Teacher Candidate: Lindsay Holoman

Course: ELA

Date: 10/20/15
School: Middletown Middle School

Grade Level:

Mentor Teacher: Mrs. Sexton

Objectives - Students will analyze multiple articles from forbes.com, thinkprogress.org, and
leadershipfreak.wordpress.com, make an argument, and use clear reasons and relevant evidence to
support which gender has more power over the other and why through a small writing response in their
writers notebook.

W.8.1 Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant
evidence.

Essential Questions:
o

What gender holds the power in the world today?

Journal Question: Make an argument for which gender holds the most power. Support
your claim with clear reasons and relevant evidence from the articles.

Key Vocabulary and Academic Language:

o

Power, Argumentative Constructive Response, argument/claim, evidence.

Materials -

Take a stand handout

Writers Notebook

Pencil/Pen

Chromebooks

Reading Guide for articles

Articles:

http://www.forbes.com/powerful-people/

https://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/where-men-leaders-are-better-thanwomen/

https://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/where-women-leaders-are-better-thanmen/

Differentiation
Provide extra time and check in with students who struggle with instruction to make sure they are
on task.
Have more guided questions that can lead students to get the answer on their own with more
instructions.
Modify rubric for evaluating the written responses.
Procedures
Take a Stand Activity (pre-assessment)
1. Pass out a Take a Stand handout to every student with five statements listed
2. Tell them to write an (A) if they agree, or a (D) if they disagree with each statement.
3. Tell them that they must choose one side, there is no in between for this activity. They must take a
stand!
4. Once they have completed the handout on their own, ask each question out loud and ask the
students to stand on one side of the room if they agree and stand on the other side if they
disagree.
5. Choose one student from each side of the statement to defend their position aloud.
6. After all the questions have been asked and the students have taken a stand, debrief by asking
the students:
1. Did this activity surprise you?
2. Does this tell you anything about gender stereotypes?
3. Have your opinions changed from the start of this activity?
ii.

Opener Activity:
Show on the board the Forbes list of The Worlds Most Powerful People.
Ask them how many names they recognize?

Ask them similarities they see among the Worlds most powerful people?
8. Number off the students by fours. The students who are numbers 1 and 3 will read the first article
about females. Students who are numbers 2 and 4 will read the article about males. Once the
students have gone over the article on their own and filled out the reading guide (formative
assessment), have the students get into groups of four. All four numbers must be represented in
each group, so there are two students per group who have read each article.
In their groups, students will discuss each article and share what they learned. We will ask the
students to be respectful of each others opinions, while simultaneously challenging their own
opinion.
9. Provide students with writing prompt and have them conduct a constructive response in their
writers notebook.
Assessment
1. Pre-Assessment: Take a Stand Activity
This will illustrate the student's schema of gender and power.
2. Formative Assessment: Reading Guide
This will collect student evidence of learning and comprehension of the articles.
3. Formative Assessment: Argumentative Constructive Response in Writers Notebook
This will assess the students learning comprehension from our lesson through their ability to write
an argument and support their claim with clear reasons and relevant evidence from the articles.

Handouts:
Take A Stand

Write an (A) if you agree, or a (D) if you disagree with each statement. You
must choose one side, there is no in between for this activity. Take a
stand!
_____ Women are better communicators than men.
_____Men are better leaders than women.
____ Women are more educated than men.
_____Men are more organized than women.
_____ Men and women are equally powerful.
Reading Guide: (Which Gender is a Better Leader Article- Men or Women)
1. Which gender is discussed in this article?

2. What leadership traits are illustrated in the article?

3. After reading this article, has your opinion about which gender has more
power changed? Why or why not?
Journal Guided Question:
Make an argument for which gender holds the most power. S upport your claim with clear
reasons and relevant evidence from the articles.