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University Women: Lesson Plan

UNIVERSITY WOMEN

                                                                                                                            University Women

Collection:                 Photographs and articles from the Northern Illinois

                                   University yearbook, the Norther and photographs

                                   and articles from the Northern Illinois monthly

                                   newspaper, the Northern.

 

Standards:            CCSS.ELA-Literacy. RH9-10.3  

                                    Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events

                                    caused later ones or simply preceded them.


 

Objective:                  The students will be able to create a chronological narrative of women’s experiences as

                                   students at Northern Illinois University through the first two decades of the twentieth

                                   century.  The students will determine which events caused changes in the narrative.  

                                   The students will consider whether civil rights legislation would have made a difference in

                                   the narrative.

 

 

Time Frame:              This lesson will take 1-2 days.

 

 

Essential Question:    Has the passage of Title IX made a difference for female students? 

Title IX of the Education Amendments Acts of 1972“

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Set Induction:             The students will read Title IX and put it into their own words.  The vocabulary words that

                                    follow will assist them in their understanding. 

 

 

Vocabulary:                 Discrimination

                                     Participation

                                     Exclusion

 

 

Table of Contents

Download Lesson Plan

Historical Background

Activity 1

Work Sheet Link

Documents and Images

Activity 2

Closing

Flickr - Documents and Image Set

Historical Background

Historical Background:

Northern Illinois University was chartered in 1895 as a normal school, a school to train teachers for the northern region of the state.  Of the 173 students who attended Northern in 1899, 146 of them were women.  The women of NIU had a basketball program when the school began and it grew over time to become one of the premier women’s basketball programs in the nation. This did not occur without some serious administrative challenges along the way. The texts and images in this lesson plan highlight the team’s administrative challenges and changing circumstances over time at the university during the first two decades of its founding. 

 

Activity 1

Activity 1:                              

The students will divide into three groups. Each group will be given a distinct group of documents.

Group A:     1900, 1901

Group B:     1904, 1905, 1906

Group C:     1912, 1914

Group D:     1917, 1922

 

Step 1:   The students will work together to analyze their documents with a document analysis work sheet to

               complete.

 

Step 2:    The groups will compose and present a general declaration regarding the state of women’s basketball

                at Northern Illinois University during the time period of their documents and based on the evidence

                their documents presented.

 

Step 3:    The students will view photographic images of the women’s basketball teams of Northern Illinois

                University and compare the years with their document summaries.

 

Step 4:    Based upon the summaries and the images, the students will compose a visual and textual timeline

               for Northern Illinois Women’s basketball from 1900- 1922.  If the students have computers available

               the students can use the photo images for their timelines.

 

Work Sheet Link

Activity 2

Activity 2:

Step 1:    In their respective groups, the students will view the Northern Illinois University men’s and women’s

               basketball schedules for 1905, 1906, 1912, 1914, 1917, and 1922

 

Step 2:   The students will go to their timelines and note the data of the compared schedules, taking care to

               include the number and locations of games played.

 

Step 3:   The students will write a three paragraph essay which argues the question of whether Title IX would

               have changed the events that influenced the NIU women’s 1900 - 1923 basketball team.

 

Closing

Closing:    

The students will participate in a group discussion about Title IX and the changes that it brought about for women and girls  in sports education.

 

Title IX of the Education Amendments Acts of 1972“

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Download Lesson Plan