Guided by the teacher, students were separated into groups by gender – ladies vs. gentlemen. Once separated, the ladies were tasked with making a list of gender norms of the gentlemen, while the gentlemen did the same for the ladies. These lists were generated on the white boards for everyone to see.
The students took a seat and then the teacher leads a discussion, “how do we feel about these?” “What is the definition of a stereotype” (list student definitions on board). “Are these gender norms a stereotype then – why?” “What happens when someone doesn’t fit into these gender norms?” These questions then leads to the students swapping lists. The ladies created a column, next to the ladies gender norms list created by the gentlemen, with the phrases they hear when they do not fit into these gender norms vice versa with the gentlemen. Then students return to their desks and the teacher makes a connection between language and gender. Have many of you have heard this language personally - or used it personally? Why does our language matter? How does language affect gender norms? in such that – the norms are a reality of our American society – however the phrases we bring people down with if they do not fit the gender norms is why our language matters and we need to be mindful about the world we are creating through our cultural norms and language. Students are then reminded that these only portray the norms of our society – maybe America, maybe just San Diego, maybe just Bonita. A "Geographies of Gender Norms" worksheet is given to students in which they use two textbook pages to read about some gender norms around the world, define some key terms, and then reflect on the textbook pages and our activity from class. |
Student ExamplesStudent Engagement |