Snapshot of a Lesson Plan for Reading texts in History

Year 9 History
Reading
sequence
BEFORE
READING

DURING
READING

Selected
paragraph

Key: T Teacher S - Student Ss Student

Before-reading activities aim to support overall text meaning by
building up related field knowledge through the reinstating of
prior knowledge attained during the study of womens history.
These activities enable learners to make connections to prior
knowledge and prepare themselves to build on related concepts
and ideas, whilst also creating opportunities for prediction.
Activity 1: Think, Pair, Share to stimulate Ss prior knowledge and
build on the field of the text.
Ss think individually about the roles and place of women in
Australia pre 1970s drawing on prior knowledge and will
make brief dot points in their book (3 mins).
In pairs, Ss then share their ideas with each other and add
to their own dot point list (5 mins).
Ss then share their ideas with the class in the form of a
whole class discussion led by the T who asks questions to
guide the Ss. For example; What was a womans role in the
family and/or marriage? Were women representing a large
portion of the work force? (6 mins).
In the During Reading stage, the T utilises the Detailed Reading
strategy from the Ready to Learn pedagogy to guide Ss reading.
This will be scaffolded with a focus on key words, concepts and
phrases and the use of a question and answer format to allow rephrasing of key words and phrases (10 mins).
The Detailed Reading strategy will concentrate on the first
paragraph of the reading and focus on these key concepts:
feminism
gender power
ideals of a womens place
passive subservience
It will also focus on the following phrases and keywords:
feminists
barriers
campaigning
subservience
stereotypical
Where feminists of the early twentieth century had focused on
campaigning for the vote, feminists of the 1970s and 1980s
sought to remove the barriers which divided society into the
world of male power and female subservience. In her 1970 book
The Female Eunuch, Australian author and academic Germaine
Greer encouraged women to question and abandon their
acceptance of the narrow roles society had allocated them. Greer
was one of many women who helped to create a climate in which
people questioned the stereotypical view that a womans place

Before Reading: A
part of the Reading
2 Learn pedagogy
allowing students
to build their field
knowledge of the
text before reading
the text in its
entirety.

During Reading: A
part of the Reading
2 Learn pedagogy
supporting
students
understanding at a
word and sentence
level to allow them
to better
understand the
whole text

was in the home.

Prepare T says the following:
We are going to read a part of the text A Womans Place is
Everywhere which is key to developing our background
knowledge about Australian women in the 1970s and 1980s. We
will be reading the first paragraph which we have previously
discussed is about the change in womens views about their roles
in Australian society.
Detailed
Summarise read by T
reading:
This first paragraph informs us that women in the 1970s and
paragraph level 1980s were hoping to achieve greater equality between men and
women. It also identifies Germaine Greer and what she did at the

time for women.

Read aloud Paragraph 1
Elaborate
The first sentence in this paragraph introduces us to what the
paragraph will be about. It uses a comparison of feminists from
the early twentieth century and ones from the 1970s and 1980s
to show us the development of womens rights so far and where
they are up to. The second sentence introduces Germaine Greer
and her book and tells us what might have influenced women by
pointing out the aim of the book. The last sentence tells us that
people began to change the way they view and think about
women in society. You might have heard words like questioned
and abandoned which shows us that there is a shift in thinking
and change happening at this time for women.
The After Reading phase enables Ss to summarise their
understanding of the text and then communicate their new
knowledge through reading, writing, speaking and listening.
How will you
Activity 1: Information Summary Worksheet enables Ss to
support
summarise their understanding and provides a scaffold for further
students to take developed note-taking.
notes,
The T will read the text aloud once to the whole class at a
summarise and/
normal pace.
or respond to
Ss will then move into groups of 4 where each S will have
the text? See
an allocated role in the note-taking process. One S will
Appendix C
read the paragraph aloud, another will take note of the
worksheet
key terms and phrases, and the other two Ss will take note
of the main points. The Ss will rotate the roles in the group
as each S will have one paragraph each to read. The Ss
will then share their notes with each other (15 mins).
The Ss will then individually complete the Information
Summary Worksheet which includes a cloze passage and a
guide for summarising the main points. See Appendix B for
S and T version of the worksheet (15 mins).
AFTER
READING

After Reading: A
part of the Reading
2 Learn pedagogy
allowing students
to ride the
semantic wave and
re-pack the
information from
the text by
summarising it.
The summary has
been scaffolded
with the below
worksheets

Information Summary Worksheet

Task 1: Cloze Passage
Fill in the blanks in the below paragraph using the words in the word bank below. Each word can only be used once.
During the 1970s and 1980s in Australia, the ___________ movement aimed to ___________ greater ___________
between men and women. Germaine Greer was a key figure during this time and her published works provided women
with a different perspective on womens _______which enabled many women to question ___________ equality.
Another key group were the Womens Electoral Lobby (WEL), who were established in 1972 and ___________ for the
promotion of womens rights. They wanted the government to take action on a variety of ___________ regarding
womens rights in both ___________ and ___________ spheres. Forces for ___________ like these then resulted in a
shift of thinking about women and the ___________ force. Traditionally in families, the wife and/or mother was a
___________ and her ___________ mainly revolved around the household and children. However with the
introduction of ___________, women were able to choose when they had families and had greater ___________ over
how many children they had, allowing them greater ___________ to join the workforce. During this time period, the
feminist ___________ known as womens ___________ , assisted the ___________ changes that occurred in
government legislation, the work force, and ___________ life to ensure greater ___________ for women.
Word Bank
roles
private
progressive

movement
gender
achieve

housewife
feminist
control

duties
issues
freedom

equality
work
liberation

campaigned
opportunities
contraception

public
change
family

Task 2: Main Point Summary

Complete the below table by answering the questions and then making your own notes from each section of the text.
Each sub-heading in the text has its own box, so use this as your note-taking guide. You may answer in dot point format.
Germaine Greer and the Female Eunuch
Q: In what ways did Germaine Greer influence the
feminist movement of the time?

The Role of the WEL

Q: What was the role of the WEL and how did they
impact womens liberation?

Notes:

Notes:

Feminism and the Work Force

Q: How did women gain greater independence?

The Equal Pay Case (1969)

Q: How successful was the Equal Pay Case for women?

Notes:

Notes: