Middle Ages 6 - Lords & their Babies: The Weaving of Women's Tales
"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." Virginia Woolf
Lords & their Babies - The Weaving of Women's Tales: A lesson that when students come back - it remains in their memories - and they tell me, was one of their favorites. After reading about Women Writers in the Middle Ages (and Virginia's Woolf's "Shakespeare's Sister" (where the phrase "a room of one's own" comes from) - the students are given a very practical lesson in why there were so few women writers during the Middle Ages. The class is randomly divided into "Lords" & "Ladies". The students who are "Lords" (randomly chosen) have to take care of a paper baby - while using their wrong hand, cannot join groups - and then they must act on their own initiative, while taking care of their babies - go to the table at the front, sharpen their broken off pencils and still get the Group Work done.
Lesson Overview
This lesson started one class - many, many years ago, when I asked the class the question (after they did the reading on Women Writers in Medieval England) why they thought there were so few female writers during that period. One of my male students raised his hand - I called on him and he said, "I think it's obvious Mr. Scotese - women just can't write as well as men." Wow! Talk about not understanding the reading. I saw that there was a real need to get the idea across of why it was so difficult for women to publish their writings (or to even write to begin with).
The first thing I did was to also assign (it appears much later in the text book) Virginia Woolf's "Shakespeare's Sister". It is an incredible essay - and it goes through all of the reasons why there were so few women writers for so long - next, I came up with an activity to demonstrate some of the ideas from these two readings - and to do it in a way that leave a lasting impression.
Lesson Instructions
1) As the students enter the room - handout each student - one at time, alternating cards - a Lord or a Lady card. It's important to alternate these (arrange them before class) so that you end up with an equal (or almost if you have an odd number of students) of Lords and Ladies.
2) Once all of the students are in the classroom, at their desks, ask the class who is left-handed / who is right-handed? (this is actually very important). Note your left-handed students.
3) Ask the students to keep their cards out on the upper right corners of their desks (see if they're different colors, I did my lords red - and my ladies, yellow - it really helps the teacher to see who is who).
4) Pass out the Quizzes (see below for the quizzes) by hand to each student - The Lord's Quizzes go to those with a Lord Card; the Lady Quizzes go to those with Lady Cards. Tell the students NOT to start writing their answers yet.
5) Announce that all Lords (those with Lord Cards) must use their nondominant hand to do all of their writing FOR THE ENTIRE PERIOD - including this quiz. Right-handed Lords must use their left hand, etc. Ladies may use their usual hand.
6) You will soon hear some loud grumbling (with laughter) from those with the Lord cards (Lords). The questions on their quiz are IMPOSSIBLE (ie "How many words are in the article?" / "What was the name of Virgina Woolf's paternal great-grandfather?"). Please inform them that they shouldn't complain so much - you don't "hear the Ladies complaining". REMIND THE LORDS THAT THEY MUST USE ONLY THEIR NONDOMINANT HAND IN ANSWERING THE QUIZ.
7) After a few minutes (about 5 - essentially when the Ladies are done with their very typical content quiz) - ask the students to pass the quizzes up. (by the way - I never count the grade of these quizzes)
8) Next announce - in a kind but firm voice that the Lords must take everything off of their desk. Make sure they comply. No paper, no pens, nothing should be left on the desk of anyone with a Lord card. (Don't worry - I did this for 25 years - no one was traumatized ...they get pretty quickly the point).
9) Now pass one of the Group Work handouts (found below) to all those who have a Lady card. Put the remaining Group Work handouts (enough for the rest of the class) on a desk or table close to whereever you keep your pencil sharpener. If you don't have one - you should beg, borrow, or steal one for today's class.
10) Announce that the Ladies "may get into groups (up to 4) of their choosing and get started". Further announce, that the Group Work is due at the end of the period for everyone! (you may need to periodically make this announcement).
11) Now it is time to pass out the babies (see below). All students with a Lord card are given a baby (a 81/2 by 11 paper with a baby picture on it). Next, you need to instruct the Lords on how to take care of that baby. It is relatively simple - with their dominant hand (right for most) they are to simply fold the corner of the paper - gently and rhythmically (maybe 1 fold every 2 seconds or so - but they should be consistent).
12) Keep on the Lords! Make sure they are doing it (taking care of the baby). After a few (maybe 2 or 3) minutes - remind the class that the Group Work is Due for Everyone by the End of the Period. Make sure they are still taking care of those babies.
