sylvia: post-TP reflections (2)

1. i felt that the best lesson in my TP experience was one i conducted on gender stereotypes from media representations. prior to this lesson, the students have had experience on analysing and critiquing advertisements - strategies employed by ads and how ads employ both visual and verbal grammar.

lesson objectives
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
1. Interpret and understand the concept of stereotypes.
2. Analyse advertisements for the various stereotypical messages they endorse.
3. Formulate and support their arguments by applying their knowledge and evaluating the effects of stereotyping.

class profile
my students are high-ability sec 3 students who are vocal and outspoken. some of them are restless kids who show signs of disinterest when the activity continues for more than 15 minutes. previously, when i screened selected advertisements, some of them gave unpredicted responses (paid attention to seemingly insignificant detail and created a joke out of it; repeatedly criticised the advert - when asked to explain why, they insisted on their opinion even though teacher tried to offer an alternative perspective.) most of my students are manageable kids though.

lesson description & skills and strategies used
the first activity of the lesson was a whole-class participation effort which required them to respond to what it means to "act like a man" and "be ladylike." i drew separate boxes for these respective phrases and added categories like 'associating appearances,' 'embodied values/qualities.' this helped to activate their prior knowledge regarding the literal and implied meanings of these terms.

i then introduced the concept of stereotypes by asking the class what the boxes (drawn on the board) symbolised (first try at inductive teaching, having been asked by my CT to implement it). in each class, 2-3 students could provide me the answer.

next, i screened a list of adjectives and asked my students to categorise these adjectives as 'masculine,' 'feminine' or 'neutral'. again, this called for class participation. students were engaged; i recall their overly enthusiastic responses.

i then asked the class how people learn of stereotypes; how are stereotypes perpetuated? this was the lead-in question to my next activity: to show them a variety of ads on PPT slides and to critique these ads for the stereotypical (implied) messages they endorse. guiding questions such as "what is the implied relationship between the man and the woman?" and "how is the woman portrayed?" are asked. i was encouraged by what i felt was 'productive' silence because this class is a talkative bunch whose responses you can never predict, and yet for this activity, they were all silently and intently gazing at the ads, and of course, giving sensible responses. there were some female students who felt indignant that the woman was portrayed in such an unflattering light in the ad, and i was glad they expressed this displeasure because it showed that they were engaged with the material i had used.

having been given some visual stimuli, they then had to read selected articles that i have chosen. each group received a different article related to the concept of stereotypes, and a graphic organiser that follows the structure for argumentative essays. the topic in question was: "gender stereotypes in media representations are true and valid." in groups, they will fill up the graphic organiser with topic sentences backed with substantiating elaboration, explanation and examples. the articles were meant as information to be used as optional examples to substantiate their thesis statements. this activity helps them to integrate and reinforce their understanding of gender stereotypes. i also wanted to incorporate a reading-and-writing activity to allow my students to express their ideas and opionions in concrete words, given that many of the LA classes tend to focus on speaking.

when my students presented their completed graphic organisers the next lesson, i was impressed by their ability to articulate sophisticated thoughts. i was also encouraged that a group managed to speak up for the usefulness of stereotyping while the majority of them decided that stereotypes are false and biased (the same girls who were aghast that women were portrayed in a negative way in those ads i picked).

i felt that this lesson was successful because it held the attention of my restless students, and also because i resisted against conducting a superficial, surface-level understanding of stereotyping. the articles were meant to allow the students to keep in touch with current affairs and literature involving the notion of stereotypes - what is learnt in class has real-world relevance.