ERIC ED436781: Guidelines for a Gender-Balanced Curriculum in English, Grades 7-12.

9 Pages·1999·0.23 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
CS 216 964
ED 436 781
Guidelines for a Gender-Balanced Curriculum in English,
TITLE
Grades 7-12.
National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL. Women
INSTITUTION
in Literature and Life Assembly.
PUB DATE
1999-00-00
NOTE
8p.
National Council of Teachers of English, 1111 W. Kenyon
AVAILABLE FROM
Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (free, stock #19654). Tel:
800-369-6283 (Toll Free); Web site: <http://www.ncte.org>.
Guides - Non-Classroom (055) -- Reference Materials
PUB TYPE
Bibliographies (131)
MF01/PC01 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
*Adolescent Literature; Biographies; Class Activities;
DESCRIPTORS
Drama; *English Instruction; Folk Culture; Poetry; Science
Fiction; Secondary Education; *Sex Role; Short Stories
Historical Fiction; Information Books; Realistic Fiction
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This booklet presents a book list, activities, and teacher
resources to provide teachers a starting place for works of adolescent
literature that will initiate conversations and questions about gender roles
and the perceptions of appropriate behavior and activities. It is designed to
bring teachers' attention to more recent titles in order to augment the
curriculum and assist teachers in addressing the concerns of today's young
adult readers. It lists 39 short stories and collections, 45 works of
contemporary realistic fiction, 9 works of fantasy/science fiction, 19 works
of historical fiction, 5 works of folklore, 17 works of biography or
autobiography, 6 works of personal narrative, 17 informational books, 13
works about drama, and 9 works of poetry. It lists 12 teacher resources and
12 activities for building a more balanced English language arts curriculum
in the English classroom.
(RS)
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
Guidelines for a Gender-Balanced Curriculum in
English Grades 7-12.
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11
selected booklist
Gender equity does not exist in business, in aca-
a
demics, or athletics. One other place equity
for gender-balanced curriculum
does not exist is within the scope of our English
in English language arts:
language arts curriculum. In part, the inequity in the cur-
riculum is one of invisibilityfewer female than male
Grades 7-12
protagonists are represented in bobks written for adoles-
cents, particularly in the works of the traditional canon.
Fiction: Short Stories and Collections
Additionally, few of those young female protagonists are
strong enough of mind, body, or will to serve as positive
Bauer, Marion Dane (ed.) Am I Blue?: Coming Out from
role models for the young women in our classrooms.
the Silence
Another facet of the inequity in literature is that
"Blood Sister" Jane Yolen
many characters are not shown as multidimensional
humans with strengths as well as weaknesses. Instead,
"Slipping Away" Jacqueline Woodson
both males and females display behavior and traits that
"We Might As Well Be Strangers" M. E. Kerr
reflect stereotyped roles, responsibilities, and expecta-
"Winnie and Tommy" Francesca Lia Block
tions. Although there may be segments of our society
that are redefining gender roles, the female and male
Block, Francesca Lia Girl Goddess #9
characters adolescents read about are often locked into
Carlson, Lori M. American Eyes: New Asian-American
traditional roles and behaviors.
Short Stories for Young Adults
As teachers and adults who work with adolescents,
Crutcher, Chris Athletic Shorts
we advocate wide reading of good literature as one way
"The Other Pin"
for students to have vicarious experiences in which they
Freeman, Mary Wilkins "The Revolt of Mother"
can identify with strong characters across a wide range
of human experiences which cross traditional gender
Gallo, Don (ed.) Connections
boundaries. But if texts and the characters in them re-
"Dear Marsha" Judie Angell
main gender-bound, the ideas which might cause ado-
"Fairy Tale" Todd Strasser
lescents to develop expectations for the future,
"Life's a Beach" Sue Ellen Bridgers
responses to life's events, and stances on issues may
"Love Potion" Cin Forshay-Lunsford
also remain stereotypically gender-bound.
We must all search for texts that will initiate conver-
"Mildred" Colby Rodowsky
sations and questions about gender roles and the per-
Gallo, Don (ed.) No Easy Answers
ceptions of appropriate behavior and activities. Through
"Bliss at the Burger Bar" Louise Plummer
these conversations and questions, teachers can be in-
"Eva and the Major" Jean Davies Okomoto
strumental in helping students reflect on gendered ex-
pectations. Teachers can challenge those expectations
"Simon Says" Monica Hughes
by showing options and alternatives so readers seek to
"Stranger" Walter Dean Myers
confront the inequities they find in their own lives.
Gallo, Don (ed.) Short Circuits
There are many contemporary classics which are al-
"The Hoppins" Annette Curtis Klause
ready in place in our curriculum, such as I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings and The Diary of Anne Frank. The pur-
"There's a Tomb Waiting for You" Joan Lowery
pose of this guide is to bring to your attention more
Nixon
recent titles in order to augment your curriculum and
"TLA' Jane McFann
to assist you in addressing the concerns of today's young
Gallo, Don (ed.) Sixteen
adult readers.
