Women’s Suffrage
Teaching with Primary Sources
Illinois State University
Rachel Gannaway
Fox Creek Elementary
Spring 2009
Teaching with Primary Sources
Illinois State University
Suffragists picketing in front
of the White House. Harris & Ewing. 1917.
This lesson guides students in their understanding of the tireless works of suffragists fighting for women’s right to vote. March is Women’s History Month, and a huge part of women’s rights was the fight for the ratification of the 19th amendment.
Overview/ Materials/LOC Resources/Standards/ Procedures/Evaluation/Rubric/Handouts/Extension
Overview Back to Navigation BarObjectives / Students will:
· Recognize March as Women’s History Month.
· Realize that in the mid-19th century, several generations of women suffrage supporters lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied, and practiced civil disobedience to achieve what many Americans considered a radical change in the Constitution.
· Study ways in which suffragists fought for women’s social justice and therefore have a clearer understanding of the tireless works of many suffragists fighting for the voting rights of women.
· Know that in August of 1920 the ratification of the 19th amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote.
· Know that on November 2, 1920, 8 million women voted in a presidential election for the first time.
Recommended time frame / 3-40 minute lessons; 1-20 minute assessment
Grade level / 4th or 5th grade
Curriculum fit / Social Science
Materials / · Images found on the Primary Resource Table enlarged, printed, and laminated to pass around
· Computer lab (computers)
· http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/brftime.html
· Poster board/markers
· Homework: Time for Kids article “The Fight to Vote”
· Rubric: Women’s Suffrage—Evaluation
· Handout/Evaluation: Women Rock the Vote…Finally!
· Rubric: Women’s Suffrage—Final Project (optional/extension activity)
Illinois State Learning Standards Back to Navigation Bar
Social Sciences:
GOAL 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States and other nations.
· 16.A. Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.
· 16.A.2c Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic documents, images and other literary and non-literary sources.
· 16.D. Understand Illinois, United States and world social history.
· 16.D.2c Describe the influence of key individuals and groups, including Susan B. Anthony/suffrage and Martin Luther King, Jr./civil rights, in the historical eras of Illinois and the United States.
Procedures Back to Navigation Bar
Day One:
· The teacher will write the word “suffragist” and “August 18, 1920” on the board. He/she will pass out the pictures from the Image Table that have been printed, enlarged, and laminated. He/she will ask the students to talk amongst themselves while trying to discover the importance of the term “suffragist,” the listed date, and the pictures.
· After the class has come to some sort of consensus, the teacher will lead a discussion on women’s suffrage. He/she will discuss how in the mid-19th century, several generations of suffragists lectured, wrote, marched, lobbied and practiced civil disobedience to fight for women’s suffrage.
· The teacher will briefly discuss the given pictures, the date August 18, 1920, and the ratification of the19th Constitutional amendment. The teacher will use the description from the image table while describing the images that were passed around between students.
Day Two: COMPUTER LAB
· A brief review on women’s suffrage will be given by the teacher.
· The students will be asked to count by 4 and divided accordingly.
· At that point, each group will be asked to log onto their computer and go to the following site: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/brftime.html
· Each group will be assigned a time period leading up to the 1920 (1912-1914, 1915-1916, 1917, 1918-1920). Given the loc.gov generated timeline, each group will then be asked to make their own timeline on a poster board of what they think are the most important events from their assigned time periods (at least 6; no more than 10).
· The teacher will collect the poster boards for use on Day 3.
Day Three:
· Chronologically, each group of students will be asked to come to the front of the class to briefly explain their time period’s outline (each student from the group will be required to discuss at least 1 point on their group’s timeline).
· After each group has presented, the timelines will be collected and the students will be given the Time for Kids article “The Fight to Vote” to read for homework.
· The students will also be given the Rubric: Women’s Suffrage—Evaluation and told that their evaluation will be the following Social Studies’ period.
Evaluation/Day Four:
· The students will be asked to complete the assessment: Women Rock the Vote…Finally!
Evaluation Back to Navigation Bar
This learning experience will be evaluated by grading the evaluation hand-out: Women Rock the Vote…Finally!
(please see the hand-out: Women Rock the Vote…Finally! and the Rubric:Women’s Suffrage)
Extension Back to Navigation Bar
After completing all lessons mentioned above, students could show their understanding of the long journey of women’s suffrage through a thoughtful and creative final project. Each student could choose between the following: A reflection paper, a complete time line, a political cartoon, or a drawing/painting/sculpture/etc. on the topic of Women’s Suffrage.
Students would be encouraged to use reputable on-line resources, including The Library of Congress, to explore women’s suffrage before beginning their final product. In order to further enhance their understanding of the topic at hand, students could be directed towards the following sites on www.loc.gov :
http://womenshistorymonth.gov/index.html
http://womenshistorymonth.gov/collections.html
http://womenshistorymonth.gov/photos.html
Or elsewhere:
http://www.nga.gov/fcgi-bin/tinfo_f?object=139854
http://archives.gov/education/lessons/bloomer/
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwhome.html
(please see Rubric: Women’s Suffrage—Final Project)
Primary Resources from the Library of Congress
Back to Navigation Bar
Women Suffrage: Image Table
Image / Description / Citation / URLPhotograph of fourteen suffragists in overcoats on picket line, holding suffrage banners in front of the White House. One banner reads: "Mr. President How Long Must Women Wait For Liberty". White House visible in background.
