Skip to Main Content

Section 3: Overview

Gender

We will read Chapters 7–10 of Friday Night Lights and analyze how Bissinger portrays the impact of gender on the students and athletic culture of Permian High School. We will read and view the supporting texts, “Women and Men in Sports: Separate is Not Equal” and “Who Says Girls Can’t Play Football? Certainly Not 13-Year-Old Auburn Roberson,” to further explore how gender is addressed in high school athletics.

  • Lesson 1:

    We will begin our analysis of how gender roles impact high school athletes. We will review how gender has been approached by Bissinger through Chapter 6 in Friday Night Lights. We will read Chapter 7, in which Bissinger discusses the gender roles in Friday Night Lights, and identify textual evidence that supports a statement the author makes in the text.

  • Lesson 2:

    We will compare two perspectives on gender and youth sports. We will watch a video, “Who Says Girls Can’t Play Football? Certainly Not 13-Year-Old Auburn Roberson,” by Melissa Isaacson and analyze how this athlete is portrayed and supported in the video. We will then compare this to how females are portrayed in relation to athletics in Friday Night Lights.

  • Lesson 3:

    We will continue our analysis of gender in sports by reading and answering questions about Friday Night Lights. We will also read an article about separation of genders in sports, “Women and Men in Sports: Separate is Not Equal” by Laura Pappano and Eileen McDonagh and identify the authors’ claim. We will evaluate how well the authors support their claim in the text and discuss aloud as a class.

  • Lesson 4:

    We will review our analysis of “Women and Men in Sports: Separate is Not Equal.” We will then read Part 2 of Chapter 9 of Friday Night Lights as a class and discuss text-dependent questions. We will analyze how Bissinger uses evidence and rhetoric to present his perspective on the values and political views of Odessa.

  • Lesson 5:

    We will compose a response to the following questions for the Section 3 Diagnostic: How does Bissinger portray the impact of gender on the students and athletic culture of Permian High School? How does Bissinger’s perspective compare to those of the authors of the other section texts?

  • Lesson 6:

    We will review feedback on the Section Diagnostic. We will use the feedback to make revisions to our work.

  • Lesson 7:

    We will share the understanding we have gained through our independent reading and continue to read our texts.