"The Gift-Giving" Joan Aiken
The following booklist, the activities, and the teacher
resources provide a starting place. We invite each of you
"I, Hungry Hannah Cassandra Glen" Norma Fox
to continue to find other resources and to share them
Mazer
with your students and your peers.
3
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"Midnight Snack" Diane Duane
Yep, Laurence American Dragons
"Dana's Eyes" Nicol Juratovac
"Pigeon Humor" Susan Beth Pfeffer
"Hollywood and the Pits" Cherylene Lee
"Priscilla and the Wimps" Richard Peck
"There's No Reason to Get Romantic" Ann
"She" Rosa Guy
Tashi Slater
Gallo, Don (ed.) Ultimate Sports
"Who's Hu" Lensey Namioka
"Brownian Motion" Virginia Euwer Wolff
"Cutthroat" Norma Fox Mazer
ntemporary Realistic Fiction
"Sea Changes" Tessa Duder
Adler, C. S.
Yours Hee and Me
"Stealing for Girls" Will Weaver
Arrick, Fran
What You Don't Know Can Kill You
Gallo, Don (ed.) Visions
Banks, Lynne Reid
One More River
"The Good Girls" Fran Arrick
Block, Francesca Lia
The Hanged Man
"Great Moves" Sandy Asher
Brancato, Robin
Winning
"Shadows" Richard Peck
Creech, Sharon
Walk Two Moons
Gilchrist, Ellen "Revenge"
Crew, Linda
Children of the River
Giovanni, Nikki (ed.) Grandmothers
Deaver, Julie Reece
Say Goodnight, Gracie
Jewett, Sarah Orne "White Heron"
Dickinson, Peter
A Bone from a Dry Sea
Keil lor, Garrison "What Did We Do Wrong?"
Dorris, Michael
Morning Girl
Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Labozzetta, Marisa "Offsides"
Duder, Tessa
In Lane Three, Alex Archer
Lessing, Doris "The Old Chief .Mshlanga"
Dygard, Thomas J.
Forward Pass
Mazer, Anne America Street
Garcia-Williams, Rita
Blue Tights
"Raymond's Run" Toni Cade Bambera
Like Sisters on the Homefront
"The All-American Slurp" Lensey Namioka
Garland, Sherry
Song of the Buffalo Boy
Oates, Joyce Carol "Golden Gloves"
Grant, Cynthia D.
Uncle Vampire
Sayles, John "The 7-10 Split"
Guy, Rosa
The Music of Summer
Spenser, Elizabeth "The Girl Who Loved Horses"
Hobbs, Will
Downriver
River Thunder
Straight, Susan "Off Season"
Hotze, Sollace
Acquainted with the Night
Soto, Gary Baseball in April
Hudson, Jan
Dawn Rider
"Marble Champ"
Johnson, Angela
Humming Whispers
Taylor, Theodore "Walking Up a Rainbow"
Toning the Sweep
Thomas, Joyce Carol A Gathering of Flowers
Kerr, M. E.
Deliver Us from Evie
"After the War" Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Klass, Sheila Solomon
Rhino
"Yng Reverend Zelma Lee Moses" Joyce Carol
Krishner, Trudy
Kinship
Thomas
Spite Fences
Van Winckel, Nance "Coming To"
Laird, Elizabeth
Kiss the Dust
Lee, Marie G.
Weiss, Jerry, and Helen Weiss From One Experience to
Finding My Voice
Another
Mazer, Harry
The Island Keeper
Naidoo, Beverly
Wilson, Budge The Leaving
Chain of Fire
Namioka, Lensey
April and the Dragon Lady
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BEST COPY
Plummer, Louise
The Unlikely Romance
Rinaldi, Ann
Last Silk Dress in the Confederacy
of Kate Bjorkman
Woochy the Ears
Rylant, Cynthia
Missing May
Roth-Hano, Renee
7buchwooa'
Staples,
Stevens, Bryna
Frank Thompson:
Suzanne Fisher
Arena Beach
Her Civil War Story
Novell
Taylor, Mildred
Road to Memphis
Stoehr, Shelley
Crosses
Weird on the Outside
Folklore
Voigt, Cynthia
When She Hollers
Tomlinson, Theresa
Willey, Margaret
The ForestWife
The Melinda Zone
Wolff, Virginia Euwer
Hamilton, Virginia
Her Stories: African American
Make Lemonade
Folktales
The Mozart Season
Woodson, Jacqueline
The People Could Fly
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
McKinley, Robin
Beauty
I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This
Yolen, Jane
Briar Rose
iFantasy/Science Fiction
Nonfidion: Bio
graphy/Aestobiography
Barron, T. A.
