Identity & Injustice through "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Essential Question

How do power and privilege shape the relationships people have with each other as well as with institutions?
How can the lived experiences of individuals reflect social inequities?

Texts

Literature

The Yellow Wallpaper

This short story—an important piece in early American feminist literature—sheds light on 19th century attitudes toward women with physical and mental illness. In this excerpt, the speaker details her bedroom, a place where her husband and doctors come to encourage her to health. Her ailment is vague; the emphasis is on what others—all men—think and say.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Grade Level

9-12

Subject

History

Topic

Gender & Sexual Identity

July 7, 2014

Teaching Strategies

Close and Critical Reading

Challenge the Text

Challenge the Text helps students ask and answer their own text-dependent questions by taking multiple perspectives and uncovering assumptions and biases within the text.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RL.6-12.2, RL.6-12.3, RL.6-12.6, RI.6-12.1, RI.6-12.2, RI.6-12.3, RI.6-12.6

July 19, 2014

Close and Critical Reading

Text-Dependent Questions

Readers must refer back to the central text to answer text-dependent questions and provide evidence from the reading to support their answers. Students provide accurate, relevant and complete evidence. To do this well, students will often need to re-read the text several times. This approach privileges the text over prior knowledge, personal experience and pre-reading activities.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RL.6-12.2, RL.6-12.4, RL.6-12.5, RL.6-12.6, RI.6-12.1, RI.6-12.2, RI.6-12.3, RI.6-12.4, RI.6-12.6

July 19, 2014

Close and Critical Reading

Window or Mirror?

This task helps students consider if the text is a window or a mirror through practicing literacy skills and using technology.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

RL.6-12.1, RL.6-12.2, RL.6-12.3, RL.6-12.7, RI.6-12.1, RI.6-12.2, RI.6-12.3, RI.6-12.7

April 18, 2016

Student Tasks

Do Something

Community Arts Showcase

Students produce original art that conveys an anti-bias or social justice message then work with school staff to plan a public showcase of their work.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 13, 2014

Write to the Source

Put the Story in History

Put the Story in History asks students to demonstrate their writing skills when constructing an historical narrative.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

W.6-12.3, W.6-12.4

July 19, 2014

Write to the Source

What's the Impact?

What’s the Impact? asks students to demonstrate their explanatory and informative writing skills.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

W.6-12.2, W.6-12.4, W.6-12.9

July 19, 2014

Plan Built By

fourteen_hats

Identity & Injustice through "The Yellow Wallpaper"

The Yellow Wallpaper

Challenge the Text

Text-Dependent Questions

Window or Mirror?

Community Arts Showcase

Put the Story in History

What's the Impact?

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