Love and Marriage? Anticipating Gender Roles in Kate Chopin's Story of an Hour

Subject Area

English Language Arts

Grade(s)

Overview

In this anticipation activity, students will either agree or disagree with statements related to the themes of Kate Chopin's "Story of an Hour." This provides an opportunity for a strong discussion regarding the themes of Chopin's work in general, but specifically with this short story.

This resource was created as a part of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Content Standards

English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 11

ELA21.11.R3
Utilize active listening skills in formal and informal conversations, following predetermined norms.

Unpacked Content

Vocabulary

Active listening
Formal conversations
Informal conversations
Predetermined norms

Knowledge

Students know:

Active listening skills.
Strategies to identify formal and informal settings.
Engage in formal and informal conversations.
Predetermined norms for formal and informal discussions.

Skills

Students are able to:

Demonstrate active listening skills during formal and informal discussions.
Practice predetermined norms for formal and informal discussions.

Understanding

Students understand that:

Conversations and discussions follow predetermined norms which help us actively listen and gain understanding.

Interdisciplinary Connections

Phase

Before/Engage

Learning Objectives

1. Students will be able to contribute relevant observations and ideas to a whole group discussion.

2. Students will be able to recognize and respond thoughtfully to new information expressed by others.

Activity Details

1. The teacher will print out the Anticipation Statements and post them in an area in the classroom.

2. Students will mark either a green checkmark or a red "X" on each statement indicating that they either agree or disagree with the statement. The teacher can allow students to participate individually or as a group.

3. Once all the students are finished, the instructor will facilitate a discussion on their responses.

4. After students have explained their choices, the instructor should use these responses to elicit an overall theme that connects the statements and review how this theme may differ in modern times versus the late 19th century.

5. Students discuss as a whole group the themes and their relevance to modern times.

Assessment Strategies

The instructor can assess students' abilities to discuss the relevance of the themes of each statement by recording the number of times a student participated, the relevance of each comment, and their evaluation of others' statements.

Acceleration and Intervention

Variation Tips

As an extension, students can read the short story, "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. After reading "Story of an Hour", students can complete an exit slip referring back to the themes discussed in the Anticipation Activity. Instructors can grade these exit slips for accuracy of the students' abilities to connect the themes discussed with the text read.

Instead of discussing in whole group, students can turn and talk with a partner and determine a theme on their own to share.

Background and Preparation

Background / Preparation

1. The instructor should print the anticipation statements and tape them to a wall or whiteboard with sufficient space for students to read them and interact.

2. Provide several red and green markers for students to indicate whether they agree or disagree with the statements.

Author

Owner (Author)

alucier

Design by Adaptive Theme