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Teacher’s Manual to the CAPI Student Reader
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Unit II: Gender
Theme: Gender
Organizational Focus: Explanation
Sentence Level: Coordination
Essay Assignment
Choose one of the following essay assignments.
- Write an essay in which you explain which male and female behaviors might be due to innate differences and which might be produced by environmental influences (nature versus nature).
- Write an essay in which you take a position on whether male and female behavioral differences are mostly due to environmental influences or whether they are mostly caused by biological differences.
Use readings, class discussions, and your personal experiences to support your ideas.
Please complete the Essay Self-Check questions and submit them with your essay.
Please use the Peer Edit Guide while reviewing your peer’s essay.
Essay Rubric
The Essay Rubric provides a framework for evaluating students’ success with the assignment.
Activating Schema
- Choose sentences from the articles for response. Students work in-groups to share their ideas and they report out. (Ex: paragraph 2 of “The Other Difference…”)
“…Schooling and testing discriminate against both sexes, ignoring differences that have been observed by parents and educators for years…”
- T/F value statements. Students respond and teacher leads discussion.
Examples:
- The differences between boys and girls are caused by the way they are treated in school and at home.
- Girls are more talkative than boys.
- Boys and girls behave differently because of inherited, biological differences.
Readings
“Discovering Inherited Versus Learned Differences Between Boys and Girls”
During-Reading
- Read aloud the piece, “Discovering Inherited Versus Learned Differences Between Boys and Girls,” stopping to discuss, explain, question, etc.
- Choosing key paragraphs, divide the class into groups, each group summarizing and responding with their own ideas about selected paragraphs. Debrief in a whole class discussion.
Post-Reading
- Journal: How much of who you are is the result of your being born a woman or a man, and how much is the result of the way you were brought up and the experiences you have had at school and in the community?
“Biology Influences Sex Roles”
Pre-Reading
- Introduce “Biology Influences Sex Roles.” Brainstorm with the class how biology influences how they behave. Read the intro and the first sentence of each paragraph and the conclusion. Predict the ideas in the article. Have class read article.
During-Reading
- Divide the class into groups or partners and assign one (or 2) paragraphs per group. Groups re-read, digest, and write a one or two sentence summary of their paragraph on the board. Circulate among groups so that when all the sentences have been written on the board, there is a fairly accurate outline of the article. Have students copy this outline as it will be used later under paragraph work.
Sentence Work
- Model sentences to illustrate coordination. Use the following sentences as examples:
- Boys tend to be very physically active, and they benefit from learning activities that utilize this quality.
- Parents tolerate aggression in boys, but they discourage it in girls.
- Babies are born not knowing anything, but they are full of potential.
- Men tend to make decisions in families, and they protect their wives and children during emergencies.
- Explain that coordinators connect two independent clauses and are preceded by commas (or periods). See the second to last paragraph of “Discovering Inherited versus Learned Differences.”
- Also explain that the sentences must be parallel in form and function (both the grammatical structures and the ideas must be coordinate).
- Have students find and identify these structures in one or two paragraphs of a reading. Examples: 8–10; 15 of “Discovering….”
Paragraph Work
- Together, begin writing a one-paragraph summary on the board, using the sentences the students have written from the previously generated outline. Students finish for homework. Use ideas about sentence combining to do this. Model first before sending them home to finish the outline.
“Society Determines Sex Roles”
Pre-Reading
- Introduce the reading. Have class share in small groups their ideas from previous journal assignment about how they have been affected by the way they have been raised, etc. Debrief whole class.
During-Reading
- Read article aloud, stopping to explain, summarize, etc.
- Elicit through discussion the main ideas of the article, and write them on the board, having students copy them down.
- Have students work in groups to generate questions they still have about the reading. Debrief and discuss as a whole class.
Post-Reading
- Journal assignment: Have each student select one sentence or a passage that they have a strong reaction to. Have them summarize those ideas and respond with their own using their personal experiences to develop their points.
Paragraph Work
- Ask students to generate sentences about the theme using coordinate structures. Walk around monitoring, giving feedback, and selecting a few examples for students to write on the board. For example, students might write,
Mothers and fathers may behave differently toward girl infants than boy infants, but this behavior is not the only thing that influences how boys and girls behave later in life.
- Analyze the structures of the sentences on the board, paying attention to the grammatical accuracy and the ideas.
- Have students select one of their sentences and generate a short paragraph supporting the ideas in the sentence.
