Lesson: Stereotyping and Genre
This lesson helps students recognize and understand stereotyping and bias in media and how these may be a consequence of genre tropes instead of conscious choices by media makers.
Grade range: 4-6
Teacher Material: https://textbook.mediasmarts.ca/discoveringstudent/chapter/fairy-tales/
Student Material: https://textbook.mediasmarts.ca/discovering/chapter/fairy-tales-versus-fables/
Time Frame
One class period (45-60 minutes) | Two or three class periods (90-120 minutes) | ||
Activities |
Fairy Tales Learning About Genres Genre Conventions Stereotyping and Genre
|
Fairy Tales Learning About Genres Genre Conventions Stereotyping and Genre Questions for Media Makers
|
Preparation:
Make sure that students are able to access the interactive activities.
If you would like to use printed copies of the handouts, download and prepare to photocopy them:
Learning Outcomes
Big ideas/key concepts: Students will understand that…
Media are constructions
- Media makers’ choices are influenced by the conventions of the medium and genre they are working in
Media have social and political implications:
- Different genres such as fairy tales and fables have explicit morals and meanings, and genre conventions can also lead to implicit meanings such as stereotypes
Each medium has a unique aesthetic form:
- Genres give media makers a “toolbox” of characters, settings, etc. to use
Key questions:
- What are genres?
- How do genres make media creators more likely to use stereotypes?
Essential knowledge: Students will know…
- Reading media: Concept of genre; typical elements of fairy tales and fables
- Media representation: Impacts of genre elements on stereotyping, ways of responding to stereotyping in media
- Key vocabulary: genre, stereotype
Performance tasks: Students will be able to…
- Understand: Identify how genres influence how media works are made and experienced
- Engage: Advocate for improved representation in media
Curriculum Connections
Strand A: Literacy Connections and Applications
A1 Transferable Skills
A1.1 Receptive and Expressive Communication
explain how transferable skills can be used to support communication in various cultural, social, linguistic, and domain-specific contexts, and apply them when reading, listening to, viewing, and creating texts of various forms
A1.2 Student Agency and Engagement
evaluate and explain how transferable skills help them express their voice, be engaged in their learning, and plan the next steps to develop their capabilities and potential
A2 Digital Media Literacy
A2.3 Research and Information Literacy
gather, evaluate, and use information, considering validity, credibility, accuracy, and perspectives, to construct knowledge, create texts, and demonstrate learning
A2.4 Forms, Conventions, and Techniques
demonstrate an understanding of the forms, conventions, and techniques of digital and media texts, consider the impact on the audience, and apply this understanding when analyzing and creating texts
A2.5 Media, Audience and Production
demonstrate an understanding of the interrelationships between the form, message, and context of texts, the intended audience, and the purpose for production
A2.7 Community and Cultural Awareness
communicate and collaborate with various communities in a safe, respectful, responsible, and inclusive manner when using online platforms and environments, including digital and media tools, and demonstrate cultural awareness with members of the community
A3 Applications, Connections, and Contributions
A3.1 Cross-Curricular and Integrated Learning
explain how the knowledge and skills developed in this grade support learning in various subject areas and in everyday life, and describe how they enhance understanding and communication
A3.2 Identity and Community
demonstrate an understanding of the historical contexts, contributions, lived experiences, and perspectives of a diversity of individuals and communities, including those in Canada, by exploring the concepts of identity, self, and sense of belonging in a variety of culturally responsive and relevant texts
Strand C: Comprehension: Understanding and Responding to Texts
C1 Knowledge About Texts
C1.2 Text Forms and Genres
Grades 4-5: describe some characteristics of various text forms and genres, including cultural text forms, and explain how they help communicate meaning
Grade 6: analyze a variety of text forms and genres, including cultural text forms, and explain how their characteristics help communicate meaning
C1.3 Text Patterns and Features
Grade 4: identify text patterns, such as spatial order in a graphic text, and text features, such as type styles and hyperlinks, associated with various text forms, including cultural texts, and explain how they help readers, listeners, and viewers understand the meaning
Grade 5: identify text patterns, such as cause and effect in a persuasive text, and text features, such as a preface and glossary, associated with various text forms, including cultural texts, and explain how they help readers, listeners, and viewers understand the meaning
Grade 6: analyze text patterns, such as problem-solution in a report, and text features, such as subheadings and pull-down menus, associated with various text forms, including cultural texts, and explain how they help readers, listeners, and viewers understand the meaning
C1.6 Point of View
Grades 4-5: identify the narrator’s point of view, including first, second, or third person, in a variety of texts, and describe the advantages and disadvantages of the approach used in each story
Grade 6: identify the narrator’s point of view, including first, second, or third person, in a variety of texts, providing evidence, and explain how using an alternative point of view would change each story
C2. Comprehension Strategies
C2.1 Prereading: Activating Prior Knowledge
identify and explain prior knowledge from various sources, including personal experiences, that they can use to make connections and understand new texts
