Examining Stereotypes in Books

Goals

Think, talk and write about stereotypes—gender, race, class—in literature ;
Understand the concept of “implicit” messages in literature ;
Work collaboratively to build a deeper understanding of the books read by students ;
Write critical responses expressing students’ analysis and views about the issues they discover in their reading.
Examining Stereotypes in Books

Brief description of the issue

A strong endorsement of gender stereotypes is associated with higher school dropout rates, for boys as well as for girls. We learn those stereotypes from a very young age, therefore they have to be broken down even at the elementary level if we want to give students all the chances they need to succeed in school. To do this, concrete activities aiming at deconstructing gender stereotypes can be very helpful and spark interesting discussion with your group.

The Teaching Tolerance website has put together a variety of classroom resources in many social justice domains and on multiple topics. The mission of this organization is “to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy” by providing them free resources.

This lesson plan, Examining Stereotypes in Books, according to the website, “is intended to help guide children to respond to literature with an eye toward social justice.” Although the lesson plan invites you to look at different stereotypes other than gender stereotypes (race, class, etc.), which is very interesting, it might be good to start with gender stereotypes only, especially with younger students.

Access the full lesson plan by clicking on this link.