13) At the front of the room - on a table are all the tools the Lords need to do the Group Work: 1. The Group Work handouts 2. pencils - WITH THEIR POINTS BROKEN OFF 3. a pencil sharpner 4. blank loose leaf paper.
14) The Lords will have to make their way to that front table - WHILE TAKING CARE OF THEIR BABIES. They will need to grab the tools - sharpen a pencil (this is especially amusing), get the Group Work and then get to their seat - all the while keeping those folds in the baby corner going.
15) If a Lord forgets repeatedly to "take care of the baby" - give them another one - now they must take care of two and get everything done.
16) Eventually the Lords will make it back to their seats - with their babies - and start on the Group Work. ALONE. AND - using only their nondominant hand to write. They are not allowed to work with others.
17. After this goes on for a few minutes - you can stop the exercise and have the class give the Lords a big round of applause for being such good sports.
DISCUSSION
Ask the class why you all went through the exercise. There are always students ready with the answer: "It was nearly impossible for women - during the Middle Ages - with everything going against them to be able to write anything (see Woolf's essay). Quickly go through the constraints - nondominant hand? Women were not taught to read and write. Not allowed to work in a group? Women could not attend university. Etc, etc. etc. So in answer to the student that started this whole thing - it is not a wonder that there were so few women writers in England during the Middle Ages. It is truly a wonder that there were any at all.
Rest of the Class Period
Inform the students that they do not have to worry about Part 1 of the Group Work (the Ladies have probably finished it). They are to spend the rest of the period doing Part 2 - If they were a "Lady" they should stay in the groups they were in - "Lords" may join any group they want (up to 4 students).
The Group Work
(see below for the entire Group Work). Here are some of the important ideas in the Group Work
Relating Woolf's essay to the historical background on Women Writers of the Middle AgesBringing a quote from The House on Mango Street to once again get students to see how little has changed.
An Extra Credit assignment based on a short article by novelist (The History of Love) Nicole Krauss: "Do Women Get to Write with Authority", Persuasion by Jane Austen, and the Wife of Bath. A new reading, a future reading, a past reading...
Essential Handouts
See the Lesson Overview above - you need to make as many of these as students that you have in your classroom. Some students will end up having two! These are the babies that the students will "take care" while trying to do their Group Work. You can let the students keep these - and in the past, I had students that put them on their locker - made fancy cutout clothes for them - and at least one student who made a cap and gown for their "baby" and took it up with them to the stage for graduation.
See the above Lesson Overview. These cards should be printed out equally - I used different color (blue & yellow) card stock for printing them out. And then you want to stack them - alternating Lord with Lady - and give them to your students as they enter the classroom. It's important to get the distrubution equal between Lords & Ladies.
The Lord & the Lady Quizzes
This is a normal, typical reading content quiz.
This is an impossible to answer quiz - with minutia and very impossibly specific questions.
By the way - I always throw the results of both versions of this quiz out.
Here is a Power Point that was designed for Remote Learning - I'm pretty sure we didn't DO the Lord & Baby exercise - but what we did instead was to watch a video of the exercise from a past year. This Power Point goes over the reading, "Weaving of Women's Tales" and sets up the reading aloud of Nicole Krauss's article on women writing with authority (found in the Group Work and in handouts below). Notice I give the page numbers to help the students follow along.
This reading goes over women writers in England during the middle ages.
Obviously, Virginia Woolf lived a great deal later - but her writing is timeless and her explanation of why there were so few women writers is both topical and timeless.
This article can also be found in the Group Work (see above).
BoysAndTheirBabiesNov172010.mp3Class Recordings
Audio Recording of Lords and their Babies
Some year I hope to figure out how to share video on this site and ensure students' privacy. Until then, here is an audio of us doing this lesson.
The Middle Ages Exam (including Chaucer): So after the daily content - did you read quizzes - now is the chance to find out if the students were paying attention and processing everything that happened as the result of their reading (the discussions, assignments, Group Work, etc.). This multiple choice exam will cover the Middle Ages Part 1, Chaucer, and the Middle Ages Part 2.
WHAT CAME BEFORE:
Thoughts on the Lesson
For 20 years or so we did this in class demonstration by having it divided into boys and girls (rather than giving out the Lord and Lady cards randomly). Then one day after we did - a student came to me and told me that some students might feel uncomfortable with such a binary gender designation. Of course they were right! So we sat down together and came up with the Lord and Lady cards. I hope I always grew; always listened as a teacher.