Need Feedback - Lesson Plan for 8th Grade Women's Rights Movement of 1800's

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Subject:

The Women’s Rights Movement

Overview:

During the decades that followed the beginning of the Abolition Movement, the Women of the United States began to question their own freedoms and rights.  The rights these women wanted included:  the right to coeducation - which meant teaching boys and girls in the same classroom, the right to college education, the right to equal pay, the right to own property after they were married and the right to vote.  These women fought a hard battle and over time made small advances in equality.  There were many women who brought awareness to the fight for equality.  One woman, Lucretia Mott who was also an abolitionist, believed it was time for women to “assert their rights as independent human beings” and “…demand our recognition as equal members of the human family…”. (Oldham, Brinkley, S., M., & A., 2004) The class will come prepared having read the textbook section on The Women’s Movement.  The class will discuss the most famous women in the Women’s Rights Movement and explore their achievements.  Six groups will be formed and each group will choose one woman about whom they will prepare a digital story.  During this process the students will become more adept at preparing a digital story which will enable further study and comprehension of the Women’s Rights Movement. 

Objectives:

To understand why the women’s movement began, what difficulties these women may have had to overcome to be involved in the movement,  and how the movement affected the social culture of the United States.   To utilize digital storytelling skills.

TEKS

(24)  Culture. The student understands the major reform movements of the 19th century. The student is expected to:

(B)  evaluate the impact of reform movements, including educational reform, temperance, the women's rights movement, prison reform, abolition, the labor reform movement, and care of the disabled.

Procedures:

1.       Students will read the Women’s Rights section of textbook

2.       On Monday students will be assigned groups and will choose a prominent women’s rights advocate from  the 1830’s-1890’s

3.       Each group will research the subject to prepare digital story and to obtain a strong knowledge base of their subject in preparation for a classroom question and answer session on Friday

4.       Each group will prepare a digital story (utilizing previously taught skills) to explore the achievements and struggles of these advocates to be completed by Thursday. Photographs and pictures will be obtained from creativecommons.com.

5.       The digital story will include a minimum of 8 pages containing:  at least one photograph of the advocate, pictures depicting the struggle for women’s rights.  The students will write two pages of historically accurate narration about your individual and the movement – this will be added to your digital story and all group members will be heard.  The group may add music or sounds at their discretion.  The digital story will be posted to the classroom student wiki page by the end of class on Thursday.

6.       Teacher will show class digital story example located on The Women’s Rights Movement page.

7.       Students will view teacher’s example of digital story.

Required Materials:

1.       Textbook

2.       One hour spent in computer lab each day for next five days

3.       Obtain photographs and pictures from creativecommons.com

4.       Classroom Wiki – 8thgradesocialstudiesgroup6students.pbworks.com where students will post digital story

5.       Google Reader link on Wiki for RSS feeds for sites about the 1800’s women’s movement and current equal rights movements

Evaluation/Assessment

On Friday, the students will present their digital story for the class.  Each group will ask one question of the presenters regarding the individual the group chose, which must be answered based on knowledge gained during preparation of the digital story.

References:

Oldham, J, Brinkley, A, S., A, M., J, & A., D. (2004). The american republic to 1877. Columbus, Ohio: GlencoeMcGraw-Hill School Pub Co.