Children's March Teacher's Guide, Activity 6

Objectives

1. Students will see the role that different genders played in the Movement.
2. Students will understand how popular culture influences them.

Time and Materials

• Three class sessions (one to do found poem, one to write response and one to present)
• Teachers may supply magazines but encourage students to use their own favorite magazines
• Posterboard, scissors and glue

Introduction

1. The Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham was very gendered. As you watched the film, what roles did you see boys and girls taking?

2. Were their roles different or similar? How so?

3. Who is leading whom at what time? Why?

4. How is each gender represented?

5. How do these gender roles in the film compare to who leads at your own school?

6. Who in your school or community are the leaders? Are they males or females?

7. What do you think is meant by "strong women" and "gentle men"?

Download complete answers (PDF).

Now, as then, we are shaped by the images around us. Imagine if your community had a "Whites Only" sign up for water fountains or restrooms. How would that shape (or misshape) your identity? The power to resist and to rebel rests in being able to see things differently than the way things are presented to you.

Non-violence requires strong women and gentle men to accomplish its goals. In this lesson, students will take popular magazines and look at how the media portray girls and boys differently.

Found Poem
A Found Poem is made up of words or phrases from something you read. It uses someone else's words, but in a new way. Students can, of course, find words anywhere: newspapers, magazines, pieces of literature, documents, oral histories and narratives. They also can be spoken words that students hear in the hallways or at lunch.

Guide students in creating Found Poems that address the gender roles and expectations affecting their lives:

Step One Flip through a magazine or piece of literature and cut out words that catch your eye.

Step Two Choose 10 main key words or phrases that describe how you see each gender represented or addressed.

Step Three Arrange these words or phrases in a pleasing and meaningful way to make a poem. Write, type or use the pieces you've ripped out of magazines. Glue them to posterboard. Illustrate it with drawings or pictures.

After you do one for both genders, what do you notice when you compare and contrast font size and color? Why do you think magazine people chose these for each gender?

Step Four Write or find a response to how you see genders represented differently in the media and explain your poem to the class.

Step Five Where can you strategically put this poem for others to see it? Who is your audience? Why is it important that they see it?

Follow-up Discussion

• If you are gay and lesbian, do these ads represent you? Why or why not?
• Can gender be fluid?
• Can all genders have all attributes?