The Ancient One
Heartlight
Ashby, Ruth, and
Herstory:
Carlile, Clancy
Deborah Gore
Children of the Dust
Women Who Changed the World
Ohm (eds.)
Hesse, Karen
Phoenix Rising
Connolly, Pat
Hughes, Monica
Coaching Evelyn: Fast, Faster;
Invitation to the Game
Fastest Woman in the World
Klaus, Annette
Blood and Chocolate
Ferris, Jeri
What I Had Was Singing:
Patton, Sarah
The Green Book
The Story of Marian Anderson
O'Brien, Robert C.
Z for Zachariah
Freedman, Russell
Eleanor Roosevelt:
Wrede, Patricia C.
Dealing with Dragons
A Life of Discovery
Johnston, Andrea
Girls Speak Out: Finding Your
Historical Fiction
True Self
Lanker, Brian
Avi
I Dream a Work': Portraits
The True Confessions
of Black Women Who
of Charlotte Doyle
Changed America
Cooney, Caroline B.
Across Time
Levine, Ellen
Freedom's Children:
Cushman, Karen
Catherine, Called Birdy
Young Civil Rights Activists
The Midwife's Apprentice
Tell Their Own Stories
Garland, Sherry
Indio
Lowery, Linda
Wilma Mankiller
Gregory, Kristina
Earthquake at Dawn
Parks, Rosa
My Story
Hesse, Karen
Letters from Rifka
(with Jim Haskins)
Houston, Gloria
Mountain Valor
Plowden,
Irwin, Hadley
Martha Ward
Olympic Black Women
Meyer, Carolyn
White Lilacs
Riddles, Libby
Race across Alaska:
Paterson, Katherine
Lyddie
First Woman to Win
Pullman, Philip
the lditarod Tells Her Story
The Ruby in the Smoke
Sherr, Lynn, and
Shadow in the North
J. Kazickas
The Tiger in the Well
Susan B. Anthony Slept Here
Stanley, Jerry
Big Annie of Calumet
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5
Stefoff, Rebecca
Savage, Candace
Women of the World: Women
Cowgirls
Travelers and Explorers
Shannon, Jacqueline
Why It's Great to Be a Girl
Uchida, Yoshiko
The Invisible Thread
Sheafer, Silvia Anne
Women in America's Wars
Wohlmuth, Sharon J.,
Tashlik, Phyllis
Hispanic, Female, and Young:
and Carol Saline
Mothers and Daughters
An Anthology
Vinke, Hermann
The Short Life of Sophie Scholl
Aare, Ethlie Ann,
Women Inventors
and Greg Ptacek
and Their Discoveries
Pena ai Narrative
Yount, Lisa
Contempory Women Scientists
Beals, Melba Patti llo
Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing
Memoir of the Battle
to Integrate Little Rock's
Churchill, Caryl
Top Girls
Central High
Glaspell, Susan
Trifles
Car lip, Hillary
Girl Power: Young Women
Hansberry, Lorraine
A Raisin in the Sun
Speak Out
Hellman, Lillian
Children's Hour
Lyons, Mary
Keeping Secrets: The Girlhood
Henley, Beth
Crimes of the Heart
Diaries of Seven Women Writers
Little Miss Firecracker
"Brown Girl, Brown Stones"
Marshall, Pau le
O'Neil, Eugene
Moon for the Misbegotten
"Poets in the Kitchen"
Mourning Becomes Electra
Sender, Ruth Minsky
The Cage
Strindberg, August
The Stronger
Wasserstein, Wendy
Couple of White Chicks Sittin'
finfitn'OTOgOOITDa0
Around Talking
Briggs, Carole S.
The Heidi Chronicles
At the Controls: Women in Aviation
Wilson, August
Chang, Ina
A Separate Battle: Women
Fences
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
and the Civil War
Colman, Penny
Rosie the Riveter: Women Working
Poetry
on the Homefront in WWII
Dash, Joan
We Shall Not Be Moved:
Alvarez, Julia
Missing the Zebras
The Women's Factory Strike
Duffy, Carol Ann (ed.)
I Wouldn't Thank You for a Valentine
of 1909
Fletcher, Ralph
Poems about Love
Fireside, Bryna J.
Is There a Woman in the House
Holbrook, Sarah
Chicks Up Front
or Senate?
Nothing's the End of the World
Gavin, Lettie
American Women in World War I:
Joshlin, Isabel (ed.)
Dreams of Glory: Poems
They Also Served
Starring Girls
Gregorich, Barbara
Women at Play: The Story
Nye, Naomi Shihab,
I Feel a Little Jumpy around You:
of Women in Baseball
and Paul B. Janeczk
A Book of Her Poems
o
Macy, Sue
Winning Ways: A Photohistory
(eds.)
and His Poems Collected in Pairs
of American Women in Sports
Rylant, Cynthia
Something Permanent
Miller, Brandon Marie Buffalo Gals: Women
Volavkovd, Hana (ed.)
