Gender

Gender

The Main Texts 1) //Bloody Jack// by L.A Meyer 2) //Dairy Queen// by Catherine Gilbert Murdock 3) //Catherine, Called Birdy// by Karen Cushman 4) //The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks// By E. Lockhart 5) //What Happened to Lani Garver// by Carol Plum-Ucci
 * 1) The book takes place during the late 1700s. A young girl disguises herself as a boy to gain employment as a ship’s boy to avoid living on the street. Throughout her journey, she learns about how to be a sailor and the differences between men and women.
 * 1) After spending the summer training a high school quarterback, D.J. decides she wants to try out for the school’s football team. She soon realizes that not everyone is happy with her decision.
 * 1) The books takes place in the Middle Ages. Catherine’s father wishes to marry her off, but Catherine does not like any of the men. So, she uses her wit to avoid marriage. Catherine is not very lady-like and tends to cause her family stress.
 * 1) Frankie discovers a secret society that her father was a part of and her boyfriend is currently in at their private high school. When she realizes she cannot join because only boys are allowed to, she tries to sabotage it.
 * 1) A girl named Claire just beat cancer and returns to school after a year of being absent. Her view of life is a little different from her friends, but she tries to ignore it. A new kid arrives named Lani, and everyone is trying to figure out if Lani is a boy or a girl.

Other Texts 6) //Twelfth Night// or //What You Will// by William Shakespeare (Classic/Contested) 7) //Annabel// By Kathleen Winter 8) //Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity// by Mattilda AKA Matt Bernstein Sycamore
 * 1) After being washed ashore from a shipwreck, Viola believes her brother and the crew to be dead. She dresses herself as a man and gains employment with the Duke. Not long afterwards, she falls in love with him. Meanwhile, the woman the Duke is in love with falls in love with the man Viola is pretending to be.
 * 1) A child is born not fully a man but not fully a woman. The question of “What makes a person’s gender?” is heavy throughout.
 * 1) A Collection of essays written by different people about their struggles with gender identity.

Others 1) //Daddy Day-Care// (Movie) 2) // Hanamaru Kindergarten // (Anime/Manga) 3) // Ouran High School Host Club // (Anime/Manga) 4) // She’s the Man // (Movie)
 * 1) After losing his job, a man decides to run a daycare
 * 1) A funny, cute little series about a guy working in a kindergarten
 * 1) Owing the high school’s Host Club a lot of money, a girl is forced to pretend to be a boy and partake in the Host Club’s activities.
 * 1) Modern-day twist on //Twelfth Night//. A girl’s mother wants her to be a “fine lady” but the girl just wants to play soccer. She dresses up and pretends to be her brother and joins the soccer team.

Activities

1) Note Card Guessing 2) “Be a man,” “Be lady-like” 3) Name-calling (Note: This works best if you allow the students to be free with their speech. Don’t restrain them. Let them be not P.C for just this lesson, but not towards any specific person) 4) During Reading Involvement
 * 1) Have students write three things they like to do on a note card. Read some of them aloud and have the students try to guess the gender of the student described. After some of them, have a discussion on the activity. How were they basing their guesses? What surprised them?
 * 1) What does it mean to act “like a man?” List what the students say.
 * 2) What does it mean to be “lady-like?” List what the students say.
 * 3) Discuss where these assumptions came from.
 * 1) What do you call a boy who doesn’t live up to the male gender roles?
 * 2) What do you call a girl who doesn’t live up to the female gender roles?
 * 3) Discuss
 * 1) Have the students list the gender roles they see either applied or broken in the books. Does a male character do something in the female gender roles? Does a female do something in the male gender roles?

Glogster for Twelfth Night: http://taergalive.glogster.com/twelfth-night-6905/