Specific Strategies for Teaching Maus and Persepolis Together

[Allison Branch]

Dear Teachers,
If you have taught Maus and Persepolis to high school students and had a particular activity, assignment, web 2.0 tool, link, or any creative input that helped students study and compare the oppression in these novels, would you please consider sharing it here?

Also, I am looking for specific strategies and activities that involve introducing the transition from Western culture (Maus) to Eastern culture (Persepolis) so that students aren't overwhelmed. Any links for video, slideshows, or other pop culture enhancements that help students get a grasp on Iran's history and the Islamic revolution would be loved and appreciated oh so much!

Sincerely,
Allison Branch

[Ryan Goble]

Allison,

This is a great question. I've tried to set up a sophomore curriculum at our school where both these novels are taught BUT two years in a row they have run out of time and ended up doing one or the other.

That being said, I don't have a lot of prefab materials on this one BUT I the rationale for teaching these two texts together had a lot to do with their incredible thematic similarities. So I guess any work you'd do around the two of them could stem from these themes:

Culture Clashes
The power and problems of state ideologies
Alienation / Displacement
Group Identity
Symbols of Resistance

A nice text to tie these two together is Dr. Seuss' The Sneeches as it explores all the same themes in a compressed setting. Also do see the resources for these comics at the wiki as they will help you out as well.

Attached is a Maus Project sheet my wife and I used - you can remix it to reflect the similar themes between the two texts - just be sure to give us an "inspired by" credit and to post what you ended up using doing so others can rock with it!

Hope this gets your brain storming!

RRG:)

[Cassie Conrad]

To combat the issue of time shortages, maybe Maus and Persepolis could be taught almost like a jigsaw. One half of the class reads Maus while the other half reads Persepolis. Have an outline of discussion questions that work for both (with some degree of flexibility to account for specific events/concepts in each GN), and have the class compare and contrast their readings. It could be tricky though. I haven't read Maus myself so I don't know how well this work work out...

Cassie