Written Narrative

Written Narrative

(Unit: Women’s Movement)

Cheryl Ann Bomal and Mary Jean Thurlow worked together to produce this unit which we will use next year in our 9th grade US I History classes. We began our collaboration by 1) reviewing State Framework Standards and National History Standards 2) developing essential questions that would guide our lesson plans and 3) developing the enduring understanding that we hoped our students would keep forever in their psyches. We then looked at the directions and rubric for the unit and divided the work evenly between the two of us. For instance, one of the requirements was that leadership was to be addressed in at least two daily lesson plans. Because of this, we decided that one of us would develop a lesson plan on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the other person would develop a lesson plan on Susan B. Anthony. In addition, one of us would concentrate on developing an introductory overview lesson and the other would concentrate on developing the final performance assessment. For additional days, one of us would develop a timeline project and the other would concentrate on an historical cartoon or photograph. During our research, we added to and amended our original ideas as we encountered new information and perspectives. We collaborated in person, over the phone and via the internet. In the course of our research, we had to continually ask ourselves what information and skills were most important for our students to learn. We shared our research, knowledge and insights with each other. Our unit focused on leaders to a large extent because we felt that our students could benefit greatly by looking at a variety of reformers (both famous and not-so-famous) and seeing how they responded to challenges and conflict. By studying these women’s rights leaders, they could also learn about leadership in the more general, less specific sense. We felt that each of us played an equally positive role in developing this unit and that our teamwork benefited the unit as a whole.

We plan to teach this unit after we teach about the anti-slavery movement and leaders as well as after other reform movements and leaders. This includes leaders and movements such as Dorothea Dix and prison reform, Transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau, Horace Mann’s public education movement, and the temperance movement. This way, students will better understand how the women’s rights movement evolved from other reform movements. After the Women’s Movement unit, we will teach about causes and effects of the rise in immigration during the 1830s and 1840s.

We added several things to this unit that we would not have thought of if we had not participated in TAH. The first thing was the emphasis on leadership – the leadership mentioned in the state standards as well as “silent voices.” We added leaders that we read about in Radicals of the Worst Sort, learned about in Chad Montrie’s session, and heard about on field trips. In addition, we included an Elizabeth Cady Stanton primary source document similar to the autobiographical Stanton reading provided to TAH students for the Summer Institute. We also added three of scholar Chad Montrie’s essential questions to our lesson plans – 1) “What kind of argument did suffragists make for the vote in the nineteenth century? How did that change in the early twentieth century?” 2) “What were the main achievements of women’s rights proponents in the twentieth century? What did they fail to achieve or accomplish in only a limited way?” and 3) “What distinguished the perspective, style, choice of tactics, and goals of the various women rights leaders?” Lastly, we thought that the Leadership Profile Dilemmas/Opportunities graphic organizer that was provided to TAH students to complete after each session could be adapted for use with our high school students. We made a few changes to it and included it in Lessons 7 and 8. It could also be used throughout the school year during other units.

In terms of dilemmas and opportunities, we wanted our students to understand foremost that dilemmas oftentimes lead to opportunities. For instance, by reading excerpts from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s autobiography, the students learn that one person’s discontent and her chance meeting with another like-minded individual (Lucretia Mott) resulted in a convention that started the monumental movement towards women’s rights. In addition, by including lesser-known women in the bio poem performance assessment, we hoped students would learn or understand that everyday people act as leaders when they face dilemmas with courage – one of the main themes of Radicals of the Worst Sort and Sarah’s Long Walk. This approach tied into our essential questions about responding to challenges, and conflictsproviding avenues for change.

There were many historical thinking standards that we found essential in developing an understanding of our topic. We felt that it was important to include as many standards as possible in our 8-day unit to assure that our students were implementing a myriad of skills. Being able to develop a time-line at the end of the unit was essential, as well as being able to analyze a cartoon from the era. We hoped that many of the activities we included in the unit would help students distinguish between past, present and future time (Historical Thinking Standard 1A). In terms of Women’s Rights, we hoped that they would understand the courage and sacrifice of past leaders, their impact on the present and how different the present is from the mid-1800s. We also hoped that, because of our unit, our students would imagine themselves as leaders and dream of how they might change the world someday – or at least confront a problem in a courageous manner.

Cheryl Ann Bomal and Mary Jean Thurlow