{"id":1277,"date":"2019-04-08T13:22:35","date_gmt":"2019-04-08T13:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/?p=1277"},"modified":"2019-04-08T13:22:45","modified_gmt":"2019-04-08T13:22:45","slug":"mental-health-the-yellow-wallpaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/major-paper-project\/mental-health-the-yellow-wallpaper\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health &amp; The Yellow Wallpaper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Write-Up Word Count: 643<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The Yellow Wallpaper&#8221; has been\none of my favorite short stories through the years, but for some reason, I\nnever really thought to look at it through the lens of disability and\/or mental\nillness, even though it was literally and unapologetically about mental\nillness\u2014a very real brush with a severe, potentially crippling mental\nbreakdown. I first read Gilman&#8217;s story in high school, but we never touched on\nthe disability aspect of the story. It was either Gothic Horror or American\nFiction, and nothing a little more profound or potentially relating back to\nthings that happen in real life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In that regard, especially given the growing\nvocality of the disabled and mentally ill, and the constant criticism of coding\nfilm and fiction villains as mentally ill, I find that <em>not <\/em>talking about the disability aspects behind &#8220;The Yellow\nWallpaper&#8221; to be a great disservice to our high school students. They\nstill have the flexibility to unlearn toxic behavior and thought processes with\nteachers and administration as mediators, without them having to come face to\nface with it on their own without support. If we embrace that support\nstructure, we might even help kids ask for help if they think something might\nbe wrong. I know that if we&#8217;d taken the disability studies route when I was in\nhigh school and first read &#8220;The Yellow Wallpaper,&#8221; I might have asked\nfor help sooner than I did. Not that I ever had hallucinations or anything, but\nmaybe, just <em>maybe<\/em>, I would have\nrecognized the dangers of hyperfocus and being fatigued all the time, and how\nstaring off into middle distance all the time probably wasn&#8217;t a good thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So that was the motivation for this project.\nI&#8217;m currently in the Master&#8217;s of Education program here at UMW, and I wanted to\ndo a project that more aligns wit my future goals and career than just writing\nmy ten millionth academic paper. Since I&#8217;m going to be a teacher, I do need to\npractice writing lesson plans, since that&#8217;s going to be what I&#8217;m doing for the\nrest of my professional life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coming up with something that didn&#8217;t rely on\nthe heavy theory readings we did in class was a challenge. Most of the theory\nreading we did likely isn&#8217;t accessible to 11<sup>th<\/sup> graders without very careful\nmodeling and guiding, and there isn&#8217;t a lot of time for that when you have a\nstate-mandated curriculum to follow. They&#8217;re just that dense. I did manage to\nfind several resources for teaching at grade level and some to use for\ndifferentiation purposes, since not all students learn the same. The experience\nI have as an active substitute and my twenty practicum hours this semester were\nan advantage I utilized to the fullest. If given the chance, I think I&#8217;m even\nready to teach this lesson, even though it&#8217;s designed to take at least two\n80-minute class periods. Parts of the lesson plan were purposefully left vague,\nas they depend entirely on student response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Making the lesson accessible was my biggest\nchallenge, because a lot of the theory <em>is\n<\/em>so dense, and I chose an SOL Standard focused on 11<sup>th<\/sup> grade, and\nmost classes won&#8217;t talk about anything other than what&#8217;s already tried and\ntrue. Even today, which the voices of the disability community growing louder,\nI&#8217;ve noticed in my years as a substitute teacher that schools don&#8217;t really talk\nto their kids about disability and mental illness. It&#8217;s still taboo, which is a\nshame, since it&#8217;s just as important as looking at racism and sexism in texts,\nboth of which schools <em>do <\/em>talk about\n(if, still very inadequately). Disability gets nothing. With that in mind, I\nwanted to work on this project so that I could have something to show that it <em>is <\/em>possible to make disability studies\naccessible even to high schoolers. I just hope I succeeded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Objectives<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Students will be able to consider critically the\neffects of mental health on a person and their behavior, as well as the dangers\ninvolved when patients are not listened to when being treated.&nbsp; <\/li><li>11.3 The student will read and analyze\nrelationships among American literature, history, and culture<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Materials\nfor Learning Activities<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Copies of the Gilman&#8217;s short story &#8220;The\nYellow Wallpaper&#8221; and accompanying note &#8220;Why I Wrote The Yellow\nWallpaper&#8221;, either digital or print. A handout of questions for\ndiscussion. Paper to write on and something to write with. <\/li><li>Overhead projector, a copy of &#8220;The Yellow\nWallpaper&#8221; and accompanying note, link to Vimeo short film based on the\nshort story. Strategy pages 69-71 from <a><em>50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content\nLiteracy (3rd Edition)<\/em>.<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Procedures\nfor Learning Activities<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Introduction<\/strong>\n\u2013 To introduce the story of &#8220;The Yellow Wallpaper,&#8221; I, as the\nteacher, will ask the students what they know of mental illness and its\nrepresentation in film and fiction. If they get stuck, they can write what they\nthink\/know about the Gothic tradition. They will write everything they know or\nthink they know in their class writing journal. This will be an exercise that\ntakes approximately five minutes. After that five minutes, I&#8217;ll ask if anyone\nwants to volunteer what they wrote. If no one is brave enough, I&#8217;ll break the\nice by offering my own thoughts, because I&#8217;ll be doing the free-write, too, to\nmodel the exercise and help make students feel more comfortable. <\/li><li><strong>Model<\/strong>\n\u2013 To model the lesson, which follows the &#8220;Questioning the Author&#8221;\nstrategy from <em>Instructional Routines<\/em>\ntextbook, I, as the teacher, will supply the class with a list of questions\ndrafted for the short story. I will then read the first five paragraphs out\nloud to jumpstart the reading and provide questions\/commentary for them.