Dana M. Buckmir
The lesson on defining terms will take place prior to the start of the unit; however it will not just be assumed that after one lesson the students will know the terms. The terms will be continually reinforced throughout the unit in discussion and evaluation of the literature. I will start by asking the students if they have ever heard of these terms. I would like to chart out their thinking or prior knowledge before I teach new knowledge so that I can gauge where they are coming from. There are ten terms, so I will break the terms into two groups of five and teach a different lesson for each group. This separation of terms makes it more manageable and meaningful for the students. Also, asking what the students think makes learning more productive because it is easier to change what people think than what they know; that is, it is easier to debate opinions as opposed to beliefs.
For the first lesson on defining unit terms I will use transparencies on the overhead projector of photographs of people and ask the students what they think about the images and what does the photograph tell them about who the people are without any other information provided. For example, to define and explore the term
stereotype
, I might put a photograph of a young Latina female inside a home cooking, cleaning surrounded by five children. I would then ask the students to describe what they see in the image and what does this image tell us about the person illustrated in the picture and how society represents the woman presented. This probing of questions will result in a list of student responses that I will chart on the board as a method of defining the term. Also, students will receive a copy of the
Power of Reading
written by Colleen Connell which is a wonderful excerpt that defines stereotyping and sparks discussion on the concept. I will use the same strategies noted above to define four more terms for the day.
For the following day, I will give students the terms used in quotes and ask them to define the meaning of the term through the context clues, sound and structure of the word. Students will draw a diagram with three boxes and label each context, sound and structure. They will look at the word in the sentence provided and write their response in the appropriate box in order to eventually define the term. For example, the word
identity
sounds like identify, identification, indicate, individual; the word can be broken down into four syllables i-den-ti-ty; and the context of the word would the words around the sentence that it is in: The man's true
identity
was concealed under the mask he wore to disguise himself from the audience. Using all three methods context, structure and sound student will individually define the terms and then as a class we will assess the validity of the definitions to come find an actual definition for the term. Also, it would certainly be effective to incorporate a short activity like the "I am_______" in which the students list descriptors of themselves in a sixty minute time period (Tatum 20). This activity assists students in their knowledge and comprehension of what identity is and how it affects the way they view themselves as well as others. Also, another idea for teaching the term
sexism
might be to read a children's picture book that demonstrates sexist thinking by enforcing gender based stereotypes of women in passive domestic roles and men as ambitious public figures. As Tatum concludes, "we are better able to resist the negative impact of oppressive messages when we see them coming than when they are invisible to us (Tatum 47)." Another suggestion for initiating teaching the vocabulary term
gender
would be to write a journal prompt on the board for the students to respond to: Consider your family, how do parents treat the girls and boys differently? Some responses might discuss the boys are given more independence and punished frequently. Other responses might state that girls are expected to express their emotions. All of these shared responses will contribute to our discussion on gender-typed behavior and lead us to our definition of gender. John Santrock defines gender as "a sociocultural dimension of being male or female (92)." For this reason, we know that gender is not entirely biologically assigned but it is heavily influenced by external factors within society, cross culturally. When we are finished with the two lessons on defining important terms that preview the lesson, we will have compiled a list of terms, defined, including examples of how these labels are applied to represent certain individuals and interactions between people in society. The information that we have discovered will be charted and used as a reference as we progress through the unit.
As a Language Arts teacher I am always experimenting with different strategies for teaching vocabulary. Students are often reluctant to engage in vocabulary lessons because of the traditional, tedious instructional methods that have been implemented in the past; that is students are assigned ten words on Monday, asked to write them in sentences for homework and quizzed on Friday. I have learned that this method does not teach vocabulary and in fact it often disengages the students in the learning process by teaching them to study for the test instead of actually learning the words and applying them to their already existing lexicon. Considering, the objectives for these pre-unit lessons on vocabulary are to: familiarize the students with the key vocabulary terms that will be reiterated throughout the unit, initiate the unit topics by correlating the vocabulary exercises with activities that will broaden their perspective about the topics presented and equip students with the knowledge and skills to participate in the lessons that follow.