Women+and+WWI

Usha's comments in Blue

Your name: Anne W Song

===**Initial Reading and Assessment of Textbook Treatment of the Topic** ===

Name of Gr. 10 Textbook examined: //Canadian Sources: Investigated 1914 to the Present//

Name of more "scholarly" source examined: //The Women's Movement in Wartime: International Perspectives 1914-19// (ed. Alison S. Fell and Ingrid Sharp)

__Your Initial Thoughts:__ When I first opened //Canadian Sources// I was very surprised at how different it was from the Canadian History book I used when I was in high school. Rather than paragraphs and paragraphs of content, //Canadian Sources// is very colourful, full of boxes, various fonts and subheadings, pictures, graphs, charts, etc. Also, rather than chapter questions at the end, //Canadian Sources// is full of various activities throughout the chapters. In the introduction of textbook, the authors remind the reader that every student is a historian and that history is a //process// of interpreting evidence. Not surprisingly, the text focuses more on critical thinking than content. In regards to the role of women during WWI, in a section called Reality Check, the authors ask, "Did the War Really Change the Role of Women in the Workforce?" Instead of giving the student the answer, the authors offer different interpretations/perspectives from six different secondary sources and ask the student to think about these sources and the statistical evidence provided. Although the topic is not explored in depth, I really enjoyed this text because it gives the student the opportunity to think critically for him/herself and realize that different historians say different things.

Thanks for your assessment, Anne. You're right - it is quite a different treatment. I know the authors and can say they are deeply committed to critical thinking and historical thinking in particular. They were lucky that a small publisher was willing to take on something so unorthodox (it's a big struggle to get the big publishers to think outside the box!). And you've rightly recognized the tension between in-depth exploration and allowing students to think for themselves.

Critical Question: "How did the experience of women in the workplace during WWI encourage or discourage the feminist movement? Explain." Type: Critique the piece This is close, Anne. By asking "How did...", right now this question asks for an explanation or a description rather than reasoned judgement. Are you asking whether their experience helped or hindered the feminist movement? If so, this is a bit clearer - you just might need to tighten up the wording a bit. One thing to consider: is there significant evidence available to allow students to equally argue either side. If so, you are very close to having a critical challenge here. If not, it might need a bit of tweaking.

Initial Planning Stages:

Key Learning/ “Big Ideas” / Learning Target - Students will understand that women’s experience of the war both in the home front and the warfront varied depending on race, class, age, and location - Students will understand that although women were not in the battlefield, they played a significant role in the war both in the home front and the war front - Students will understand that the public-private dichotomy is not so black-and-white - Students will understand that the war literally turned the dichotomy upside down - Students will understand that many perspectives and narratives are often forgotten All well articulated but maybe too many - consider really focusing in on one or two - keep it manageable.

Critical Challenge (question or task students will grapple with) - (1) Design to specs: Each student will be assigned a female identity; there will be a wide range of class, race, age, etc; some may be pacifists, others nationalists, etc; some may have sons, husbands, and sweethearts in the war, others won’t ; some may be nurses, ambulance drivers, etc - Given the wide range of contributions that women have made—including encouraging men to go to war, sending over socks and blankets, and training for home defence—and the wide range of varying backgrounds, imagine that you are a woman in Canada during the war. Write a letter to a close friend in another province and share your experience of the war and convince her that your contribution is the most important. Think about your daily experiences, your sentiments towards the war, your family dynamic, changes you see, and the contributions you’re making.

- (2) Judge the better or the best: Assess the wide range of contributions that women made to the war, what is the most significant role that women played that challenged the public-private dichotomy?

Both of these are clearly critical challenge - but I think I would choose one for a single lesson. Both are good - so your choice.

Relation to summative assessment task: - Students will develop the skill to look at history in perspectives - Students will learn to write effective letters (which will help them with “Letters to the editor” in summative task )

Historical Thinking Portal: - Historical Perspective-Taking, for students must imagine how the war impacted women, what women experienced, and how this impact/experienced varied enormously depending on class, age, location, etc.

Background Knowledge:

- Students need to know exactly what contributions did women make - Student need to understand the public-private dichotomy so that they understand what it means to challenge this dichotomy - Students need to know women’s experience of war varied enormously (i.e. black women were excluded from volunteer organizations) Good start - also please cut and paste the relevant curriculum expectations here.

Criteria for Judgment: - (1) What makes a good letter? What makes an effective letter? What do we include in letters to our friends? What do we leave out? What language do we write in? What does it mean to “convince” someone in a letter format? Yes, students will need criteria for either an "effective letter" or a "convincing letter" (you decide on the qualifier). Although you might draw out that criteria from students, you still need to have an idea of the criteria you're hoping they'll come up with. So, consider trying to complete the following sentence: "An effective letter is one that.... -  -  -

- (2) What does it mean to “challenge” the status quo or the norm? The 2nd challenge you have written above is "what is the most significant role that..." so that is the decision students will be making. Although they will need to think about what it means to challenge the status quo, they are not making a decision about that per se but rather WHICH role was most significant. So, they'll need some criteria for what makes one role more significant than another. Does that make sense?

Habit of Mind: (choose 1) - Empathetic

Thinking Strategies: - Students will engage with two poems: “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold (1867) and “Dover Bitch” by Anthony Hecht (1967) - This activity will be introduced as the mental set - This will allow students to understand “perspectives” and to look for whose perspective is and is not represented in certain sources Let's talk a bit more in class about "Thinking Strategies" because I think this needs a bit of clarification. Briefly, a thinking strategy is a graphic organizer or a series of steps that students will use to sift through all the background information in order to make a decision. For example, when we looked at whether Jack Sparrow was a hero or a rogue, you used that web diagram with the 4 criteria in bubbles, evidence collected around the criteria and then a rating scale where you rated the extent to which he met each criteria. Or, when we looked at the visual of the boy and the mule, you used a 5Ws chart that was separated into observations and inferences in order to push you to slow down, notice details and then draw inferences. Both of these were "Thinking Strategies". Does that help clarify?

Critical Thinking Vocabulary: (choose 1) - Perspective

FINAL LESSON PLAN