Silas Marner Lesson Plan

Explore what the book says about men vs. women or boys vs. girls. Are these genders fundamentally different? How or how not? Should they be conceived as different? Why or why not?

Students should cite specific messages within the text, such as when Mrs. Winthrop wishes she had had a girl to teach to sew and the like. Why can Mrs. Winthrop not teach her sons to sew? Do students think boys and girls are so fundamentally different that girls naturally want to learn activities of the home and boys do not? If students do argue this, encourage them to think beyond their own experience and to analyze society's influence on their opinions. Perhaps boys don't want to learn to sew...