SKILL AREA: Reading TASK: Read a story and relate it to one's own personal experience
Language Objective: Understand and remember a story and organize information
Content Objective: Read a biography about an historical figure and relate it to one’s personal experience
Strategy Objective: Use the strategy of Personalization to
understand and remember a story and to remember and use new descriptive
vocabulary.
FOCUS STRATEGY: Personalization
MATERIALS: Graphic organizer, "The
Person I Will Never Forget"
PREPARATION ACTIVITY
How will I find out what strategies (or general approach) my students already use for this type of task?
1. Ask students what strategies they use to better
understand and remember when they read, both in their native language
and in English. Write those strategies on the board.
PRESENTATION ACTIVITY
How will I model and describe the strategy? What name will I give the strategy?
2. Introduce and discuss the strategy of Personalization for remembering new information. Explain that personalization means connecting ideas with your own life experiences.
3. Model the strategy of personalization: I will
show a story which tells about Elizabeth Robins, an actress and writer
of books and plays, a strong woman who worked for women's rights. I
will personalize it by remembering my own grandmother, who lived in
Indiana, and worked for womens' rights. I might say, "This story says
that
Elizabeth was a strong feminist and initially had been a member of the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. However, disillusioned by
the organisation's lack of success, she joined the Women's Social and
Political Union. Elizabeth was also active in the Actresses' Franchise
League and the Women's Writers' League. (See full text)
4. I have to stop and think about this word,
suffrage. Then I remember my grandmother telling me about how in her
childhood, she marched in the street to ask for women to get the vote,
which is called women's suffrage. I wish I could ask my grandmother to
tell me more about her experiences in those days. She worked in a mill
that made fabric, with other young women. I think it must have been a
hard life, and at that time few workers had protection against the
owners of the factories. She wanted to have a vote, so she put on the
short pants called "bloomers" and went out to protest in the streets.
She must have been very brave to do that. So when I read about
Elizabeth Robins, I understand what the word "Women's Suffrage" really
means, and I admire her courage. I have used personalization to make
the reading more meaningful to me. And my personalization helps me to
remember the meaning of the word suffrage"
5. I'll fill out the chart "The person I'll never
forget" with information about my grandmother.
PRACTICE ACTIVITY
How will students practice the strategy?
6. First I will introduce the story and tell students that this person might make them think of someone in their own experience.
7. I will ask Ss to read the story and personalize the content about the old man by relating it to someone they will always remember.
8. I'll ask Ss to fill out the chart with
information about their person. Then I'll walk around checking to see
how they are doing, giving feedback on their work.
SELF-EVALUATION ACTIVITY
How will students assess their success with the strategy?
9. I'll ask students to read through the story about the man again, and then turn the paper over and write their answers to these questions:
• Who is this story about?
• Imagine this man walked into the room just now.
What do you want to ask this man?
10. I'll ask for thumbs up or thumbs down in answer
to this question: Did personalizing the topic help you to understand
the story?
EXTENSION ACTIVITY
How will I make sure that students transfer the strategy to other tasks and situations?
11. If time allows I will ask Ss to tell about their person to a partner. (If we have no time today, I'll do this tomorrow) The listening partner will use personalization to relate what s/he hears to his/her own experiences. Then the listener will make notes about their partner's person. This activity allows for transfer of the personalization strategy to listening. Students learned it for reading in the beginning of this lesson, but can also apply it to listening.
Elizabeth Robins, the first child of Charles Robins and Hannah Crow,
was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1862. Elizabeth's mother, an opera
singer, was committed to an insane asylum when she was a child. Charles
Robins was a follower of Robert Owen and held progressive political
views. Robins sent Elizabeth to Vassar to study medicine but at
eighteen she ran away to become an actress.
In 1885, Elizabeth Robins married the actor, George Richmond
Parks. Whereas Elizabeth was in great demand, George struggled to get
parts. On 31st May 1887, he wrote Elizabeth a note saying that "I will
not stand in your light any longer" and signed it "Yours in death".
That night he committed suicide by jumped into the Charles River
wearing a suit of theatrical armour.
In 1888 Elizabeth travelled to London where she introduced British
audiences to the work of Henrik Ibsen. Elizabeth produced and acted in
several plays written by Ibsen including Hedda in Hedda Gabler, Rebecca
West in Rosmersholm, Nora in A Doll's House and Hilda Wangel in The
Master Builder. These plays were a great success and for the next few
years Elizabeth Robins was one of the most popular actresses on the
West End stage.
