LESSON CYCLE ASSESSMENT - RUBRIC

For all strengths to retain and areas for improvement, provide detailed evidence. It as
helpful to know what you did well as areas for improvement.
1=Excellent
2=Very Good
3=Satisfactory
4=Needs Works
5=not present
TEACHER (name):
Zoe Rawski
MAIN TOPIC(S) COVERED: Sex and Gender in Anthropology
INTRODUCTION
1. Introduction engaged audience in some way.
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2. Gave clear introduction to anthropology: Big picture ideas.
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3. Provided a tour of the lesson.
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4. Strengths to retain (at least 2):
Certainly, the outline of the main points was a great set-up for the class as a whole and let them
know where you were going with it. This would let them prepare or even think ahead and construct
questions on main points they might have had problems with in the reading.
The delivery was smooth and lacked awkward pauses and filler words. When you are dealing
with an introduction, this matters a lot; they need clarity most when they are jumping in cold.
5. Possible areas of improvement (at least 2):
The constant referral back to the sheet you had was a little distracting, but if you had a proper
podium, it would have been almost invisible. So, that is a very minor concern, I think.
Rather than defer explanation of a confusing and new term and allow a disembodied YouTube
video to explain it, I would at least give them a very short, thumbnail definition of performative.
Otherwise, rather than building curiosity and suspense, they will merely forget about it as a subject until it
appears again amidst a lot of other content.
CONTENT and EXPLANATION
1. Told a compelling "story" - explained the concepts with a narrative flow and clear organization.
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2. Explained difficult concepts well.
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3. Used appropriate evidence/support for main point.
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4. Used clear transitions when moving from one point to the next. Periodically summarized important
points.
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5. Strengths to retain (at least 2):
I think the repeated group activities forces the students to absorb and work with the concepts
being presented. This is going to strengthen their ability to work through such problems in the long run
and enhance their mental dexterity when dealing with this specific content.
The double checking questions to ensure that there was no confusion was very simple, but very
important in my eyes. That was a way to make sure the story was heard correctly and it also served as a
nice transition.
6. Possible areas of improvement (at least 2):
While you focus on a distinction between gender and sex (minute 4:34) and the extent to
which they have very different meanings (minute 4:42), this might be risking a false impression.

It is impossible to make reference to any gender construct without making reference back to sex
in some way and no culture with gender constructs uses them without some referential relation to
biological sex. That is to say, the gender identities and performance may be disconnected from biological
sex, but discursively and conceptually gender and sex are inseparable.
So, if a culture has the two-souled concept and a member was asked to distinguish between
single-souled and two-souled individuals, they could not do so without some reference to biological
sex. In the same way, we are incapable of defining the word transgendered or explaining our concept of
it without some reference to biological sex.
The extent to which a gender-construct ceases to have some referential and conceptual connection
to biological sex, is the exact extent to which it ceases to be a gender construct at all and becomes some
other construct of distinction between individuals. The conceptual linkage between gender and sex may
vary infinitely, but it cannot cease to exist at all.
So, they are not as neatly juxtaposed as the slide makes it seem. I simply fear that undergrads
may take the concept too far if they are not reigned in. The day that an undergrad imperiously declares
that the color difference between two rocks is a gender is the day I die a little inside. Despite all that
explanation on my part, it is probably a problem that can be solved with a very straight-forward and strict
definition up front.
Also, to (deliberately) contradict the students own assumed cultural norms about sex and gender
and simultaneously cite Boas as a basis for the respecting cultures within their own understandings of the
world is a razor-thin tightrope to walk. I am not sure that a very traditional Mormon, Moslem, (or some
other group with specific gender beliefs) would have understood that Anthropology is just one other way
of understanding the world and not intended to tell cultures and belief systems they are wrong and that
Anthropology has the one objective truth. On an especially touchy topic, like this, I think adding this
caveat is warranted.
DELIVERY
1. Conveyed enthusiasm for the topic.
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2. Pace of the talk was appropriate.
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3. Spent enough time on each topic/slide for students to take all notes. 1
4. Used appropriate voice, gestures, and eye contact (looked around "room").

