Persepolis book covers
Activity

Textual Themes via Gallery Walk

This ELA lesson poses challenges for students with visual impairments because of the independent walking around the classroom viewing things hanging on the wall.

The goal of this lesson is to examine the themes Satrapi conveys in Persepolis and how those themes relate to (the students’) human existence. The objective is to have students identify textual themes and defend the existence of those themes based on textual evidence and activation of schema. The motivation is to create a mindmap of all the big ideas that exist in the student’s life.

  1. Whole class- Students work in pairs to Think-Pair-Share: Students share the life themes of their partners and teacher charts these in theme web on board. Students discuss: Why themes are important in life and in literature; whether themes are universal; whether themes are meaningful; whether themes are inevitabl
  2. Independent activity- Gallery Walk: Teacher has posted six ideas around the room (quotes, charts, photos, etc). Students are provided with post-it notes on which students are to walk to each thematic idea in room and write a comment which pertains to the theme on the post-it note. Students may chat with each other about the thematic ideas. Student places post-it note on the wall near the theme statement
  3. Whole class regroups. Teacher walks to each theme, selecting strong comments to prompt discussion, with emphasis on answering: What new observations were you able to make about the text and yourself during this exercise? How do these themes relate to Marjane’s experiences?
  4. Each student walks to the thematic idea that most resonates with him/her on a personal and textual level and must be prepared to explain his/her reasoning
  1. Encourage classroom teacher to use Smartboard; use student’s iPad (if s/he has one) to connect to Smartboard
  2. Gallery Walk- encourage classroom teacher to direct students to work in pairs, assuring that the student who is VI has a sighted partner who will read the posts aloud as well as guide VI student to each ‘idea’ space in the room. If pictures have been used for any of the ‘ideas,’ the sighted partner will describe them. 
  3. VI student verbally indicates to his partner or teacher that theme that most resonated with him/her, and is guided to that place in the room.

This lesson was adapted from a submission by Emily Hyland, formerly of Urban Assembly for Green Careers, NYC Board of Education

ELA Standards:

ELA Foundational Skills:

ELA Tips and Strategies:

By Rona Shaw

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Photo of Kate explaining the tactile telescope model to a high school student.
Guide

Accessible astronomy: Tactile telescope

A smiling child holding a toy eagle
Activity

Bird song book and bird-related activities

EPIQ logo
Event

EPIQ (Experience Programming in Quorum) 2024