March – the month of (Romanian) women (LS-RO-579)
Background
The pandemic context of teaching and learning forced us to reinvent ourselves, to preserve the affective dimension of the relationship between teachers and students. As a Romanian literature and language teacher, I had to carefully select the methods, tools, strategies through which lessons would make sense. To connect literature to reality, also to cultivate sensitivity, strengthen identity and interpersonal relationships, to make students aware of their involvement in the educational process, I proposed my students to work on a project dedicated to famous Romanian women
First steps – anchor for learning
Starting from the resources that Europeana platform offered us, we experienced three hours of learning by discovering the role of women in different fields. The SINELG method allowed us to record the aspects which we have already known, also to draw some new aspects, to report and to discuss all these aspects during an online meeting. My students reflected on the role of women in society and identified various fields in which women have made their mark bringing innovations.
Otherness – Identity – Feminity
On March 8th , when the International Women’s Day is celebrated, my students prepared sensitive thoughts, expressed in literary forms. They transcribed poems, recited, played the piano, added the Romanian symbol of spring – mărțișorul. All their digital products were loaded into a Padlet and we reflected on the choices which they made, on the symbols and the messages.
For the next three online sessions (3 hours), students selected their favorite personality from Romanian culture, accessing the list proposed by the teacher. Students created an identity card of each personality using already known tools like Prezi, PowerPoint, Xmind. They shared with their colleagues all the identity cards of the female personalities from Romanian history, art, army, sport, literature, theatre, cinema, medicine, royalty, using the classroom’s Padlet. Also, they designed question games, quizzes, contests (Kahoot, Quiz, Wordwall) and we were able to note in the learning diary reflections on our progress, acquisitions, achievements.
Collaborative learning
As homework, students created digital products (posters) about the role of women in society/ science/world. Between the 15th -30th of March my students uploaded their digital posters on a specific site, using the application indicated by the teacher, in compliance with the copyright law. These digital products will be accessed in April and May by their classmates from the 9th and the 8th grade, for the knowledge transfer, for co-teaching and collaborative learning. The site (https://womensmonth.wixsite.com/website-3) will be accessed and evaluated by the other students, who will provide feedback.
Learning and Living
We planned a synchronous session for teamwork reflections. Students expressed the importance of the significant contributions of (Romanian) women in shaping the world we know. The class discussed the importance of these achievements to our actual way of leaving, the role of learning and collaborating.
Conclusions
Creating these projects gave students the possibility to identify important aspects of their national culture, to realize that women and men can both be successful in any field and last, but not least they understood the importance of equality and equity in society.
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Did you find this learning scenario interesting? You might also like:
- March – the month of women in the history of science created by Josip Kličinović
- Women, feminism and human rights created by Isabela Miron
- Women in Science as Role Models created by Mirela Radosevic
Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Nationalmuseum, Sweden.