Media Influences on Gender Roles

Unit Essential Question:  What types of gender roles are found in our classroom and community?  How do these roles change when you are in different places or with different people?

Lesson Essential Question:  What examples of gender roles do we see in media in our everyday lives?  Why do you think the media shows kids in these gender roles?

NCSS Standards:
·         Standard 4: Individual Development and Identity

o   This lesson investigates the different representations of kids in gender roles throughout different sources of media.  From exploring these representations, students should be able to critically look at these sources and unlikely fall into thinking that that is the only way for them to look or act.

·         Standard 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions

o   This lesson will investigate different institutions that portray girls and boys in gender roles throughout different sources of media.  It will also explore how these sources of media affect individuals and groups.

MMSD Standards
·         Explain how the media may influence behaviors, opinions, and decisions

·         Compare and contrast individual perspectives and differences

·         Identify, compare, and contrast various methods people use to receive and send information in the past, present, and future

Elementary Education Standards:
·         Standard 2: Understands the Social Contexts of Schooling

o   Through this lesson, students will understand that social contexts (such as gender roles and media influences) affect their lives and lives of others around them.

·         Standard 6: Connects School and Community

o   Through this lesson, students will connect what gender roles the community may portray within their media concerning different activities and events.

Materials:
·         Laptops

·         Magazines

·         Poster paper

·         Glue sticks

Objectives:
·         Students will learn the types of media used to portray gender roles

·         Students will think about how the media influences themselves and others

·         Students will learn how to critically look at and think about media sources

·         Students will learn how most toy companies target a specific gender when advertising

·         Students will explain how media influences behaviors, opinions, and decisions

·         Students will compare and contrast how various groups send information to kids

Lesson Context:
·         Students have been learning about different gender roles that they see in their everyday lives and throughout their community.  This lesson will be taught after the lessons about play and gender roles since it will transition nicely from play to media and gender roles (since it has all these aspects within this lesson).

Lesson Opening:
·         Have the students gather in the discussion area of the room facing the whiteboard.

·         Talk about the word media and what it means to the students.  What are some examples of media that we see every day in our classroom or community? (further discuss terms that other students might not know).   Record their answers on the whiteboard.  Ask the students if they can think of some gender roles that they have seen in these types of media. 

Procedure:
·         Today we will be exploring different types of media about toys for children that show specific gender roles depending on the toy they want to sell to you.

·         Divide the class into three different groups that will explore different sources of media and how they portray gender roles.  Each group will have instructions about what they need to do and questions that they can think about when finished exploring their source of media in relation to gender roles (probably in the form of a worksheet or discussion guide).  One person in each group will be the recorder of the discussion.

·         Websites group:

o   www.barbie.com

§  What did you notice about the main page of the website (first page you look at when you go to the site)?  Was there anything that surprised you?

§  What types of colors are used on this page?

§  Click on “I Can Be” at the top of the page.  What types of jobs does Barbie have on this page?  What message might this page send?

§  Click on “Videos” at the top of the page.  Click on the “Fashionistas” video and watch it.  How many boys and how many girls are in this video?  What message might this video send about girls’/boys’ interests?  From the video, anyone playing with this Barbie and switch their head and put it on a different body.  What message might this send?

§  Click on “Shop” at the top of the page.  Click on the Circle labeled “I Can Be.”  Look at the different jobs Barbie has.  One of the dolls is labeled “I Can Be Bride.”  Is being a bride a job?  What message might this send?

o   www.beyblade.com

§  Watch the video on the main page.  How many boys and how many girls were in this video? What message might this video send about girls’/boys’ interests?

§  What did you notice about the main page of the website (first page you look at when you go to the site)?  Was there anything that surprised you?  What types of colors are used on this page?

§  Click on “Universe” at the top of the page.  Take some time to read the background information about each character.  What are some traits of the boy characters?  What are some traits of the girl characters?  What message might this send?

§  Click on “Games” at the top of the page.  How are these games similar to the games from the Barbie website (check the Barbie website if you do not remember).  How are these games different to the games from the Barbie website?

·         Commercial Group:

o   Hot Wheels Commercial

§  How many boys/girls were in this commercial? 

§  How might this commercial influence boys/girls interests in toys?

§  How is this commercial similar/different from a Hot Wheels commercial you might see on TV today?

o   Beyblade Commercial

§  How many boys/girls were in this commercial?  What gender were the main characters in this commercial?  What message might this send?

§  Pause the commercial at 22 seconds (with the picture of the bracket).  How many typical boys/girls names are on the bracket?  Which gender usually wins?  What message might this send?

o   Barbie Commercial

§  How many boys/girls were in this commercial playing with the Barbies?

§  In the commercial, the girls put on a mustache if Ken is the “bad guy” and sideburns when he is the “hero.”  What message might this send?

§  The girls also curl Barbies hair.  What message might this send about how girls are suppose to look during this time period?

§  How is this commercial similar/different from a Barbie commercial you might see on TV today?

o   American Girl Doll

§  How many boys/girls are in this commercial?  How might the message of the commercial change if only boys played in the commercial?

§  What messages might “creating a doll by deciding what she is like” send to kids?  How might this message be similar/different from the message from the Barbie commercial?

o   Silly Bandz Commercial

§  What messages might this commercial send about which silly bandz boys and girls should like?  Is it ok to wear a silly band that another girl likes if you are a boy?  Is it ok to wear a silly band that another boy likes if you are a girl?

·         Magazine Group

o   Look through the advertisements in the magazines that are selling toys.  These will be kids’ magazines such as toys’r’us, nickelodeon, American Girl, etc. 

o   Students will cut out the advertisements that they found about kids’ toys and paste them in a collage.  One collage will be advertisements that the students think was made for boys, one for girls, and one for both.

Lesson Closing:
·         Come back together as a class in the large area facing each other.  Discuss each station as a class as to what they noticed about these different sources of media in relation to toys and gender roles.

o   Do you think that it is ok to buy and play with these toys if you are a different gender than the characters in the commercial?  Do you think that it is ok to play with these toys if media shows them through gender roles?

o   Why do you think companies (or other groups from media) put boys/girls in gender roles?  How might these gender roles affect our thoughts and ideas about ourselves and others?

Assessment:
·         Continuously walk around to all the groups, listen to their discussion and ask them questions to push their thinking

·         Read the records of each of the conversations that the students have in their groups to make sure that they talked about each of the concepts at each station and understood their meaning.

·         Ask questions at the conclusion of the stations to make sure that everyone knows the purpose of each station

Resources:
Commercials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrKDP8nx2L8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dg5OZMXGl0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z--ntETyNYo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us3POTbjLuQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vED_UqY-Vqs

Websites
www.barbie.com

www.beyblade.com