Anne Hutchinson

Anne Bradstreet


Phillis Wheatley

Abagail Adams

Emma Willard

Ernestine Rose

Elizabeth Blackwell


Elizabeth Stanton


Harriett Beecher Stowe

Clara Barton

Victoria Woodhull

Nellie Bly


Carrie Chapman Catt

They Led The Way
Book Discussion/Review

Author: Johanna Johnston

Leader: Daughter/Mother Discussion
(5th Grade)

Genre: Non-Fiction - an awesome book to do during Women's History Month

Average Rating [1 (don't suggest) -5 (highly suggest)]: We all loved it !!!!!

We started by choosing the next set of books. We started from a list of 19 books and each girl chose a Discussion book and an optional reading book for their month. This system of picking two books is new to us. We have some girls that would like more book club books and some that don't want to read more than one. With one optional book each month they can choose to read more or not. Then out of their left over choices the mothers decided on a discussion and reading book to start the summer. Starting with a broader set of options seemed to take care of the problem of everyone wanting to lead the same book. We had little to no overlap and it all went very smoothly. They picked some fascinating books.

Discussion started with each of us talking about the person we did some extra research on. Hearing more about the people was interesting. Since we have three girls who want to be politically active (future Presidents of the US) we also heard some about Political Firsts for Women in this country. We found out that 38 women have run for President as of the 2000 election. Then we moved on to dinner which was Colonial Peanut soup,homemade corn bread, fried chicken, cole slaw, mashed potatoes with gravy and rolls. Dessert was a Colonial apple tansy, an apple crisp and some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. We discussed more generalized questions related to all the women in the book at dinner and used a game show type format to keep the girls attention, which was wandering by then. I asked question 4 but getting a response was difficult. I switched to the game show format and their attention was riveted. The first question (number 7) was worth 10 points, the second (number 8) 25 points and then one girl had the final question worth 35 points which evened everyone out. We got wonderful insightful answers. The final question was: "What did all the women in this book do that thousands of other women who have made a difference didn't do? What made these women end up in the history books where others were forgotten?" The answer was that they put their experiences in writing so that their story survived.

Karoke followed dinner with singing and dancing by all. We finally had to quit because we ran out of time. It was a school night.

 

    Discussion Themes:  

    Sufferage, Women's rights, Bravery (is it different in women and men or the same?), Up Front or behind the scenes?,


    Discussion Questions:

  1. What obstacles did these women have to overcome?
  2. Women have come a long way since these women's time. They have the right to vote, they may own property, they can even run for public office. Name some of the other liberties that women of our century experience in contrast to those of the past in dress, occupation, etc.
  3. Which of these women had the "hardest" time? Why?
  4. Are there characteristics that all these women shared? What are they?
  5. Do you admire all of these women? What is it that you admire about them?
  6. Were these women able to act openly or did they have to work in secret? What was it about their time that made/allowed them have to operate this way?
  7. Were these women satisfied with their lives and accomplishments, in your opinion? Which do you think were more or less satisfied?
  8. Do you think they understood they were making a difference for women? Which do you think did or didn't?

    Suggested Activities and Food :

  1. We are having a pot luck meeting with both girls and mothers.
  2. We are having each person (girls and mothers) do some extra research on one of the women. Then they will bring that extra knowledge to the meeting and will run the discussion on that woman.
  3. We are having "American Food" as a theme.
  4. We are starting the meeting with a crossword puzzle of the names and accomplishments, who can remember them all? Click here to see the puzzle, and here for one with the answers.
  5. We are taking the girls on a follow-up trip to a play at a local High School that deals with these issues.

    Suggested Activities from the "Reading Maniacs"

  1. All the moms could share stories of how different things were for us growing up as girls!
  2. Talk about how our girls can do/be anything - and how there still are places where that is NOT true (refer to current events).
  3. We put dates and names on index cards and placed them on a time line (a favorite activity of mine because it helps them to see that some of these things were NOT all that long ago) ie women getting the vote, first women doc (blackwell), amelia earhart flying solo across the atalantic, nellie bly first female investigative reporter, sally ride, hillary clinton...i add things on the index cards like someones's grandma's birthdate, invention of tv and computers! Discovery channel web site had a section "women of the century" - with dates and other info about famous women. http://school.discovery.com/schooladventures/womenofthecentury/
  4. When we read they led the way, it was "women's history month" (march 01), go to www.nwhp.org for some ideas and handouts and activities - we talked about contributions important women have made especially as they may have changed our world.

 
Support Sites (some of our discussion questions/activity ideas come from these sites), the pictures on this page came from the folowing sites:
  1. Anne Hutchinson - On Trial for Thinking for Herself
  2. Anne Bradstreet - First Poet in Colonial America
  3. Lady Deborah Moody - Mayor of her Own Town
  4. Phillis Wheatley - America's First Black Woman Poet
  5. Abigail Adams - Independence Day for Women Too
  6. Emma Willard - She Started the First College for Women
  7. Ernestine Rose - She Argued With a King
  8. Elizabeth Blackwell - Into Med School by Student Vote
  9. Elizabeth Cady Stanton - Declaration Against Injustices to Women
  10. Harriet Beecher Stowe - She Helped Abolish Slavery
  11. Clara Barton - A One-Woman, Mobile Army Hospital
  12. Victoria Woodhull - First Woman to Run for President
  13. Nellie Bly - One-Woman Race Against Time
  14. Carrie Chapman Catt - Women Win the Right to Vote

          

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