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Wednesday January 19, 2005 THE ARTICLEThe president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, is under fire today for his sexist comments suggesting women are not as good as men at sciences, engineering and mathematics because of genetic differences. He is being heavily criticized by his peers for suggesting that women have less innate ability than men to reason and rationalize. One female researcher, biologist Nancy Hopkins, walked out of Mr. Summers’ presentation, and stated, “It’s so upsetting that all these brilliant young women [at Harvard] are being led by a man who views them this way.” She also said that if she had stayed, '”I would've either blacked out or thrown up.” He further embroiled himself in controversy by saying there are fewer female lecturers and professors because women weren’t as willing as men to work long hours, and because of child raising and housework responsibilities; not because of discrimination. However, since becoming president of Harvard, one of the most prestigious institutions of learning in the world, the number of female lecturers has greatly fallen. He appointed four women and 28 men as lecturers last year. He has tried to defend his comments by saying more research is needed into the respective intelligences of both sexes. He told the Boston Globe newspaper that people want to believe differences in male and female intelligence are due to social conditioning and not innate natural or God-given ability, “you have to be careful in attributing things to socialization. … That's what we would prefer to believe, but these are things that need to be studied.” Lesson & plan in Word.doc Example Class Handout in .pdf POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about men and women / gender and intelligence / sexism / sexist comments / Harvard University / housework and child-raising / … 2. GENDER BRAINSTORM: Before telling the class what today’s lesson is about, brainstorm and write on the board any words students associate with the word ‘man’, and then the word ‘woman’. It may be interesting to further separate on the board words volunteered by male and female students. Students use these words as a springboard for further conversation and to find whether any of the associations might be construed as sexist. If so, students who volunteered those words can defend them. 3. MY COUNTRY: Students talk about the levels of sexual equality/inequality in their own countries. 4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept: PRE-READING IDEAS1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘sex’, and ‘gender ’. 2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false: 3. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:
4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES1. GAP-FILL: Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps. Harvard sex controversy
2. TRUE/FALSE: Students check their answers to the T/F exercise. 3. SYNONYMS: Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise. 4. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise. 5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article. 6. VOCABULARY: Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings. POST READING IDEAS1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise. 2. QUESTIONS: Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share. 3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above. 4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class. 5. ‘SEX’/ ‘GENDER’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1. 6. DISCUSSION: Students ask each other the following questions: HOMEWORK1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Harvard. Share your findings with your class next lesson. 3. POSTER: Create a poster about the good or bad things about being a woman / man. 4. LETTER TO LAWRENCE: Write a letter to the Harvard President explaining what you think about his views. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE: SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Harvard sex controversyThe president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, is under fire today for his sexist comments suggesting women are not as good as men at sciences, engineering and mathematics because of genetic differences. He is being heavily criticized by his peers for suggesting that women have less innate ability than men to reason and rationalize. One female researcher, biologist Nancy Hopkins, walked out of Mr. Summers’ presentation, and stated, “It’s so upsetting that all these brilliant young women [at Harvard] are being led by a man who views them this way.” She also said that if she had stayed, '”I would've either blacked out or thrown up.” He further embroiled himself in controversy by saying there are fewer female lecturers and professors because women weren’t as willing as men to work long hours, and because of child raising and housework responsibilities; not because of discrimination. However, since becoming president of Harvard, one of the most prestigious institutions of learning in the world, the number of female lecturers has greatly fallen. He appointed four women and 28 men as lecturers last year. He has tried to defend his comments by saying more research is needed into the respective intelligences of both sexes. He told the Boston Globe newspaper that people want to believe differences in male and female intelligence are due to social conditioning and not innate natural or God-given ability, “you have to be careful in attributing things to socialization. … That's what we would prefer to believe, but these are things that need to be studied.” Help Support This Web Site
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