Title transcribed from item. / Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mnwp:@field(DOCID+@lit(mnwp000212))
Photograph of contingents of suffragists marching with banners on street. Banners read: "Delegations From Womans Clubs", "Wisconsin," and "Oregon."
Title derived by Library of Congress staff. / Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mnwp:@field(DOCID+@lit(mnwp000339))
Suffrage envoy Sara Bard Field (left) and her driver, Maria Kindberg (center), and machinist Ingeborg Kindstedt (right) during their cross-country journey to present suffrage petitions to Congress, September-December 1915. / Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mnwp:@field(DOCID+@lit(mnwp000424))
Photograph on a rainy day of a woman standing on chair in slicker and rain hat speaking through a megaphone to suffragists standing with suffrage banners. One banner reads: "Illinois." Building in background. / Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mnwp:@field(DOCID+@lit(mnwp000434))
Photograph of crowd of people standing around desk as ratification document is signed.
Title transcribed from item. / Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. / http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mnwp:@field(DOCID+@lit(mnwp000305))
Women Suffrage: Image Table (continuation)
Rubric
Back to Navigation Bar
Rubric: Women’s Suffrage—Final Project
Name:______
Please choose one of the following options:
o Reflection Paper (3-4 paragraphs)
o Timeline (highlighting important events from 1912-1920)
o A Political Cartoon (at least 5 scenes, drawn and colored)
o A drawing/painting/sculpture reflecting on Women’s Suffrage (including a paragraph detailing the piece)
4 / ExceptionalThe student:
· Displayed exceptional knowledge and creativity on his/her final project
3 / Impressive
The student:
· Displayed impressive knowledge and creativity on his/her final project
2 / Acceptable
The student:
· Displayed acceptable knowledge and creativity on his/her final project
1 / Needs Further Instruction
The student:
· Did not display knowledge or creativity on his/her final project
Rubric: Women’s Suffrage—Evaluation
The student:
· Fully understands the term “suffragist”
· Fully understands why women wanted the right to vote
· Knows which amendment was ratified giving women the right to vote
· Knows what month AND year women won the right to vote
· Has a clear, concise opinion on the right to vote
3 / Impressive
The student:
· Partially understands the term “suffragist”
· Partially understands why women wanted the right to vote
· Knows that there was an amendment ratified that gave women the right to vote
· Knows what month OR year women won the right to vote
· Has a basic opinion on the right to vote
2 / Acceptable
The student:
· Partially understands the term “suffragist” with teacher direction
· Partially understands why women wanted the right to vote with teacher direction
· Knows that there was an amendment ratified that gave women the right to vote
· Knows that women won the right to vote
· Has a partially completed opinion on the right to vote
1 / Needs Further Instruction
The student:
· Does not understand the term “suffragist” with or without teacher direction
· Does not understand why women wanted the right to vote with or without teacher direction
· Does not knows that there was an amendment ratified that gave women the right to vote
· Does not knows that women won the right to vote
· Does not have an opinion on the right to vote
Handouts
Back to Navigation Bar
Article located in Time for Kids March 6th, 2009
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/article/0,27972,1882591,00.html
The Fight to Vote
Nellie Gonzalez Cutler
In 1987, Congress declared March Women's History Month. This month, TFK will look at important achievements by women. The struggle for the vote changed the nation.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." With those words, the Declaration of Independence set forth the idea of equality. But the women at the Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, felt that a key phrase was missing. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and others rewrote the Declaration. "All men and women are created equal," they insisted. They resolved that it was "the duty of the women of this country" to fight for suffrage, or the right to vote.
Seneca Falls was the beginning of a long road to suffrage (see "One Step at a Time"). Those who wanted to expand voting rights to all Americans were called suffragists. Suffragists demonstrated, gave talks and traveled the country.
In 1872, Susan B. Anthony voted in Rochester, New York. She was arrested and convicted of breaking the law. "My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights, are all alike ignored," she said at her trial.
Six years later, Senator A.A. Sargeant, of California, introduced an amendment to the Constitution to ensure that women could vote. But it took another 42 years before all women in the U.S. were guaranteed the right to vote.
On November 2, 1920, 8 million American women voted in a presidential election for the first time. The women who blazed the trail did not live to see that historic day. In her last speech, one month before she died, in 1906, Anthony urged women to continue to fight for the vote. "Failure," she told her audience, "is impossible."
Women Rock the Vote…Finally!!
Name:______
Date:______
What is a suffragist? ______
______
What year did women get the right to vote in national elections?______
What amendment gave women that right?______
What were some of the arguments given for why women should be allowed to vote?
______
What are your thoughts about the suffragists who fought for the right to vote?
______
Tell me your thoughts about voting in general.
______
Images located on the above outlined “Image Table” that have been expanded. Please laminate and cut out for classroom use.