The welfare of women, particularily those women in developing countries, is especially troubling.
In some areas, women are still considered second class citizens. Young girls are often not permitted to attend school.
Until women and young girls are able to take their rightful places within society, effective sustainable development
will be limited.
In this issue........
Millennium Development Goal 3:
Gender Equity and Empowerment of Women
Women’s Rights
www.kidzonline.org/LessonPlans/lesson.asp?mode=1&GradeQry=0000011&SubjectQry=Social%20Studies
This lesson is from a group called Kidz Online, a “high-tech digital video production and distribution organization…”
located in Herndon, Virginia. They have many topical lesson plans covering a wide range of subject matter. Each lesson
has the ready made lesson plan (with pictures), links to the internet for suitable resources, a rubric for evaluation, ideas
for student presentations and tips for using technology to enhance the final project.
This lesson asks students to compare the history of Women’s Rights within their own country to that history in another.
Countries are not identified, but teachers could either allow students to choose their own country of interest, or compile a
list from which they could choose.
The lesson plan provides students with links to research sites and also encourages them to look beyond the sites listed.
The final product is the creation of an optional digital audio file. A tutorial is provided if students are unfamiliar with the
process. For classes that do not have the capability to record audio files, students could present their results live to the class.
An evaluation rubric is also provided.
Note: This site requires teachers to complete a free registration process to access the resources.
This lesson would be suitable for students in Social Studies 11, Unit 1, Human Rights or Unit 4, Wealth and Poverty as
well as in History 12, Unit 5, Challenges and Opportunities.
Curriculum Links and Objectives
Women Wanting to Work
www.thirteen.org/edonline/wideangle/lessonplans/womenwanting/index.html
This lesson is from the Public Broadcasting System in the United States. In it, “students will begin by examining
historic photographs to determine how economic roles for women have changed in [Canada]. They will then look at
contemporary examples of women entering the workforce for the first time: in India's outsourcing sector; and in
small business in Israel. They will explore how these women's entry into the economic sphere often involves
negotiation and the overcoming of obstacles, but can bring about larger social and behavioral changes as well.”
Although the website is quite American the discussion around India and Israel is what teachers would use in
their class. For comparison purposes, Canadian examples (as well as the American ones) should be used.
As students view the images provided they are challenged to identify what they are seeing and to identify how
that reflects a change in the role of women over time. The second part of the lesson deals with women in Isreal and
India.
Although no evaluation strategies are listed on the lesson plan, use of a rubric for the final product would be
appropriate. For links to rebric generators, please see the evaluation section at the bottom of this page.
This lesson would be suitable for students in Social Studies 11, Unit 4: Wealth and Poverty.
Curriculum Links and Objectives
Sufferage: When, Where, and Obstacles to Overcome
www.womeninworldhistory.com/lesson4.html
This lesson is part of a series of lessons developed by the Women in World History organization, headquartered
in Berkeley, California. Political cartoons are used to illustrate women’s struggle to gain the right to vote in many
countries of the world.
After studying a “fact sheet” which contains the date at which sufferage was gained in various locations, students
complete a series of questions. They then move on to more open-ended tasks such as composing opinion papers, etc.
Although not listed on the lesson plan, an alternate assignment might be to as students to construct their own
political cartoons on the issue, or to assign different groups of students to research the granting of sufferage in different
developing countires and to report to class.
This lesson would be good for students in Social Studies or History 12, Unit 2: The Movement for Inclusion.
Curriculum Links & Objectives
Girls Speak Out
www.thirteen.org/edonline/wideangle/lessonplans/girlsspeak/index.html
This lesson is from the Public Broadcasting System in the U. S. One of its objectives is to link Millennium
Development Goal 2 (MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education) with Millennium Development Goal 3 (MDG3:
Promote Gender Equity and Empower Women).
After considering their roles within their own families, students are presented with a situation that is very common
in the developing world, namely that some children have so many “chores” within their family group that they
cannot attend school. The students then examine UNICEF statistics as they specifically pertain to girls. After this
brief introduction, students then examine a series of on-line video clips which outline the situation faced by young
girls in various developing countries.
The suggested culminating assignment is the creation of a phamphlet that will be used to publicize the issue
of girls’ education to others in their school community. This lesson plan also provides cross curricular suggestions
for using this lesson in English Language Arts or Science. This lesson would be suitable for use in Social Studies 11,
Unit 1: Human Rights or Social Studies 11, Unit 4: Wealth.
\Note: Access to a computer lab with Internet accessibility or an LCD projector and Internet access within the
classroom will be needed for this lesson.
Curriculum Links & Objectives
Girls’ Education
www.unicef.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx?at=1377
This UNICEF Canada resource provides excellent background information on why girls in developing countries
do not often complete school. It details how important it is for girls to receive an education, looks at why they are
often not getting one, and outlines UNICEF’s work in this area.
Note: This is not a lesson plan. Teachers can use this material as a discussion starter, or as the basis for a
closer look at the issue. Because it is not a lesson plan, no curriculum objectives are listed.
Vocabulary of Inequality: A look at International Women’s Day
www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/womensday/index.asp
This well laid out site, sponsored by the United Nations’ Cyberschoolbus, offers excellent definitions of terms such
as racism and sexism. It offers us a look at the history behind International Women’s Day and asks students to consider
“Why do we need an International Women’s Day?” Learning activities involve students looking at their own school
demographics then international demographics of who’s in school. This site would tie in nicely with other sites about
“Girl’ Education” featured above.
This resource would be good for students in Social Studies 6, Unit 4: Interdependence, Social Studies 10, Unit 1:
Political Decision Making, and Social Studies 11, Unit 4: Wealth and Poverty.
Curriculum Objectives
Evaluation Links
Saskatchewan teachers have been provided support resources for student assessment and evaluation from the provincial ministry of education,
Saskatchewan Learning. Specifically, teachers have been provided with the document Student Evaluation: a Teacher Handbook, in print format.
Chapter 4 on specific student assessment techniques contains a variety of ready-made rubrics, rating scales, checklists, portfolio set-ups
and templates that could be adapted to each task developed in your classroom. This resource is available on-line at:
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/evergreen/policy/studeval/chap4001.html.
The simple templates outlined on this Saskatchewan Learning site, will help you tailor your assessment to match any activity and ensure that
your objectives are being met.
Another source of easily adaptable evaluation material is Discovery School located at
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html.
The site has both subject specific evaluation tools and
evaluation instruments for process oriented tasks. You
will also find rubric builders, portfolio evaluation instruments, graphic
organizer evaluation strategies, etc. all
at this site.
Another rubric generator can be found at
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/. And, for a discussion on the value of using rubrics in
the middle grades, teachers may want to go to http://www.middleweb.com/rubricsHG.html.