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5. Stood with good, comfortable posture, ie, posture wasn't distracting. 1
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6. Conveys confidence in the material.
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7. Strengths to retain (at least 2):
You knew your material and it showed. Confidence is contagious. I think this would help the
students engage with the material in their work groups much more readily.
You really avoided filler words and knew where every sentence was going and how you were
going to get from point A to point B, even when being extemporaneous. That is actually pretty rare for
public speakers, unless they have a lot of skill.
8. Possible areas of improvement (at least 2):
Occasionally, the instructor seemed to be addressing the screen rather than the students. I am
very guilty as well in my video.
It was likely the setting and time pressure, but enthusiasm seemed downplayed. I realize that a
person cant necessarily fake being excited, but it did strike me a few times that you wanted to be doing
anything else but standing in front of a camera in your living room.
SLIDES (if appropriate)
1. Slide was titled with a meaningful heading.
2. One point was presented on each slide.

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3. Where possible, visuals were used to illustrate complex concepts, methods, or data.
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4. Visuals were cleaned up to illustrate the main point, and appropriately labeled.
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5. Slides were not distracting (animations, busy or unnecessary visuals, jarring colors, too many words on
a slide).
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6. Strengths to retain (at least 2):
Some of the visuals were fantastic and took an abstract point and brought it home. So, either you
created something very useful here or you your search-fu was awesome and you picked precisely the right
visualizations for the gender-sex concept differentiation.
On the subject of searching for appropriate resources, the pictures were entirely, seamlessly,
internally consistent with a theme.
7. Possible areas of improvement (at least 2):
Now the down-side of that consistency: Four of the pictures in the slides were drawn from the
most absolutely mockable examples of 1950s and early 60s advertisements and another was a deliberate
mockery of macho gender stereotypes. Humor makes learning stick, but the extent to which it begins to
seem like we are picking a single target for ridicule may give the undergrads the wrong impression about
Anthropology.
Slide five needed a proofread on the text. The word gender is used twice inside the definition of
gender, which is tautological. I know what you meant, but it just needed one more check for clarity.
MULTIMEDIA
1. Multimedia types (in addition to ppt slides):

In addition to the PowerPoint slides there were also two YouTube videos.
2. Use of multimedia was effective
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3. Two other possible multimedia options for this lesson plan:
One option would be a candid video of people enacting gender roles and alternatives; another
option would be to store some of the files on Dropbox to avoid YouTubes commercials. I have to say
though, your use of the technologies was the most seamless Ive seen so far.
ACTIVE LEARNING
1. Number of active learning activities utilized:

There were two. Both were in-class group activities focused on discussions between the
peer groups along with group results written on the board by the instructor for class discussion
and clarification.
2. How could each one be streamlined or improved (must suggest at least 1 thing for each activity)?
First, I would avoid saying break down into groups of three or four. There should probably be
some preset groups to speed that up, because some shy students are invariably going to avoid asking if
they can join a group, others will form too-large groups of friends every time, and so on. I do not trust the
ability of undergrads to spontaneously organize in any efficient manner.
The called response might be a problem to the extent that no student is going to be unaware of the
orthodoxy and potential for sanction if they express a subscription to a view of gender outside of what is
correct or tolerant. Even if such fears are unfounded, I am not sure youre going to get the kind of
volunteerism to discuss it that would be needed to make the activity work. Maybe something written by a
small group, handed into the instructor, and then randomly picked and read with no names attached would
be a better route.
OVERALL STRENGTHS (at least four)

1. Your command of the subject matter is obvious. You knew what you were going to say and how to get
there.
2. Your construction of the slides focused on the key points and obviously had a lot of thought put into it.
3. Your use of activities was strong. It forces them to actually engage with and wrestle with the material.
4. Your delivery was strong and confident and any criticism I had above was forced by the minimum of
two improvable areas.
SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS (at least four)
1. Anticipate fears of being indoctrinated in your students. Let them know that is not what you are here to
do and they can believe whatever they want in other contexts.
2. While looking directly at the camera/audience is bad in theater, it is great in a class. Keep focused on
them.
3. Keep up your rapid switching between methods (film, to lecture, to activity, and so on). I think it will
keep them on their toes and forcibly attentive.
4. Maybe incorporate some humor into your session (other than in the slides themselves).