Lesson 1- Defining the terms

Key Idea : Females and males are defined as belonging to gender groups and this definition leads
to these groups being assigned general characteristics known as stereotypes. The stereotypes are
reinforced by the media.
Year level : Year 3 & 4

Achievement Objectives:

Health and Physical Education: Level 2 Social Sciences: Level 2

Personal Health & physical Development Students will gain knowledge, skills, and
Personal identity experiences to:
Students will identify personal qualities that contribute Understand that people have social,
to a sense of self-worth. cultural, and economic roles, rights and
Relationships with Other People responsibilities.
Identity, sensitivity, and respect Understand how people make choices to
Students will describe how individuals and groups meet their needs and wants.
share characteristics and are also unique. Understand how cultural practices reflect
Interpersonal skills and express peoples customs, traditions,
Students will express their ideas, needs, wants, and and values.
feelings appropriately and listen sensitively to other Understand how time and change affect
people and affirm them. peoples lives.
Healthy Communities and Environments
Societal attitudes and values
Students will explore how peoples attitudes, values,
and actions contribute to healthy physical and social
environments.

Bi-cultural aspect: Engaging with whanau.

Kupu: tnetanga, tne, tamiti tne, wahine, hine, hunga ppho, rorohiko, ipapa, video

Thinking Using language, Managing self Relating to Participating and

symbols, and texts others contributing

Specific Learning Outcomes Assessment Ideas

Able to explain what the term Gender refers to. Self-assessment against agreed success
Can explain what a stereotype is and give an criteria
example of how girls or boys have been peer assessment
stereotyped according to gender. display/share end product
Know what the term media refers to. teacher observation
 Lesson 1- Defining the terms

Activity sequence
Activity 1: Establishing prior knowledge. Introduce the terms gender and stereotype then discuss them using
a selection of De Bonos six thinking hats.
Share a definition of gender with your class. Here are two examples;

Gender: Either of the two sexes (male and female), especially when considered with reference to social and cultural
differences rather than biological ones. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gender

Gender is the state of being either male or female . It is a socially constructed definition of girls and boys, women
and men. It does not refer to the biological characteristics of women and men.Gender is determined by the
conception of tasks, functions and roles attributed to women and men in society and in public and private life.
Gender functions and roles will differ between cultures.

Share a definition of stereotype with the class. Here is one example.

A stereotype is an idea or belief many people have about a thing or group that is based upon how they look on the
outside, which may be untrue or only partly true. Stereotyping people is a type of prejudice because what is on the
outside is a small part of who a person is. (https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype)

White Hat: What do we know?

Red Hat: How does gender stereotyping make us feel?
Yellow Hat: What are the benefits of gender stereotyping?
Word association activity. Work in groups. Be prepared to justify your choice.

Assign each word to a gender:

Girl Boy

Examples of words: pink, blue, doll, truck, rugby, netball, dainty, strong, soft, cuddly, prickly

Groups present their responses on a google doc. To be exchanged and shared with another group. Changes can
be made to the google doc. by the reviewing group. These changes must be done in a different colour with an
explanation about why the change was made.

As a group review the feedback you have been given. Do you agree or disagree. Have you changed your thinking
as a result?

Finish session by crafting a class definition of gender and stereotype to display in the class.

Activity 2: Review the class definitions of gender and stereotype from the previous lesson.

Working in small groups with a ipad search for images that you think portray the following:
 Lesson 1- Defining the terms

strong kind mean bad

good honest lazy sporty

clever helpful caring authoritative

daring timid calm criminal

Adapt this list or change it depending on your class. A good source of personality traits can be found at
Ongoing Worlds blog.

Make a photo story to record and share your results.

Class discuss: Did common themes appear between groups? Can you explain why you assigned a particular
gender to a particular trait? Has doing this exercise made to reconsider your original ideas? What do you think has
influenced the perceptions you have?

Activity 3: Read Piggybook By Antony Browne or watch it on youtube

After watching discuss: In this story the characters have been stereotyped.
Before Mrs Piggot left what were the roles she had in the family?
What did the male characters do?
What happened when Mrs Piggott left?
How did things change after Mrs Piggot return?
Discuss this with your learning buddy. Then construct a venn diagram showing the jobs Mrs Piggot did in the
beginning and the jobs she did at the end of the story and the jobs she did that didnt change.

Use Canva.com to draw a venn diagram. Click here to see an example.

Venn diagrams can be shared then downloaded and displayed.

 Lesson 1- Defining the terms

Activity 4: Who says pink is for girls and blue for boys anyway?

Discuss: Why is pink for girls? Why is blue for boys? Record the childrens ideas.

Share this youtube clip When did pink become a girl colour?

Discuss: What role did the media have in deciding that pink was for girls and blue was for boys? Do you
think the media influences you?

Make a list of the types of media that you read or watch. Present as a poster using Media as the key
idea as shown below.

Co-construct agreed success criteria for the poster. Upon completion self assess against the criteria
then have your work assessed by one of you peers. Give constructive feedback to a peer on their poster.