CARLA
Gender by Advice: Normative Behaviors for Men and Women in Russian Advice Literature 
Lesson 1. Sex, Gender, Gender Norms

Submitted by Olga Livshin

Objectives:

Content:
  Students will...

  • become aware of the difference between the human biological sex (anatomical and physiological differences that bear very limited significance in daily life) and gender (e.g., societal ideas about sex differences that have implications in numerous areas of daily life)
  • develop a basic knowledge of how gender norms are maintained in a society (i.e., by family, school, and other social institutions)
  • become familiar with the basic idea of biodeterminism (i.e., the belief that major character traits depend on the individual's biological sex)
  • begin to develop an awareness of behaviors appropriate to men's and women's sex roles in the U.S.
  • conceptualize and articulate their opinions on whether young children should be taught how to behave according to their sex roles

Cultural:
 Students will...

  • discuss the relationship between gender norms specific to each culture (as part of the perspectives of this culture) and certain practices of each culture, within the appropriate sex roles, by which gender norms are maintained

Language: Content Obligatory
Students will (new vocabulary is italicized)...

  • use the nouns пол and гендер to define what they are, drawing upon an article, in order to become aware of the difference between the human biological sex and gender
  • use the expression гендерные нормы (gender norms) in the accusative case to explain how gender norms are maintained in order to develop an initial knowledge of how gender norms are maintained in a society 
  • use the expression половыe роли (sex roles) in the genitive case to cite examples of men's and women's sex roles in the U.S. in order to start developing an awareness of behaviors appropriate to men's and women's sex roles in the U.S.
  • use the noun, биодетерминизм (biodeterminism) in the accusative case (with the preposition в) to explain that biodeterminism believes that biological sex determines men's and women's psychological characteristics, social roles and activities, in order to become familiar with the basic idea of biodeterminism
  • use the expression, гендерные вопросы (gender issues) to state whether or not gender issues appear anywhere in the daily lives of Americans in order to deepen their understanding of the implications of gender in daily life
  • use the expression, в рамках своей половой роли (within one's sex role) to articulate their opinion on whether young children should be taught how to behave within according to their sex role

Language: Content Compatible
Students will....

  • use the noun различиe (difference) in the plural, nominative case, to state their opinion on whether biological differences between men and women or social ideas about men and women matter more in order to become aware of the difference between the human biological sex and gender
  • use the verb поддерживаться (to be maintained; recycled from students' previous knowledge) to explain how gender norms are maintained in order to develop an initial knowledge of how gender norms are maintained in a society
  • use the expression вести себя (to behave; recycled from students' previous knowledge) to articulate their opinion on whether young children should be taught how to behave within according to their sex roles

Learning Strategies / Social and Skills Development:
  Students will...

  • develop their presentational skills by explaining to the rest of the class pieces of knowledge from an article (such as the mechanisms by which gender norms are maintained in a society)
  • develop their ability to connect class material to the cultural experiences that they witness and participate in (by citing examples of gender issues in their daily lives and examples of behaviors specific to each gender in their culture/s )
  • work cooperatively to discuss and articulate their opinions (on whether young children should be taught how to behave within according to their sex roles)

Time Frame:

1 50-minute period

Materials Needed:

  • Homework handout (students receive it in the preceding class)
  • Internet access for students outside of class (to complete the homework assignment)
  • Homework handout for Lesson 2

 

Description of Assessment (Performance Project):

Pre-Class Task 1 (Homework)

To prepare for this first lesson, students will have been assigned to:

  • Read the text, "Пол и гендер" (Sex and Gender) in the Homework for Lesson 1 and complete the pre-reading activity and the "5Ws" graphic organizer.
    • Note: an English translation is provided for this and all other attachments.
  • Read the brief introduction to the unit (“Введение”) on the Website
    • Note: separate webpages in English are provided to supplement the web materials.

Pre-Task 2

In class, ask a student to share with the class the contents of the second column in the "5 Ws" graphic organizer, the response to the question, "What is gender?" After the students presents, go over (and practice with the class, if necessary) the pronunciation of the word гендер (gender), and the adjective гендерный (of or related to gender). Make sure that students are pronouncing гендер with the Russian "г" sound, rather than the "dj" sound in the English gender. Also, the first e is prounced like "ye," the way that e is usually prounounced in Russian, but the second e should be pronounced as [e] (as in the letter "э"). Pronouncing e like "э" is the way Russian handles a lot of recent borrowings from English, such as бренд (brand) and месседж (message): what is spelled as e is pronounced like аn "э." Ask the class, based on this knowledge, whether they think the study of gender is a familiar topic to many Russians. It is not, but not totally new either: cf. the pronunciation of the second e as [ie]. Gender has been studied in Russia since the early 1990s.

To build student interest and background on the unit's topic and the genre studied, tell students that gender is a topic that draws a lot of attention in Russia. Everybody has an opinion about what the opposite sex stands for, and usually has stories to tell. Then ask students if they gender questions (гендерные вопросы) come up in the U.S. (“Гендерные вопросы появляются в США?”). Ask students to think silently and jot down a response, then present it. Lead a brief issue-recognition discussion of gender questions in the U.S. To guide/expand discussion, you may direct students to the following areas: professional life, childbringing, and abortion. If interest lags, to spark further interest, you can bring to the students’ attention to some of the following facts:

  • In 2005, Laurence Summers, the president of Harvard University, said that the reasons why there are less woman mathematicians and physicists may be that women are biologically not made for doing well in these fields, that they spend time on bringing up their children, which takes away from work, and that they are themselves brought up differently than men.
  • Research shows that American married women still do more housework and childcare than their husbands. This has an effect on women’s careers and their happiness in their lives.
  • Historians are now wondering if our history might be the history of men--the accomplishments of armies and rulers, who were mostly male. Not only this, but many historians lately have wondered if traditional ways of writing history focus too narrowly on one particular kind of man, ignoring the lives of ordinary men, who worked and had families in the absence of remarkable national events.

Pre-Task 3

Ask a few students to share with the rest of the class the rest of the contents of the graphic organizer as they filled it out. First ask one student about one column, thank him or her, then ask the rest of the class if they have anything to add. Clarify or correct the pronunciation of any problematic new words. Go on to the next column, and so on. For the question, "Give one example of sex roles for American men and one example of sex roles for American women," ask 3-4 students for different examples (try to collect different ones). Point out the prominence of sex roles in the daily interactions of Americans.

Go over the expression, “навыки поведения в рамках своей половой роли” (behavior skills within one’s sex role). (need to translate this into English). Go over the cases in this phrase (навыки is in the nominative case, поведения, in the genitive, в рамках is in the prepositional, and своей половой роли is in the genitive). Point out the word, поведениe (behavior) and ask students what the verb “to behave” is in Russian (вести себя; students already know the verb). Ask students what those skills of behaving within one’s sex role are: What are children taught in order for them to behave “within their sex role”? (“Чему учат детей, чтобы они вели себя “в рамках своей половой роли”?”)

Task

Ask students to get into groups of two, preferably with a person who was not in their group in the activity in the beginning of the lesson. Ask them to think about the question, "Do you think that boys and girls should be taught the skills of behavior with relation to their sex role? Why or why not?” (“Как вам кажется, мальчиков и девочек надо учить навыкaм поведения в рамках своей половой роли? Почему?”). Students should think silently and jot down a response, then share it with their partner and discuss it, then one partner should present their findings. The response should begin with the phrase (put it on the board), "Мальчиков и девочек надо учить навыкaм поведения в рамках своей половой роли, потому что..."

Post-Task/Homework:
Pass out the homework for Lesson 2, Day 1 with any explanations needed. (See Lesson 2 for Attachments and Pre-task explanations)

The first part of the homework for Lesson 2, Day 1, is designed as expansion of this task. Students are asked to imagine that they are talking to a group of people who have heard vaguely about gender studies but know little about them. They think that gender is something like sex; perhaps it is just a newer term. They also believe that biological sex is a very important difference between human beings, the foundation of all differences men and women, something fixed forever. Write 7 - 9 lines in which you tell these people about gender, (a) describing this concept more precisely and (b) convincing them that gender is an important distinction between people, but not at all fixed to people.

Assessment:

  1. Homework is graded credit/no credit, with errors corrected.
  2. Throughout the lesson, the teacher informally assesses student participation (including work in small groups) and monitors comprehension and accurate, meaningful language use.

References and Resources:

  • The "5Ws" graphic organizer,  in CoBaLTT [Content-Based Language Teaching with Technology] website. Online at the CoBaLTT Graphic Organizers website. Viewed August 20, 2006.
  • Dobbs, Michael. "Harvard Chief’s Comments on Women Assailed." Washington Post, January 19, 2005, p. A02
  • Garrett, Stephanie. Gender. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.
  • Voronina, O. A. "Гендер" ("Gender"), in Словарь гендерных терминов. Online at http://www.owl.ru/gender/010.htm, viewed January 20, 2005.

Attachments:

NOTE: some attachments are in PDF form (get Acrobat Reader)

Handout 1A
Handout 1B

A Lesson from the CoBaLTT Project
/cobaltt
Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
University of Minnesota