I am very excited about this lesson I created for my 5th grade and I wanted to share it with you.  As a world history teacher in addition to teaching American history, I find it difficult in many cases to find ways to teach Ancient history from different lessons.  Ancient Greece, however, is turning out to be a treasure trove!  Not only were we able to teach about Sappho as a female, bisexual poet, but a Newsela article about an “All Women Olympics” has given me an opening to teach about resisting gender norms in ancient societies and as an extension, connecting that to the present.

The original lesson looks like this:

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Studying Ancient Greek Women

Greek Women Olympics: https://newsela.com/read/lib-ancient-greece-women-olympics?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=web  

Greek Women Daily Life: https://www.penn.museum/sites/Greek_World/women.html

Read the assigned Newsela Article “All Women Olympics” (Change the text level to 960L) and then read the “Daily Life” printed article.  As you read, write in the margins and highlight for the following: 

1- What were the typical roles of women?

2- What did some women do that were not the “norm” for women of the time?

Then choose one of the following to do (finish over the weekend if you don’t finish in class):

A) You read that oftentimes the lives of Ancient Greek women were captured on pottery.  Using the paper provided and the markers in the classroom, design your own pottery that shows a scene in the life of an Ancient Greek woman.  You may choose to depict a woman doing an activity from either article that you read.  On the back, write a few sentences that clearly explain the scene you drew on the front.

B) Write a letter from the perspective of a Greek woman to a 5th-grade student.  What would you say about your life?  Use at least THREE FACTS from either (or both articles) in your letter.

C) Create a video that teaches students about the lives of Ancient Greek women.  Be sure to include the traditional information but also talk about the Heraean Games as a way of protesting gender norms.

D) Write a speech from a female athlete at the Heraean Games,protesting the way women were banned from the male Olympics and informing her audience about the athletic capabilities of Greek women.

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To extend this lesson, I plan on sharing the Newsela article about the USA women’s soccer team suing for equal pay and having students draw parallels between the perceptions of women’s sports and female athletes today as opposed to those they read about in Ancient Greece and the Heraean Games.  For this, a Venn diagram would be my choice for brainstorming their ideas.

Of course, this is all done to lead to deeper conversations about gender roles in our own society.

1. What are the perceptions of what women and girls are “supposed” to do and how are they “supposed” to act?  How do you know this?
2. Are female and male athletes valued in the same way in our society?  What is your evidence?
3. How did female athletes in Ancient Greece choose to fight gender bias and how is the soccer team doing so today?
4. Find examples of other women, either women you know or women in the news, who engage in pushing through gender barriers and share them with your class.

 

U.S. women’s soccer files lawsuit to demand fairness in pay and play: https://newsela.com/read/womens-soccer-gender-discrimination/id/50196/