<ul><li>Okay,\nso Gilman has established that our narrator and her husband are ordinary\npeople\u2026 So, we can assume that there&#8217;s nothing inherently special about them,\nexcept that they managed to rent a nice property for a summer vacation. The\nnarrator fancies it might be haunted, but why? The author is setting us up for\nsomething exciting, with phrases like &#8220;ancestral estate&#8221; and\n&#8220;romantic felicity.&#8221;<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>What\ncould Gilman&#8217;s narrator mean by romantic here? Romantic as in a romantic\ngetaway with her husband, or &#8220;Romantic Capital R&#8221; like Emerson,\nWhitman, or Dickinson? In this case, it&#8217;s probably the latter, since the\nnarrator describes herself as unwell and wanting to get better, and there isn&#8217;t\ntypically a lot of marital romance going on when you&#8217;re sick\u2026<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Guide<\/strong>\n\u2013 To serve as a guide for students&#8217; reading, they will each have a handout\/half\nsheet of questions they can use in their writing journals, or they can branch\noff and ask their own questions. I, as the teacher, will also guide them\nthrough a question or two discussing the short story, with a prompt such as the\nfollowing: <ul><li>Obviously,\nsomething isn&#8217;t quite right with the house \u2013 Gilman&#8217;s narrator and her husband\nare renting it for very cheap and for a long time it was basically abandoned.\nAnd yet the narrator&#8217;s husband laughs at her. She expects this, because that&#8217;s\napparently just what happens when you&#8217;re married. What do <em>you<\/em> think Gilman is trying to say with her narrator?<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Cooperative\/Independent<\/strong>\n\u2013 Students can work together using Google Docs or work individually, as they&#8217;ll\nbe finishing reading the short story for homework and coming to class the next\nperiod having finished the story and with questions they want to ask and points\nthey want to discuss. They&#8217;ll be given an original list of questions in the\nsame vein as the prompts elaborated above. <ul><li>What\nis the author trying to say?<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>What\nis the overarching message?<\/li><\/ul><ul><li>What\ndifficulties did you have understanding the story? <\/li><\/ul><ul><li>Did\nthe author give us the answer or did you make an inference on your own? What\nwas your reasoning?<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Teach<\/strong>\n\u2013 When the class reconvenes, after students have discussed with each other\ntheir answers, I, as the teacher, will read them the &#8220;Why I Wrote The\nYellow Wallpaper&#8221; essay, and have them watch Crash Course Literature #407.\nWe&#8217;ll talk about the importance of doctors listening to their patients and\nbeing attentive rather than controlling. <\/li><li><strong>Cooperative\/Independent<\/strong>\n\u2013 After the short essay and the Crash Course Literature video, the students will\nhave the opportunity to discuss any changes to their thinking\/reasoning behind\ntheir initial analysis of &#8220;The Yellow Wallpaper.&#8221; <\/li><li><strong>Summary<\/strong>\n\u2013 To summarize and cool down the lesson, the class will watch a short\nindependent film. The idea is to bring in something fun and entertaining to\nwatch as a pick-me-up from a heavy topic. The short film could also prompt\nstudents to start thinking more about the representation the mentally ill in\nmodern horror films\/fiction, something for students to consider in their media\nconsumption and their everyday lives, and what (potentially harmful, or\npotentially helpful) messages those media representations are sending.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Assessment<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Assessment will be based on participation and\nhow much thought each student put into their discussions. I, as the teacher,\nwill have the students write their thoughts out on paper so that even if a\nstudent or two doesn&#8217;t get the chance to speak up in front of everyone, I can\nstill gauge if my students are grasping the material. The writing could either\nbe physical in a notebook or on loose paper or digital in a Google Doc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">V.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Differentiation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Offer print, digital, and audiobook formats of\nThe Yellow Wallpaper. <\/li><li>Read the accompanying &#8220;Why I Wrote The\nYellow Wallpaper&#8221; note aloud. <\/li><li>Students can work digitally in Google Docs or\nphysically on paper<\/li><li>Students can work together to form their\nanalyses or independently. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VI. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Technology\nIntegration<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Computer, Overhead projector, Internet (Vimeo,\nYouTube, Google Docs)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VII. Outside Materials<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>&#8220;Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper&#8221; &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/csivc.csi.cuny.edu\/history\/files\/lavender\/whyyw.html\">https:\/\/csivc.csi.cuny.edu\/history\/files\/lavender\/whyyw.html<\/a><\/li><li>&#8220;The Yellow Wallpaper&#8221; &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/etext.virginia.edu\/toc\/modeng\/public\/GilYell.html\">http:\/\/etext.virginia.edu\/toc\/modeng\/public\/GilYell.html<\/a><\/li><li>Short\nFilm, di. Amandla Stenberg &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/95343563\">https:\/\/vimeo.com\/95343563<\/a><\/li><li>Audiobook &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_Gmp0pi5Vx4\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_Gmp0pi5Vx4<\/a><\/li><li><em>50\nInstructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy (3rd Edition)<\/em> \u2013 Pearson,\nDouglas Fisher<\/li><li>Crash Course Literature #407, John Green &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rtepIKeNHPU\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rtepIKeNHPU<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Write-Up Word Count: 643 &#8220;The Yellow Wallpaper&#8221; has been one of my favorite short stories through the years, but for some reason, I never really thought to look at it through the lens of disability and\/or mental illness, even though it was literally and unapologetically about mental illness\u2014a very real brush with a severe, potentially &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/major-paper-project\/mental-health-the-yellow-wallpaper\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Mental Health &amp; The Yellow Wallpaper&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-major-paper-project","tag-section-02"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papJgd-kB","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1279,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions\/1279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.chris-foss.net\/dislit19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}