C2.2 Prereading: Identifying the Purpose for Reading, Listening, and Viewing
Grades 4-5: identify a variety of purposes for engaging with texts, and select texts from diverse creators that are suitable for the purposes
Grade 6: identify a variety of purposes for engaging with texts, select texts from diverse creators that are suitable for the purposes, and explain why the selections are appropriate
C2.3 Monitoring of Understanding: Making and Confirming Predictions
Grades 4-5: make predictions using background knowledge, text features, and evidence from the text, and pose questions to check whether their predictions were correct
Grade 6: make predictions using background knowledge and textual information, pose questions to check whether their predictions were correct, and, if not, adjust their understanding
C2.4 Monitoring of Understanding: Ongoing Comprehension Check
Grades 4-5: use strategies such as adjusting reading rate, visualizing, reading ahead, asking questions, and consulting references and other texts or sources of information, to monitor and confirm their understanding of various texts
Grade 6: use strategies such as visualizing, reading ahead, asking questions, and consulting references and other texts or sources of information, to monitor and confirm their understanding of various texts
C2.5 Monitoring of Understanding: Making Connections
Grades 4-5: describe how the ideas expressed in texts connect to their knowledges and lived experiences, the ideas in other texts, and the world around them
Grade 6: explain how the ideas expressed in texts connect to their knowledges and lived experiences, the ideas in other texts, and the world around them
C2.6 Summarizing: Identifying Relevant information and Drawing Conclusions
Grade 4: summarize the main idea of a text and the supporting details in sequence, and draw a simple conclusion
Grade 5: summarize the main idea of a text and the supporting details in sequence, and draw a well-supported conclusion
Grade 6: summarize and record the main idea and supporting details in various texts, and draw well-supported
C3 Critical Thinking in Literacy
C3.2 Making Inferences
Grades 4-5: make local and global inferences, using explicit and implicit evidence, to extend their understanding of various texts
Grade 6: make local and global inferences, using explicit and implicit evidence, to develop interpretations about various texts and to extend their understanding
C3.3 Analyzing Texts
Grade 4: analyze various texts, including literary and informational texts, by identifying main and supporting ideas, sequencing the events of multiple plots, and explaining cause and effect
Grade 5: analyze various texts, including literary and informational texts, by identifying main and supporting ideas, sequencing the events of multiple plots, recording relevant information, and explaining cause and effect
Grade 6: analyze various texts, including literary and informational texts, by identifying main and supporting ideas, evaluating the quality of information and its relevance for a specific purpose, and formulating conclusions
C3.4 Analyzing Cultural Elements of Texts
Grades 4-5: identify cultural elements that are represented in various texts, including, norms, values, artifacts, sports, and music, investigate the meanings of these elements, and make connections to their lived experience and culture
Grade 6: analyze cultural elements that are represented in various texts, including, values, rituals and ceremonies, architecture, art, and dance, by investigating the meanings of these elements, making connections to their lived experience and culture, and sharing their interpretations with others
C3.5 Perspectives within Texts
Grades 4-5: identify explicit and implicit perspectives communicated in various texts, explain how these perspectives are conveyed, give some evidence of any biases the texts may contain, and suggest how such biases could influence an audience
Grade 6: explain explicit and implicit perspectives communicated in various texts, including narrative texts, provide any evidence that could suggest bias in these perspectives, and suggest ways to avoid any such bias
C3.6 Analysis and Response
Grades 4-5: explain how various topics, such as diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, are addressed in texts, and describe what insights or messages are conveyed
Grade 6: explain how various topics, such as diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, are addressed in texts, analyze the insights or messages conveyed, and identify different positions presented
Strand D: Composition: Expressing Ideas and Creating Texts
D1. Developing Ideas and Organizing Content
D1.1 Purpose and Audience
identify the topic, purpose, and audience for various texts they plan to create, and explain why the chosen text form, genre, and medium suit the purpose and audience, and how they will help communicate the intended meaning
D1.2 Developing Ideas
generate and develop ideas and details about various topics, such as topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to other subject areas, using a variety of strategies, and drawing on various resources, including their own lived experiences
D2. Creating Texts
D2.1 Producing Drafts
Grades 4-5: draft texts of various forms and genres, including narrative, persuasive, and informational texts, using a variety of media, tools, and strategies
Grade 6: draft complex texts of various forms and genres, including narrative, expository, and informational texts, using a variety of media, tools, and strategies
D2.3 Voice
establish a personal voice in their texts, using varied language and elements of style to express their thoughts, feelings, and opinions about a topic, and using a tone appropriate to the form and genre
A kind or category of media work that makers use and audiences recognize.
An image or picture of a kind of person that makes it seem like they are all the same.