- Collect these paragraphs, marking or commenting only on places that either have great details/examples, or those that need more development. Tell students to save these paragraphs because they may use them later in their essays.
“Why I Don’t Want To Be Like My Mom”
Pre-Reading
- Based on the title, have students make predictions about the article. Write these on the board.
- Read aloud (or ask students to read) the first paragraph, the first sentence of each paragraph and the last paragraph. Check to see if original predictions were accurate or if they need to be revised in any way.
- Alternatively, ask students to brainstorm on paper why they do/don’t want to be like one of their parents.
During-Reading
- Ask students to read the entire article, marking places where they have a strong response/reaction to what they author says.
- Partners share their responses and choose 1–2 provocative sentences to write on the board.
- Discuss and debrief.
Paragraph Work
- Analyze the structure of key paragraphs in the reading for main ideas and supporting details. Paragraphs 2 and 3 are good examples. Also, have students generate what other details they would have wanted the writer to include in these paragraphs.
- Ask students to write a paragraph responding to the question, “Do you think Jenny’s mother’s behaviors were the result of biology or societal influences (or both)?” Explain.
- Students bring paragraphs to class and partners analyze for main ideas and supporting details.
Sentence Work
- Using paragraph 5, illustrate how the author could have used coordinate structures to combine sentences together. Example:
My mom was the girl in a family of three brothers. She never had a chance to go to school.
These sentences could be rewritten as:
My mom was the girl in a family of three brothers, and she never had a chance to go to school.
Have a few students write their sentences on the board.
Writing
Pre-Writing
- Analyze good model paragraphs from the readings. Have students (with your help) identify topic sentences and supporting details. (See paragraph 4 of “the Other Difference…” or paragraph 12 of “Biology Influences…”
- Choose sentences with generic structure and have students plug in their own content words. Using these sentences as topic sentences, students develop a paragraph with supporting details (in class).
Example:
One of the most pronounced differences between men and women is that…(par. 9, p. 22)
- Go over writing assignment:
Background
Some of the essays we have read discuss differences between male and female children, which are innate. Others explain the ways in which children are treated differently by society according to their gender. Continue on by explaining the assignment.
- Prepare the class for writing the rough draft. Have groups or partners make lists for the following topics. Debrief as a whole class, writing ideas on the board which students write down.
- Innate differences between boys and girls
- Ways boys and girls are treated at school
- Ways boys and girls are treated at home and in the community
- Have students look at openings of some of the essays identifying where the writer indicates the main idea. Ask students to write a possible thesis statement for their essay. Go around and check.
- Ask students to use their journals, sample paragraphs about main ideas, notes from class discussions, etc. to write their rough drafts.
Drafting
- To begin rough draft, or prior to writing it, have students practice generating topic sentences and support for key ideas:
- From “Biology influences…”
Many differences between male and female infants can be observed in the first
Months of life.
- From “Society determines…”
Mothers and fathers treat boys and girls differently as they grow up.
- From “The other difference…”
Some differences in behavior between the sexes are based on differences in brain functioning.
- Students write drafts.
- Use a student model for analysis of main ideas and supporting details before handing back first drafts.
- Have students peer edit on second draft using the following questions:
- Underline the thesis or main idea sentence. If you can’t find one, let the writer know.
- Underline the topic sentence of each paragraph or let the writer know if a paragraph
- doesn’t have one.
- Label supporting details in the margin.
- Mark places where the writer needs to add supporting details.
- During the drafting process, have students identify sentences using coordinate structures and analyze their correctness. Also have them identify places where they might use these structures to combine short sentences more effectively for coherence. This could also be part of the peer editing process.
Supplementary Materials and Activities
Schema
- Choose a controversial idea and have discussion/informal debate. Identify main points from both sides.
- Using a popular TV Show, play a short segment and have students analyze the gender roles.
Readings
- Have students either in discussion (small groups or with partners) or in writing, share experiences that either confirm or disconfirm the ideas in the readings.
- Have students do a summary/response journal. “What are the main ideas and what do you think?”
Paragraphs
- Choose main idea as topic sentence. Have students develop the idea in a paragraph. (Ex: paragraph 6, p. 21). Must be accompanied by modeling and guided practice.
Sentences
- Select key sentences for analysis. Choose main idea sentences as well as those, which contain important information but may also be hard to understand. (Ex: paragraph 1 from “The other difference…”). Go over meaning, look at phrasing, explain key vocabulary. After discussion, have students write the ideas using mostly their own words.
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