Benchmark Education Company praises the contributions of women who shaped the world we live in today. Let their courage, commitment to excellence, compassion, and irrepressible drive inspire your students to achieve their own greatness.

These remarkable women represent all walks of life: an aviator, a Civil War soldier, a refugee, a novelist, two activists, an abolitionist, two astronauts, four women Supreme Court Justices, two First Ladies, an archaeologist, a Native American guide, a painter, and more.

We encourage you to use Benchmark Universe to share these women’s stories in your classroom activities/lessons/daily plans, and, remember, you can use the edit icon and the wrench tool to add fun facts and links directly into the e-book or onto the e-poster.

Please use the comments section below to add your own ideas!

• Try adding one of Michelle Kwan’s short figure-skating program performances to Michelle Kwan, her biographical e-book, to really bring the content alive.
• Enlighten your students regarding Eleanor Roosevelt many accomplishments- including what she did to be recognized and ranked ninth in the top ten of Gallup’s List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.
• Assess your students’ “Making Judgment” comprehension strategy: was Dolley Madison an American hero, or a moderate hoarder? (She didn’t just save the portrait of George Washington; she also saved White House furniture and plates.)

Here are some Benchmark Education titles that will assist with your celebration of women’s accomplishments:

Early Connections:

• Laura Ingalls Wilder, Level F/9
• Ellen Ochoa, Level F/10
• Grandma Moses, Level J/18
• Sacajawea, Level K/20
• Michelle Kwan, Level L/24

Content Connections:

• Women of Courage (Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart)

Text Connections:

• Rise to the Challenge: Memoir of an Astronaut (Dr. Rhea Seddon), Level Q/40
• Mayhoua Moua: A Real-Life Story from a Hmong Story Cloth, Level Q/40

Readers’ & Writers’ Genre Workshop:

• Marian Anderson and Frida Kahlo, Level R/40
• Women Justices of the Supreme Court, Level R/40
• Sarah Emma Edmonds: Union Solider And Spy and Clara Barton: Battlefield Nurse
  (T/44)

Reader’s Theater:

• Cry Out Liberty, Sarah Winnemucca, Indian Princess, Level F-M (9-28)
• My Name Is Deborah Samson, Level N-X (30-60)

Navigators:

People Who Changed the World:

• Women Who Dared (Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, and Eleanor Roosevelt), Level Q/40

E-Posters:

• Women in the Medieval Period: Eleanor of Aquitaine
• Dolley Takes Action (Dolley Madison)
• Marian Wright Edelman
• Grandma Moses
• Mary Leakey
• Rachel Carson

Please Note: If these titles are missing from your Library, it may be because they re not included in your current Benchmark Universe subscription. Contact your rep, or e-mail us to learn more about adding new titles to your subscription!

*The above photograph is of Rachel Carson, notable biologist and author of Silent Spring, an influential work in the history of science.