Classroom Activities
Lesson One : Gathering Archives
Document analysis will be an important skill students continue to develop throughout the unit and the course. For starters, the students will select (no advice given at first) a photo of themselves to use as a template for examining graphic documents. Students may take a photo of themselves the day the assignment is given or select one from their social media postings or family archives. Directions may be given to print, scan or email so the teacher can scan show all photos from all students. The goal of the exercise is to have student use a template from www.nara.gov to examine their document as a historian would, hopefully altering the sheet in the end. In this case, I will have them explain the selection process more than the detail of the people, things, place, or time of the photo. Why did they select this one photo? Why not others? What does this photograph say about them , their family, or friends. When I used that assignment in U.S. History one student each year would pick a portrait and give me an encyclopedic entry for the president or prominent man, without analyzing what was actually in the painting. I hope to have kids zoom in and zoom out to begin to tell their story.
In AP U.S. History I use Eric Rothchild's Pic-a-picture assignment where students selected a graphic from a popular textbook and write 1,000 words describing the historical significance of all things connected to the photo in a well organized informative essay. Now, I would like them to write persuasively. Part of their narrative should include "what brought you to this point...this class, why now?" Forcing students to think about their goals in the class will make them think about their own learning and future goals.
Writing about the photo will allow students to begin to discover how to fill in historical gaps by telling the biographies of the people in the photos. Writing about this lesson reminds me that women's history is American History.
Lesson Two : Web of Women
This exercise shows Connectedness of women before, during and after the second wave of feminism. Students realize they are in the discussion. They suddenly become part of the dialog. What happens when someone drops out? It takes a community of women working together to hold the web together and yet we often teach history of individuals of events in isolation.
For the Web-weaving activity: Get a large skein of yarn to have on hand. Each student is assigned an important woman in the field of women's studies. Depending on the age, the teacher can give more direction on how to find background research based on occupation or activities. A quick but detailed background should be compiled by each student for each character. They may want to make name tags. The teacher who gave me this idea, Susan Pingel, had her students make elaborate name tags to serve as a visual representation of the character of each person. For example, Bella Abzug's tag may be a hat similar to one she always wore. Steinem's name in aviator glasses, or Sarah Weddington's name may adorn a coat hanger. In some cases, the name tag may tell a great deal about the person but of course it has no emotion, that comes from the student portraying the character.
This list is just a sample of the women I found to be left out of history. This list of possible characters for students to research includes doctors, lawyers, activists and average women who made a mark on history with herstory. Carla Hills 35, Joan Didion, Dr. Judith Rodin, Muriel Kraszewski, Joan Crowe, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Mary Peacock, Helen Reddy, Nora Ephron, Betty Friedan, Susan Brownmiller, Bella Abzug, Jane Pauley, Anne Taylor Fleming, Linda Greenhouse, Dorothy Rabinowitz, Dr. Ruth Simmons, Dr. Susan Miller, Barbara Walters, Flo Kennedy, Marcia Ann Gillespie, Shirley Chisholm, Hilary Clinton, Alice Walker, Barbara Jordan, Frances Tarlton "Sissy" Farenthold. The teacher may want to have a template for the research to help guide students through primary sources. The Quick Biography the students create should be a supplement to the popular view presented in mainstream textbooks so it should go beyond who, what, where to include a character analysis good, bad or ugly. Selection of what to leave in and what to leave out may be challenging at first. Further selection will take place when the students share out to the other "characters."
After two days, students will come to class with their "character" name tag and Quick Biography notes. In groups of 6 to 8 students should form a circle and explain Once who they are to the other "Characters." Once all characters complete their initial introduction the task becomes to visually connect each woman. Students form one large circle and pass the yarn from one character to another stating how they are related to each other. "I am Gloria Steinem, key member of NOW with friend Letty Cottin Pogrebin..." (Pass yarn to student playing Letty) then student catches the yarn and thinks of who they are connected to in the circle. "I am woman" is not enough, they need to state the political organization, or social circle or even shared philosophy. They may need to take time to think where they would have crossed paths with the other characters. The lesson will show (after 15 to 20 minutes of yarn tossing), a visual web of connectedness.
In this yarn tossing exercise, the students who do more extensive research will have more things to say and more relationships to map out with string. Teachers may extend the activity to include a ranking of the top women with the most "points" for a Hall of Fame. If students think the activity is too fast, the teacher can rewind the yarn and reconnect each character. Students can write a biography of one prominent person in the movement for women's rights. The assignment sheet may say, "Biography - if you could only write one, state who and why". This is important as the AP U.S. History exam recently asked students to analyze change in the Sixties by picking two movements and discussing the reasons for the social change. In the future the AP U.S. Exam will ask questions around themes which the students must recognize in a larger context. Students were asked to analyze reasons for the rise of protest movements in the post WWII era through the Ford administration. The task required an understanding of the question and the ability of students to select two of four choices. Most writers selected college students and women yet most history books give more treatment to the reasons for Black Power and Cesar Chavez's movement for Latino equality.
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