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Lesson 5

We will be introduced to the feminist literary criticism lens. We will read a supplementary text and examine that text through a feminist lens to practice our application of the lens.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I express an accurate understanding of the central ideas of texts?

  • Can I recognize and interpret important relationships among key details and ideas (characters, setting, tone, point of view, structure, development, etc.) within texts?

Texts

Optional

  • Tradebook
    • The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein, HarperCollins, 2014

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss

We will be introduced to key features of the feminist literary criticism lens.

The next literary criticism lens we’ll work with is the feminist lens.

Read through the Feminist Criticism Lens handout.

Based on these definitions, discuss the following question as a class:

  1. What do you think it means to read and analyze literature through a feminist lens?

Activity 2: Write

We will explore the feminist lens.

Listen as your teacher introduces the feminist lens, and take notes on your Feminist Lens Note-Taking Tool. Write down the following notes:

  • This lens focuses on texts that either mirror or challenge the male-dominated view of society.

  • Literature contains important information about gender roles and the structure of society.

  • The feminist criticism focuses on the relationships, values, patterns of thought, and behaviors that transpire among genders.

  • Most texts that are thought of as classic often illustrate the traditional role of women as others and as objects in relation to their male counterparts.

Activity 3: Listen – Write

We will read and analyze a supplementary text through the feminist lens.

Step 1

Form a small group with several of your peers. Using the supplemental text your teacher has provided, discuss and take notes on the following guiding questions to practice analyzing the text through a feminist critical lens.

  1. How are the men and women portrayed in the text?

  2. How does this portrayal exemplify traditional gender roles?

  3. What stereotypes about women and men are exemplified in this text?

  4. What messages about men and women does this text suggest through these stereotypes?

Step 2

Share out your small group’s discussion with the whole class and listen to other groups as they share their analyses. How does your small group’s analysis compare to the other groups in the class? What new insights are emerging about how gender is portrayed in the text?

Step 3

Think about what you learned from the class discussions and take notes on the Feminist Lens Note-Taking Tool about your new understanding of the feminist lens. As you take notes, consider the following question:

  1. What are you now understanding about how to apply the feminst lens when analyzing texts based on this activity?

Activity 4: Listen – Write

We will read and analyze The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein through the feminist lens.

Step 1

Using a blank sheet of paper, create a T-chart. Label the left side "The Female Tree" and label the right side "The Male Character." As you listen to The Giving Tree, in your T-chart, write down examples from the text that exemplify the traditional gender roles of men and women.

Listen as your teacher or one of your peers reads The Giving Tree, and complete your T-chart.

Step 2

Respond to the following question:

  1. How is the female tree portrayed in the book? How does this portrayal uphold stereotypical views of women?