In 1898 Robins joined with William Archer to form the New Century
Theatre to sponsor non-profit productions of Ibsen. The company
produced several plays including John Gabriel Borkman and Peer Gynt.
1898 also saw the publication of Robins' popular novel The Open
Question.
In 1900 Elizabeth travelled to Alaska in an attempt to find her
brother, Raymond Robins, who had gone missing while on an expedition.
Later she wrote about her experiences in Alaska in the novels, Magnetic
North (1904) and Come and Find Me (1908).
Raymond returned to the United States and became an important
figure in the social reform movement. He was a member of the Hull House
settlement in Chicago and served on the national committee of the
Progressive Party. In 1905 he married Margaret Dreier, who was later to
become president of the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL).
Elizabeth was a strong feminist and initially had been a member of the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. However, disillusioned by
the organisation's lack of success, she joined the Women's Social and
Political Union. Elizabeth was also active in the Actresses' Franchise
League and the Women's Writers' League.
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence commissioned Elizabeth to write a series of
articles for her journal Votes for Women. She also asked her to write a
play on the subject. The play, Votes for Women (1907) was performed by
suffragists all over Britain. Robins also used the same story and
characters for her novel The Convert (1907).
Both Votes for Women and The Convert deal with how men sexually exploit
women. The heroine in the story, Vida Levering, a militant suffragette,
rejects men because in the past, a lover, Geoffrey Stoner, a
Conservative MP, forced her into having an abortion because he feared
he would lose his inheritance. The heroine was initially named
Christian Levering and was based on Elizabeth's close friend,
Christabel Pankhurst. When Emmeline Pankhurst raised fears about what
the play might do to Christabel's reputation, Elizabeth agreed to
change the name to Vida. Elizabeth Robins, like her heroine in Votes
for Women, turned down offers of marriage from many men, including the
playwright, George Bernard Shaw and the publisher William Heinemann.
In 1907 Elizabeth Robins became a committee member of the WSPU. When
the British government introduced the Cat and Mouse Act in 1913, Robins
used her 15th century farmhouse at Backsettown, near Henfield in
Sussex, as a retreat for suffragettes recovering from hunger strike. It
was also rumoured that the house was used as a hiding place for
suffragettes on the run from the police.
Elizabeth wrote a large number of speeches defending militant
suffragettes between 1906 and 1912 (a selection of these can by found
her book Way Stations). However, Elizabeth herself never took part in
these activities and so never experienced arrest or imprisonment.
Emmeline Pankhurst told her it was more important that she remained
free so that she could use her skills as a writer to support the
suffragettes. It was also pointed out that as Elizabeth was not a
British citizen she faced the possibility of being deported if she was
arrested. Elizabeth once told a friend that she would "rather die than
face prison."
Like many members of the WSPU, Elizabeth Robins objected to Emmeline
and Christabel Pankhurst's dictatorial style of running the
organisation. Elizabeth also disapproved of the decision in the summer
of 1912 to start an arson campaign. When the Pankhursts refused to
reconsider this decision, Robins resigned from the WSPU.
Although Elizabeth Robins rejected her father's plans to have her
trained as a doctor, she retained a strong interest in medicine. In
1908 Elizabeth became great friends with Octavia Wilberforce, a young
woman who had a strong desire to become a doctor. When Octavia's father
refused to pay for her studies, Elizabeth arranged to take over the
financial responsibility for the course.
After women gained the vote, Robins took a growing interest in women's
health care. Robins had been involved in raising funds for the Lady
Chichester Hospital for Women & Children in Brighton since 1912.
After the First World War Robins joined Louisa Martindale in her
campaign for a much more ambitious project, a fifty-bed hospital run by
women for women. Elizabeth persuaded many of her wealthy friends to
give money and eventually the New Sussex Hospital for Women was opened
in Brighton.
Elizabeth Robins also became involved in the campaign to allow women to
enter the House of Lords. Elizabeth's friend, Margaret
Haig, was the daughter of Lord Rhondda. He was a supporter of women's
rights and in his will made arrangements for her to inherit his title.
However, when he died in 1918, the Lords refused to allow
Viscountess Rhondda to take her seat. Robins wrote numerous articles on
the subject, but it was not until 1958, long after Viscountess Haig's
death, that women were first admitted to the House of Lords.
Robins remained an active feminist throughout her life. In the 1920s
she was a regular contributor to the feminist magazine, Time and Tide.
Elizabeth also continued to write books such as Ancilla's Share: An
Indictment of Sex Antagonism that explored the issues of sexual
inequality. Elizabeth Robins died in Brighton in 1952.
See
original web document:
(http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wrobins.htm)