FUNNY IN FARSI – ENGLISH 235 – MR. SANDERS
STUDY GUIDE – DAY 1 – OPEN BOOK
DIRECTIONS: With your book open, cite direct quotations (aka citations) from Funny
in Farsi and page numbers that support your answer. Example: “Perhaps the people we
think we know the best are the ones who surprise us the most” (Dumas 144).
STANDARD - Using literary elements, determine how a theme or central idea
emerges and is developed.
1. What is 1 theme in the novel?
2. Provide 1 direct quotation from our text that shows the theme/central idea you
mentioned in #1?
3. Write 1 direct quotation that appears later in the novel that shows your answer for
#2 has emerged, developed, or changed throughout the novel.
4. Explain how your answer for #3 has advanced the plot from your answer of #2.
STANDARD - Analyze how character interactions advance the plot or theme of a
text.
5. Provide 1 direct quotation from our text, with at least 2 characters, that show how
that character interaction advanced the plot or theme?
6. Explain how this quotation accomplishes that advancement of plot.
FUNNY IN FARSI – ENGLISH 235 – MR. SANDERS
STANDARD - Analyze how specific word choices have a cumulative (growing)
impact on the meaning and tone (author’s attitude).
7. Locate a direct quotation where the word choice in the story impacts the meaning
and tone.
8. How does this quotation accomplish that?
STANDARD - Analyze how word choice creates a sense of time and/or place
9. Locate a direct quotation where the author’s word choice creates a sense of time
and/or place.
10. How does this quotation impact your understanding of time and/or place?
STANDARD - Analyze how plot structure or the sequencing of events builds
mystery, tension, or surprise.
11. How does the plot structure or sequencing of events build mystery, tension, or
surprise? (No quotation required).
STANDARD - Identify the intended audience
12. Who is this book written for?
13. Explain and justify why it was written.
FUNNY IN FARSI – ENGLISH 235 – MR. SANDERS
STANDARD - Analyze how the author uses rhetoric (persuasion) to develop his/her
point of view or purpose or perspective
14. What is the author trying to argue or persuade you to believe in this story?
15. Find a direct quotation in the story that reinforces your claim in #15.
STADNARD - Delineate the argument and claims in a text and evaluate the
evidence for relevance, sufficiency and accuracy, identifying any false claims.
16. After reading Funny in Farsi, why does reading this book matter (aka why is it
relevant)?
17. Find one quotation where you feel like the author stretched the truth (seemed
unrealistic), or where this book might have had a false claim.
FUNNY IN FARSI – ENGLISH 235 – MR. SANDERS
STUDY GUIDE – DAY 2 – CLOSED BOOK
QUOTATION ANALYSIS
DIRECTIONS: Analyze the following quotations & explain their context and relevance to
the story. Consider beginning your sentences with: “This quotation means… / What the
quotation suggests is… / The implication of the following quotation…
Example: Direct Quotation: “The upside of my two lonely months was that I become
completely fluent in French” (Dumas 139). Analysis: This quotation suggests that
Frioozeh is an intelligent hard worker since she is able to speak three different languages
as a teenager. Moreover, the quotation implies that when someone is in isolation or
feeling lonely more can be accomplished due to limited distractions.
FUNNY IN FARSI – ENGLISH 235 – MR. SANDERS
STANDARD - Cite strong and through evidence from the text to support analysis,
discriminating between important versus less important information.
1. “At age seventeen, my mother officially gave up her dreams, married my father, and
had a child by the end of the year” (Dumas 8).
2. “Well, your nose points downward so I figured that’s because you’re always looking at
the ground or something”.
3. “Without my relatives, I am but a thread, together, we form a colorful and elaborate
Persian carpet”.
4. “Nobody asked our opinions of whether the hostages should be taken, and yet every
single Iranian in America was paying the price. One kid throws a spitball and the whole
class gets detention”.
5. “Francois and I plan on giving our children something more valuable, the simple truth
that the best way to go through life is to be a major donor of kindness”.
DIRECTIONS: Analyze the following words & phrases. Explain their context and
relevance to the story.
6. Abadan, Iran
7. Elbow grease
8. All-you-can-eat-buffet
9. The name Julie instead of the name Ferocious
FUNNY IN FARSI – ENGLISH 235 – MR. SANDERS
10. Meaning of the title Waterloo
11. Texas A&M
12. Bob Hope
13. Meaning of the “F-Word”
SHORT ANSWER
14. What happens with the father’s bowling experience?
15. What happens when Firoozeh is a lost child at Disneyland?
16. What was the embarrassing event when she went to school?
17. Explain two examples that show that Firoozeh’s family is close.
18. What did Firoozeh do when children wanted to learn Iranian swear words?
19. Why was there the assumption that the beauty pageant judges were paid off?
20. Why did Firoozeh’s father feel wealthy in Iran?
21. What was one of the funny stories from Firoozeh’s attempts at earning money?
FUNNY IN FARSI – ENGLISH 235 – MR. SANDERS
22. Explain why the Iranian Revolution has such an influence on the memoir. Include at
least two different examples.
Quarter 2 Vocabulary: Learning Standards
1. Parallel plots
a. Definition:
b. Example:
2. Tension
a. Definition:
b. Example:
3. Key scene
a. Definition:
b. Example:
4. Artistic medium
a. Definition:
b. Example:
5. Revealed
a. Definition:
b. Example:
6. Credible
a. Definition:
b. Example:
7. Logical Fallacy (formal)
a. Definition:
b. Example:
8. Logical Fallacy (informal)
a. Definition:
b. Example: