Strategies
This unit will put herstory into history. By utilizing simple images like advertisements from the sixties, I hope to encourage student thought about the subject, author, objective, purpose and intended audience. This unit will connect primary sources, images and biographical works to evoke emotions and spur action, as it did for Gloria Steinem.
One reason for writing this curriculum unit is to increase knowledge of the need for Women's Studies. By identifying themes across various sources, both the art of writing and the subject can be critiqued. Students will see the importance of telling the whole story, including herstory, to create a unified account of events. Timelines will be used to ask "what do we know here?" Many women's issues are the same across various time periods. After much thinking, planning, research and writing students may interview women in the community to gain a local perspective on the need for Women's Studies. One goal of this unit is to examine the biographies of Gloria Steinem both to cover the form those works take and the function of a feminist in formation. Students will gain an historical perspective about women's issues that evolve into a mass movement. This unit will have key concepts, skill sets and learning objectives for use in the Women's Studies course for my district. Adaptations for Advanced Placement U.S. History will be made as the course is one of two required in the junior year. Some strategies may be used in AP English Language and composition as my students in the AP U.S. History section will often have this course. Cross curricular work should boost student achievement and increase teacher collaboration. The ultimate goal is to promote literacy using Steinem's life and work as a template the students can follow to change their life and the world around them. Hopefully Gloria Steinem's biography will give students renewed faith in the public schools and the continued desire to educate themselves.
Since this is a semester class, content will be condensed and students will be asked to process information quickly, come up with more questions and solve them together with guidance from the teacher. Collaboration will be encouraged through various technologies but students will also be encouraged to read printed text in the original form to gain full comprehension. Students should use the course to gain content knowledge, learn to work effectively with others and increase their awareness of inequalities. One goal of the teacher is to provoke activism by presenting words and images which highlight gender differences.
Students can work together to draft questions which will provoke juicy details. Flip cams and iPhones may be used to record two minute clips as an elevator pitch or promotion of the class. Students will have to use an extensive selection process to edit their array of interview questions and notes to a few minutes of tape. Presentations may be made at Open House or other classes to promote the Women's Studies course in the school. The next step can be for students to document their own lives. Like a time capsule, what will the record of your life reflect? Students will be asked to state why they are in the class, and perhaps why they are not somewhere else. What is unique about you? What can you bring to the Women's Studies course?
A Note on the Common Core Standards
Language Arts and Social Studies Standards emphasize analyzing, evaluating, and critically writing about history by using evidence and information from various sources. This kind of rigorous work aligns with college expectations. A great deal of time must be devoted to teaching students how to investigate and analyze historical writing before they can do it successfully on their own. Using life stories saves time.
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