All English 12 classes are embarking on a revised unit in the third quarter this year: feminism in literature. Previously, a unit existed that incorporated female voices into classroom literature.

“We’ve expanded the unit with new lesson planning [based off] the concept based curriculum (CBC) planning model, which the district has just started this year,” English 12 HN teacher Annette Billingsley said.

The new curriculum written by the McLean English 12 team emphasizes the importance of women in literature throughout history.

“We want the students to have some sort of self reflection on personal relationships to gender bias and privilege…those are the main themes that we talk about,” Billingsley said.

Because of the historically male-dominated field of literature, it’s crucial that female authors are included within curriculum to expand students’ perspectives.

“It’s important that, at least for one quarter out of four for the year, we focus on not only female writers, but the female characters within their books,” Billingsley said.