Gender Studies, Bishop

In 290 tomorrow, I’m going to try something a bit new–students will have read the Ryan introduction to gender studies, which has three distinct portions (not divided as such, but useful): an overview, a closer look at the patriarchal construction/rejection/suppression of the feminine, and a section on homosexual panic and compulsory heterosexuality, all the while focusing on the fluidity of gender rather than its stability. We’re also reading Bishop’s poem, “The Roosters,” about which Ryan has generated some interesting prompts. My plan is to divide the students into three groups, and have each group teach a section of the introduction to their peers in a 5-minute presentation. They’ll need a bit of time to gather thoughts and figure out what is most important, plan an approach, and organize themselves, but I think 15 minutes should do it. Then, we’ll use most of the rest of the class to go over “The Roosters” in general, after reading it aloud, spending the very last portion on a prompted freewrite to prepare for later assignments.