Gender Roles Elementary

Boat Tours • Gift Shop • RestaurantHistoric Homes • Gardens Artifacts • Costumed Crafts People •

Standards Standards as developed by the Louisiana Department of Education. Available online at http://www.vermilionville.org/vermilionville/educate/lesson-plans.

Grade 1 Social Studies Standard 4 – Government and Citizenship

GLE 1.4.1: Develop a list of rules for the classroom and describe their benefits/consequences

GLE 1.4.4: Describe the student’s role, rights, and responsibilities as a citizen of the class, the school, and the community

Grade 2 Social Studies Standard 4 – Citizenship

GLE 2.4.1: Define the character traits of good citizens and discuss examples of responsible citizens

Grade 3 Social Studies Foundations of the American Political Systems

GLE #28: Explain the responsibilities of individuals in making a community and state a better place to live (C-1B-E2)

Objectives

1. The students will define and model the rights and the responsibilities of individuals in making a

community a better place to live.

Background Information: People played very different roles in early Acadian life. Roles were divided according to their age and sex, thus the daily tasks of members of the family varied. For example, the work of each parent was quite different, and the chores would change according to the time of year. Men were expected to fish, hunt, and plow the fields as well as feeding the animals and cleaning the barn. Men were also expected to make repairs around the house. Women were expected to tend to the fire, cook all of the meals, clean the house, raise the children, sew things that needed to be made, and other domestic chores. In the event that the man had to leave, the woman would take over his responsibilities and divvy them up amongst her children. Children were expected to help with the corresponding gender roles and learn them from an early age. Boys were often expected to cut wood while girls would learn to cook, clean, and sew. Roles are not the same these days. Gender does not determine who is responsible for what around the house. People do what needs to be done and share responsibilities based on each family's needs. We also do not have the same sorts of responsibilities because of the technologies we have grown accustomed to. For example, we do not need to keep a fire going to cook or warm our homes. Most of us do not have fields to plough or

animals to take care of. We do still have to feed one another and keep our homes clean and we still need to keep our homes up and running, but modern conveniences allow us to hire other people to do these things in some cases.

Pre-Visit Activity

Materials needed: job chart Teachers. We have made two introduction documents available to you on our website – a word document as well as a PowerPoint with pictures depicting the cultures that we represent. Please take some time to review these two documents with your class prior to your visit here. You can access them here, by clicking on

Introduction to Vermilionville and Vermilionville PowerPoint

A week prior to the Vermilionville visit, the teacher will assign classroom jobs to students for them to hold until the field trip. At the end of the week, the class will have a discussion on the reasons and importance of having classroom jobs and what would occur if someone did not do their job.

Anchor Lesson

Materials needed: crayons, markers, story quilt template, 2 baskets, gender role cards Discuss the roles of students in their daily lives and that of their family members, including what they are expected to do around their home. Be sure to visit Maison Beau Bassin to see the spinning wheel and the loom. On most days, an artisan will be there to demonstrate how the spinning wheel works.

Story Quilt Activity (document #1) The students will design their own quilt to announce something to the community. This could be a death in the family, a birth, a marriage, or an engagement. While students are working on their quilt, the teacher will continue the discussion of different roles of each member of the Acadian family.

Gender Role Activity (document #2) The teachers will cut out index cards and show them to the group one at a time. Historically, students will say if it was a girl job or a boy job. The teacher will then deposit the cards in either the boy or girl basket.

Post-visit activity

Materials needed: Venn diagram Using a Venn diagram, the students will compare and contrast their roles today as kids and what their roles would have been like back then.

Evaluation We will hold up cards with various gender roles and have students say whether or not it was a male or female role in that time period. When all of the cards are sorted, we will then pull each card out and discuss whether or not the job is still relevant and if it is still a girl job or boy job or if it does not matter. We will also discuss the reasons why it is the way it is.

Differentiation of Instruction Teachers will assist students in creating their quilt squares if they do not understand the activity.

Resource for teachers Lifestyles in the days of our Ancestors

Document #1 – Story Quilt Activity Directions: In the square below design a quilt pattern that represents a special event or occasion in your family, e.g. wedding, death, baptism, or birth that your family would display to inform people passing through. Color your quilt and write at least two sentences that describe your quilt on the lines below.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________

Document #2 – Gender Role Activity

Cleaning the house

Quilt making

Farming Hunting

Making clothes Boat making

Washing Cooking

Wood carving Raising children

Building homes Completing

repairs

Tending to fire Spinning cotton

Gender Role Activity – Answers

Cleaning the house

MALE

Quilt making

FEMALE

Farming

MALE

Hunting

MALE

Making clothes

FEMALE

Boat making

MALE

Washing

FEMALE

Cooking

FEMALE

Wood carving

MALE

Raising children

FEMALE

Building homes

MALE

Completing repairs

MALE

Tending to fire

FEMALE

Spinning cotton

FEMALE