Welcome to TechKNOW Associates' Women: A Guiding Force page. This project was developed through a partnership between TechKNOW Associates and World Book Inc. To download a copy of the project, you will need a userid and password. Please go to the Terms of Use page for more information.

TechKNOW Associates Corporation can provide expert, onsite staff development to insure that teachers and children fully implement this and other projects at a reasonable cost. We will train teachers in the classroom with their students, model lessons, and help them integrate technology into their curriculum through a project-based approach.

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Women: A Guiding Force

Throughout history, women authors and activists have played a major role in reflecting and shaping events through their writing. Women have shared their experiences of the world through narratives, journals, letters, short stories, poems, biographies, autobiographies, and novels. Often these writings were more than creative literature; they were insightful records of life at a particular time. However, many women writers did more than record or interpret history – they influenced or helped shape events.

Over the next few weeks your class will research and read literary works, original documents, historical accounts, and other documents by and about women authors and activists. Your students will discover many interesting facts about pivotal periods in the history both of the United States and Great Britain. They will discover information about women who were involved in or affected by the course of history. Research will lead them to develop a better understanding of the contributions of these women.

Women: A Guiding Force is an interdisciplinary project with a focus on literature and history. It addresses standards in English Language Arts, Social Studies, and the Arts. This project is divided into three independent, yet related phases:

Phase One: Reflections (or Women Writers Uniquely Reflect the Themes of Their Times) – Students will research the works of women authors by historical time period and genre. As they gather information about one or more of these periods in history, they will make connections between the writers, their times, and the countries in which they lived. Students’ research and conclusions will be combined into a class newsletter. They also will develop an original story, series of letters, poetry, essays, etc. that reflect a specific period, theme, or genre from their research.

Phase Two: Actions (or Women Writers and Activists Have Helped Shape History) – Students will research the connections between one or more pivotal periods in history. Using a variety of primary source documents, they will discover the important role of women who influenced events. Students will create a multimedia presentation reflecting the point of view of one or more of the women that they have studied. They will also create a personalized diary or journal with content surrounding a specific event.

 Phase Three: Determinations (or Celebrating the Achievements of Women in Literature and History) – The culminating activity will be an event called “A Tribute to Remarkable Women.” This event will be an opportunity to celebrate student achievement. Students will present what they have learned and display their related projects to invited guests.

The open-ended structure of the plan allows you to adjust the scope of the project to the needs, interests, and curriculum of your class. You can choose to complete one or all phases of the project; you can stress either history or language arts; you can select one or more time periods; or you can focus on either British literature and history, United States literature and history, or both.

This project strives to engage students by appealing to their natural creativity and curiosity, while providing students with a strong foundation in research skills using the Internet. Students will use technology to employ a variety of different intelligences and will demonstrate understanding in multiple formats.

To download a copy of the project, you will need a userid and password. Please go to the Terms of Use page for more information. If you have a userid and password, click here.