I Never Saw Another Butterfly:
of the Old West
Children's Drawings and Poems
Rochelle, Belinda
Witnesses to Freedom
from Terezin Concentration Camp
Rochman, Hazel,
1942-1944
and Darlene Z.
Bearing Witness: Stories
McCampbell
of the Holocaust
(eds.)
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
6
ideas
OSCRO roes
loir building a more balanced
Bauermeister, Erica, Jesse Larsen, and Holly Smith.
English language arts curriculum
500 Great Books by Women. New York: Penguin,
1994.
in your English classroom
Bauermeister, Erica, and Holly Smith. Let's Hear It
for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. New
York: Penguin, 1997.
Weave books about, for, and by women/girls into
1.
Adult
Kelly, Patricia. "Gender Issues and the Young
especially materi-
every aspect of the curriculum,
Novel." In Reading Their Obrid: The Young Adult
als that show females as active participants in life
Novel in the Classroom. Eds. V R. Monseau and G.
and able to succeed in any endeavor, rather than
M. Salvner. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook,
passive observers and recipients of the actions and
1993. 154-167.
decisions of others.
Litton, Joyce A. "Dreams, Guys, Lies, and Occasion-
Take a global view of language by valuing the sto-
ally Books: The Young Women of the 'Freshman
2.
ries and writing of people from all cultural groups
Dorm' Series." ALAN Review 22.2 (1995): 10-13.
and walks of life.
"The Sweet Valley High Gang Goes to
College." ALAN Review 24.1 (1996): 20-23.
Privilege the more feminine styles/forms of writ-
3.
ing by asking students to read and write in many
McCracken, Nancy Mellin and Bruce C. Appleby,
formats, including diaries, journals, and dramas.
eds. Gender Issues in the Teaching of English.
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1992.
Compare the ways in which males and females are
4.
McCracken, Nancy, Donald H. Evan, and Kelly
portrayed in various genres and works of literature.
Wilson. "Resisting Gender-Binding in Middle
Build an understanding of gender roles as affected
School." Voices from the Middle 3.1 (1996): 4-10.
5.
by cultural mores by pairing Suzanne Fisher
Mitchell, Diana. "Approaching Race and Gender
Staple's Hayek and Lensey Namioka's April and the
Issues in the Context of the Language Arts
Dragon Lady.
Classroom: Teaching Ideas." English Journal 85.8
(1996): 77-81.
Examine the role of gender in media and analyze
6.
Odean, Kathleen. Great Books for Girls: More than 600
the ways in which girls/women/boys/men may be
Books to Inspire Today's Girls and Tomorrow's Women.
defined stereotypically.
New York: Ballantine, 1997.
Include nonprint media which presents girls/
7.
Speigel, Lisa A., ed. Females in Adolescent Literature.
women/boys/men in positive and non-stereotypic
Ottawa, KS: The Writing Conference, Inc.,
roles.
1996.
Pair books with similar themes or topics to include
8.
Teasley, Alan, and Ann Wilder. Reel Conversations:
both a male and female protagonist. For example
Reading Films with Young Adults. New York:
when reading an identity novel with a male char-
Heinemann, 1997.
Chocolate War, also
acter such as Robert Cormier's
Whaley, Liz, and Liz Dodge. Weaving in the Women:
read Sharon Creech's book Walk Two Moons, which
Transforming the High School English Curriculum.
features the struggles of a girl character.
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1993.
Pair a work from the traditional canon such as The
9.
Diary of Anne Frank with a more recent work that
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
guidelines
explores similar lives, struggles, or era such as Jane
Complement to the
(See Kaywell's
Briar Rose.
Yolen's
From Hinton to Hamlet.)
or Herz and Gallo's
Classics
for, gender-
10. Use children's literature to help students explore
complex issues and themes through illustrations
-a
and simplified story lines; for example, Anthony
balanced
or Faith Ringgold's
Tar Beach.
Browne's
Piggybook
curriculum
11. Implement classroom strategies such as literature
circles and response groups to ensure personal en-
in English
gagement with the text's concerns and encourage
the voicing of variant opinions.
Grades 7-12
Institute a reading workshop to approach litera-
12.
ture by providing for individual choice as well as
and
reading level.
differences
in preference
Prepared by
Single copies of this statement are available free upon request,
the Women in Literature
and may be copied without permission from NCTE. Multiple
and Life Assembly (WILLA)
copies are available at a bulk rate of U.S. $7 per 100, prepaid
only. Stock #19654. Send request to NCTE Order Depart-
of NCTE
ment, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096.
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IC
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