Purpose

In this Interdisciplinary Collaboration Project (ICP), groups of students in a 9th grade classroom will learn about the changing cultural perceptions of women in the workforce over the course of the twentieth century into the present day. Given the fact that we know all students do not learn the same way, the students will be introduced to a variety of resources to construct their project and navigate the historical perspectives. This is important to the overall engagement through literacy. “Through a multimedia format, the researchers note students were able to engage in the literacy process in ways that they had been unable to do before” (Drewry et al, 2019). Given the increase in technological literacy over the past year, we have decided to assure students are still given the opportunity to participate and engage with traditional literature as well. Research suggests that incorporating student voice, choice, and discussions will enhance engagement. “Students’ perceptions of the outcomes and processes of engaged reading in classrooms prioritizing engagement through self-selected, self-paced reading of compelling young adult literature” (Ivy, 2013). They will complete this ICP through knowledge dives and multimodal resources (videos, interviews, movies, books, articles, news stories, etc) in order to compare and contrast the role and perception of women in society over time. Collaborating with members in their group, students will develop a presentation tying together their findings on the role, treatment and perception of the women they were assigned. In creating their presentation, they will explore the ELA and Social Studies disciplines. They will read the history of women but also understand how history is the stories we tell ourselves, and how it impacts our cultural values and perceptions. They will be reading autobiographies and biographies to tie into ELA based themes of characterization, applying narrative structure into events that may not fit into a narrative structure.

Adolescent literature experiences have developed into more than just books or textbooks within a classroom, but everlasting avenues and platforms of acquiring knowledge. Students will first demonstrate their prior knowledge by participating in a google jamboard to record our prior information and reflect on it after. Then, the students will participate in a knowledge dive in order to enhance their initial knowledge on the topic of women in the workforce over the years and find key facts or events that pertain to our topic. The knowledge dive will also be directly related to current times in order to cross-compare the depiction of women, participation of women, and women in society overall. This project will require knowledge of vocabulary terms which is where the knowledge dive will serve as an introduction to some of these key terms and words. Activation of prior knowledge and vocabulary acquisition is proven to be a significant indicator of comprehension (Schroeder, 2013). The structure of our lessons is organized so students are introduced to key knowledge and words for their student-centered engagement with multimodal and multiliteracies surrounding women. They will be given a brief timeline of major historical events that impacted these roles for women (WWI and WWII, women’s suffrage, civil rights movement, etc). Students will then take a crash-course on women through history before they dive into their groups where they will work with a few of their peers to delve into a specific historical figure who impacted the role of women in the workforce. Students will read a culturally responsive book about their figure and explore ELA concepts of characterization as they create a presentation to explain the importance of their historical figure to their peers. The variety of choice options for exploration in their women and topic is to ensure we are providing choice for our students as research has deemed student choice to be a strong indicator of motivation, engagement, and purpose in learning (Allred, 2020).

Throughout the project, the lessons are structured in order to have a gradual release of responsibility onto the students. This means teacher support with researching, content, and connections will be provided initially throughout the first weeks and then slowly fade out once the students have all the resources, questions, and content needed to be the most successful in completing this assignment. Students will be encouraged to not only use the resources we are providing their group with but also to research various events to draw parallels to the time periods.

At the end of the unit, students will complete a culminating assignment where they compare and contrast all the women that each group presented on. The purpose of this project is to provide students with the multimodal and multi literacy opportunities to engage with a variety of disciplines, that are often not all worked with together across one curriculum or across one classroom. The modality students will work with will be student-centered and ultimately the decision of the student. Given a variety of presentation options - powerpoint, website, flipgrid, voice recording, role play, and more, the students will choose which mode is most appropriate, engaging, and of highest interest to them. This will foster further motivation and engagement to learn as incorporating student choice within literature classrooms has proven to be highly effective in enhancing academic performance and experience. In order to foster motivation in all students, teachers must create opportunities for students to experience a sense of ownership over their learning. In doing so, connecting student reading and learning to students’ interests invites them to play an active role in literacy learning (Wilson & Kelley, 2010).

This project will serve as a collaborative, conducive learning opportunity for students to critically analyze texts and reflect on perceptions of women and how they have evolved over time. Through engaging, meaningful discussions and presentations, they will reflect on cultural and gender norm changes throughout history. Diverse and multicultural literature will be carefully selected to reflect women's unique experiences in the workplace. Overall, one of our goals is to examine how civic and social duties/standards toward equal representation and opportunity for women have changed from the past to present within the world. Another is to make this a positive learning experience through traditional and nontraditional literature used to integrate ELA and Social Studies content using what the students already know, their prior knowledge, and then building on those through a variety of ways that align to their interests, needs, and overall enhance their knowledge.