Tuesday, July 25, 2017

High School Gender/Women's Studies

As we transition to High School, we are shifting from unit studies that were very free-form (pick a subject you are interested, mom will get you as many resources as she can find, spend a month exploring them, write a paper and create a project) to a syllabus structure with set topics.

From the list of options, he chose for the Fall: Women's Studies, Colonialism and Post-Colonialism, and Anti-Oppression/Anti-Racism

Here's the syllabus I created for Women's Studies:


High School Gender and Women’s Studies Syllabus:



Research the following:

1.       What is gender? What have been the changing understandings of gender and gender roles in American history?

2.       When did the Women’s movement first begin and who were the central figures? (Seneca Falls) What were the issues between the women’s movement and racial justice movements?

3.       How has women’s inequality been established/enforced throughout American History?

4.       What was the “2nd Wave” of Feminism? Who were the central figures and events of this moment in history?

5.       What happened to the Equal Rights Amendment?

6.       What are the current trends and voices in Feminism and Gender Justice, around the world? (look for diverse voices representing women of color and trans people as well as white American women).



In your research use:

1.       At least two books considered classics in the field, such as:

a.       A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

b.       Woman in the 19th Century by Margaret Fuller

c.        Ain’t I a Woman? by Sojourner Truth

d.       The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

e.       Feminism is For Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks

f.        The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

2.       Find at least 4 gender or women’s studies TEDTalks and watch them

3.       And look into at least 4 websites (such as the following but not limited to them):


b.       http://www.feminist.org/

c.        http://www.nwsa.org/



4.       Also, Interview at least 3 women or non-binary gendered people in your family or community about how they’ve experienced their gender in our society.

Final Paper:

The final paper should present your research findings and your thesis about gender discrimination in our society and where we should go from here.

Minimum length: 4 pages, single spaced, 12 point font

Include an annotated bibliography

Due Date: October 1, 2017, See Rubric for further expectations for grading

Monday, July 24, 2017

Back to the Books!


Summer is a great time for learning like what I've pictured above: outdoors, field trips, hands on, travel, adventure, exploring. Summer is also a great time for building, gardening, preserving and cooking food, and taking part in community through the many (often free) events, festivals, and camps to be found this time of year.

But we school year round. So, although we have been on break from the books since early June, we are about to go back to them! Summer can be a good time for books, too.


Thursday, July 6, 2017

High School Literature List

The biggest change coming up for our learning adventures is High School!

When I started thinking about what our high school plan would be, I started with the part that would be the most fun for me ... the reading list. I wanted a list that was a bit of the Classical Conversation, but also strongly multicultural. Here's what I've come up with so far (a work in progress, always open to suggestions).


High School Reading List:



English Literature:

Dickens

Bronte Sisters

Jane Austin

Shakespeare

Oscar Wilde



American Literature:

Twain

Fitzgerald

Hawthorne

Edgar Allen Poe

Steinbeck

Hemingway



White Women’s Literature:

Sylvia Plath

Frankenstein

Kate Chopin

Herland

Harper Lee

Handmaid’s Tale



Multicultural Women’s Literature:

Their Eyes Were Watching God

When the Caged Bird Sings

The Color Purple

The House on Mango Street

Joy Luck Club



Classical Greek/Roman:

Plato, The Republic

Eurypides

Oedipus Rex

Homer

Virgil

Aurelius

Ovid



European:

Kafka

Albert Camus

Dante

Victor Hugo



African American:

James Baldwin

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

A Raisen in the Sun

Letter From a Birmingham Jail

Beloved, Toni Morrison



Native American:

Sherman Alexie

Indian Horse, Richard Wagamese

An Incovenient Indian, Thomas King

Ignatia Broker

Moccasin Thunder



Asian American:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

?

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

It's Been Awhile ....




This blog has been long neglected. For 2 1/2 years!

In those 2 1/2 years, we fell into a happy rhythm with our homeschool, found a good software package for helping organize our school, rearranged our furniture and house to find the "right" set up more times than I can count, incurred far too many library late fees on the giant piles of books we checked out, and got one kid done with Middle School and the other done with Elementary School.

I stopped blogging here for many reasons, and it is harder to blog about family life and homeschooling as your kids get older and want more privacy. Truly, their stories are not mine to tell, and it gets tricky to separate my story from theirs. However, this homeschooling and educational journey is a story I want to tell, and my urge to write and chronical is no longer fulfilled by Facebook or any other short-form social media sharing, so here I am again.

And I'm back to blogging with a bang! I could have just tried to restart this blog, but no .... I also went and started another! Here I'll focus on learning adventures, and I'll write about sustainable and intentional living over at My Purple House.

So, if anyone is reading this, welcome!