appropriate time to study and write)

Come back together as a class and ask the students to discuss their photos and discuss the ideas they came up with.

Now do the same with Daisy Kutter. Look at page... What do these pictures tell you about the story? How do these photos help you better understand Daisy's emotions? How do they help you piece the dialogue together?

Bibliography: Kibuishi, Kazu. Daisy Kutter: The Last Train. Irving, TX: Viper Comics, 2006.

TEKS:

• English II Standard 19: The student understands and interprets visual representations
• English II Standard 20: The student analyzes and critiques the significance of visual representations