An Introduction to Gender Stereotypes
I'm not going to get on my high horse about what happened to Cracked.com. That isn't what this post is about. It is, however, a post about one of their articles that I've been teaching for a while.
The 6 weeks before STAAR become STAAR prep. Therefore, all of the units that we work on become debatable thematic units. The first one I usually tackle is gender stereotypes. For some reason, it is super engaging (more than I thought it would be) and the kids enjoy tackling an issue that is very much applicable to them. However, they don't understand that gender norms are a fluid thing. The things that we have come to associate with a particular gender aren't the things that have always been associated with that gender.
Back on track...
... I start my unit off with an article from Cracked called 5 Gender Stereotypes That Used to be the Exact Opposite as an introduction to the above idea. It does have bad words in it (I print out an edited version for my students) but it hits the concept perfectly. And because it's funny (or at least supposed to be), the kids don't mind reading it.
Steps I Go Through When Teaching the Article:
- Introduce the concept. I explain what I've written above.
- Give the student's a printed copy of the article. I have them number each paragraph.
- For each section of the article, I have the student's right a hashtag summary. They then have to explain the stereotype, explain how it was different at one time, and then write the supporting details.
- The next day, I give them a short multiple choice test on their reading.
It's pretty basic, but it gets the job done, and it sets them up to understand the rest of the unit.
If you'd like the handouts I use with this lesson, including the quiz, you can find it here in my TPT store.