Activity Two: Examining an Image and Biographical Sketch - Jennie Casseday
This activity presents Jennie Casseday, one of the women in a Woman of the Century
Duration
One hour for questions one through three
One day for questions four and five
Objectives
- To introduce Jennie Casseday
- To teach students to ask critical questions about an image
- To give students a chance for a close reading of a biographical sketch in A Woman of the Century
- To present students with an opportunity to explore A Woman of the Century: A Crowdsourcing Project of the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries
- To highlight that images and texts are interpreted differently by different people.
Materials
- Image of Jennie Casseday
- Jennie Casseday's profile in A Woman of the Century
- Jennie Casseday's item record in A Woman of the Century: A Crowdsourcing Project of the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Student blogs about Jennie Casseday
Lesson Plan Text
In this lesson, you will study the image of and learn about Jennie Casseday, one of the 1470 women in A Woman of the Century.
Please consider the following questions and respond to them in a blog post.
1. Study Jennie Casseday's image carefully.
- What was your first reaction to it?
- What questions do you have about it?
- As you look at it more closely, what do you notice about it?
2. Read Jennie's profile in A Woman of the Century.
- What is your impression of Jennie after having read her profile?
- What questions do you still have?
- How do you believe your reaction to her image might have differed if you had seen it after having read the first page of her biographical sketch? Why?
3. Read Jennie's item record in A Woman of the Century: A Crowdsourcing Project of the Nineteenth and Twenty-First Centuries.
- What did you learn by a careful examination of the item record that you did not know previously?
- How has the item record helped you to understand Jennie and her world?
- Which resource did you find most interesting? Why?
4. What are your final reflections on Jennie Casseday?
Please add your reflections to your blog post.
5. Read the blog posts that other students have written about Jennie Casseday.
- Were your reactions similar to theirs?
- Did you ask yourself many of the same questions that they did?
- What have you learned from reading what others had to say about an image and text that you had viewed and read/