Submitted by POLIA Handbook
Objectives:
Content:
Cultural:
Language: Content Obligatory
Language: Content Compatible
Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
Time Frame:
Materials Needed:
Description of Assessment (Performance Project):
The teacher divides students into mixed-gender groups and explains that throughout the group process, they need to assign roles to different individuals (recorders, reporters, time keepers, etc.), giving each member of the group some responsibility as they work together on the various tasks. The teacher places the word "Männer" ("men") in the center of the board or on an overhead and has the groups brainstorm in German adjectives or verb phrases that characterize men. This original brainstorming serves at least two purposes: to access existing knowlege in terms of how each individual, and as a result, the whole gropu, views the concept of "man," and to review known vocabulary and brainstorm new vocabulary. Their concepts of "man" are per force culturally-bound and pertain, at this point, only to U.S. culture. A recorder for the group jots down their notes on an overhead transparency to share later with the class.
The teacher distributes a handout (Arbeitsblatt), explaining to students that they need to keep it in a notebook and bring it to class each day, as they will be adding to it throughout the unit. The handout (in "Attachments") establishes an organizational framework for students to take notes throughout the unit. Each group member records the product of the brainstorming session in the appropriate section of the grid on their individual copies of the handout.
Using the overheads, an elected reporter for each group presents the group's findings to the class while the teacher creates a web around the word "Manner" on the board. When necessary, the teacher will supply new vocabulary and draw students' attention to structure (for example, agreement). The students make their own record of the web as it develops.
The teacher takes students through the same activities as outlined above, but instead having students focus on their perceptions of women, rauen."
The class then reviews the male/female characteristics to note similarities and differences. The teacher should also ask questions to encourage students to think about how gender roles may be different depending on other issues such as age (different generations), ethnic groups, social class, etc.
The teacher gives half of the groups a picture of a man taken from a current U.S. magazine and half of the groups a picture of a woman taken from a current U.S. magazine (each group receives a different picture). The groups are to prepare an introduction of their person to the whole group. This introduction should include such aspects as his/her probable nationality and personality, job, characteristics, family, and why they came to these conclusions. What emotions does this man/woman evoke in them? Why?
An elected reporter for each group introduces their picture of the man/woman. Again, additional adjectives and verb phrases for characterizing men/women are added to the webs, and the teacher draws students' attention to structure and new vocabulary as necessary.
Elected students from the various groups record (with bold markers) the descriptive adjectives and phrases onto the large cut-outs of human shapes that are displayed in the classroom.