Lesson: Unpacking Stereotypes: College Recruitment Ad
Slide Deck to Share with Students HERE
Lesson Objectives:
Students will be able to
Detect, reflect upon, and reject stereotypes that are present in our everyday lives
Learning Standards:
LfJ 11. Students will recognize stereotypes and relate to people as individuals rather than as representatives of groups
LfJ 12. Students will recognize unfairness at the individual level (e.g. biased speech) and injustice at the institutional or systemic level (e.g. discrimination)
LfJ 13. Students will analyze the harmful impact of bias and injustice on the world, historically and today.
Learning Activities (If you have 15 minutes…)
Greeting (Slide 4)
Which Kermit the Frog are you today?
Reading (Slides 6-7):
Define a stereotype for your students (Slide 6) prior to sharing the reading below (Slide 7)
“No one is born believing in harmful stereotypes. They are learned over time. The good news is they can be unlearned.”
--Kevin Faulconer
What does this quotation get you thinking about?
Initiative
Question for students: What do you notice about this advertisement for the University of North Georgia? What stereotypes are being invoked here? (Slide 9)
Information for teacher: This advertisement was published in 2015.
Learning Activities (if you have 45 minutes….)
Initiative (continued):
Invite students to apply Patricia Devine’s Detect, Reflect, Reject framework to this t-shirt (Slide 9)
1) Detect-- What is the problem here?
2) Reflect-- Why is this stereotype showing up here? Who is it harming?
3) Reject-- What can we do to challenge this problematic stereotype?
Learning Activities (if you have 2 hours….)
Initiative (continued)
Watch the YouTube video (3 minutes long) about a UNG student who protested this ad campaign (Slide 11)
Questions for students:
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What do you think of the student’s decision to speak up against the advertisement?
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Do you think the student was fired from her campus jobs for speaking out against racism and sexism?
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Would you have gone back to your old jobs when the university offered them to you?
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How does this incident influence your thinking about stereotypes and challenging stereotypes?