Discipline(s):US History; Gender and Women’s Studies; Sports Studies
Course number and name: GWS 150B5 Sport, Sex, and Society
Background/context for lesson: This lesson is both an introduction to and an extension for our Unit on Social Reform in Sports. The lesson introduces students to the connections between sports and social reform(specifically rational dress and women’s suffrage/feminism), ideologies around women’s participation in early sport, as well as the importance of the material aspects of sports (cost, availability, etc).The unit extended past this historical investigation of Gilded Age/Progressive Era cycing into the present day and we ended the unit by looking at a variety of examples of “gear” and materiality of sports–including sports bras, gendered footwear, plus size gear and body image, and even media coverage of women’s sports.
Time needed: 1full 75 min class period and part of a second class plus essay writing time
Learning objectives: By engaging in this lesson, students will:
The first, partial class period should be a warm-up introduction. A short lecture on the gendered culture of Gilded Age America can help students situate the bicycling story in time and context. Also have students ready to read aloud together this source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/amss.as103310.0
As homework before the first full class, have ALL students access and read/look at the following:
Have students choose ONE of the following and be prepared to report a summary of the sources as well as thoughts connecting the source of their choice to the sources we all accessed:
Students will need computer devices and access to the Internet to access sources for the first introductory discussion and for their homework.
Instructors will need (ideally) projector and Internet access.
Essential Questions to Guide the Lesson should be presented to students first:
Day 1: Introduction to the Topic and Lesson
Day 2: Full class period Source Analysis and Thesis Writing
Day 3: If necessary-Pair/Share Revisions of Theses
Formative assessments will be done at the end of each day but also throughout each discussion. The summative and final assessment is the Assessment Essay Assignment.
Using the above essential question, students will write an article for a popular magazine on the topic of sports, gear, and social reform. The article will be 3-4 pages and will include both a synthesis of social reform (rational dress and women’s suffrage) and biking in history and apply either the feminist ideas of women’s empowerment OR the fears from the conservative sources to a piece of contemporary gear or a contemporary social reform movement of their choosing.
This lesson plan was created for college-aged students in a 100-level General Education course. There is a lot to do in this lesson so it may take a less experienced discussion-based educator longer than 1.5 -2 75 min class periods. Similarly the younger the learners the more time this would take, but if adapted to a higher level course (or a major-specific course) it might take less time.
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