NWP: Hearing LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer)
voices in the classroom
Description of the session: The shift from being passively sympathetic to issues of diversity to become actively engaged in promoting understanding goes beyond courage and determination. It takes familiarity with possible teaching resources. The facilitators of this session will not only share the critical stance in addressing issued with diversity but also their approach to LGBTQ issues though young adult literature, empathetic writing and other strategies to awaken and develop critical literacy in students.
How do we start the discussion with kids?
Include GBLTQ issues in the curriculum
What does it mean to be a male? A female? And trying to talk about what the marriage institution is, interrogating traditional gay stereotypes of the typical “male” and “female” identity;
Schools need to be ready to how to explain a GBLTQ curriculum
It’s the most readily discriminated against issue
Discuss the violence of the issue and the implications of what gay bashing entails and talk about media literacy and the absence of GBLTQ abuse and violence
Discuss the word “faggot”. “gay” and the implications of using this word so much..
Teach against the typical gay, male and middle class stereotype where gay is equated with effeminate etc.
What is the one thing you can do in your classes?
Teach pre-service teachers – good curricula for that
Look at our own biases toward curricula,
Watched video of Ian Steele – gay youth that was tormented and eventually killed himself;
What can we do??
Questions that can be used to question LGBTQ texts and students:
1. What happens to lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender character? For example does the character die at the end (stereotypical from the 70’s and 80’s) or find a “living solution” to problems that he/she faces?
2. How do readers feel about gay characters? What leads them to think about these thoughts? Often gay and lesbian characters in literature are drawn in order to evoke sympathy or empathy – how does this happen and why? Is sympathy productive?/critical emotional engagement in this context?
3. How do other characters react to the LBGTQ characters? What do they say/do?
For example, are there only two options? – homophobe and supporter, both stereotypical binary responses – or are reactions more complicated? Sometimes supportive and sometimes not?
4. What roles do adults play in the LGBTQ characters like? Does the parent reject outright? Accept unquestioningly? Does the adult –parent, teacher, “other” connect to the lesbian/gay character in some way? How? Are adults even in the center of the text anywhere?
5. What role do institutions play in the LGBTQ characters life? For example, what does school mean to the character? How does the institution of school support or reject the character? What about the role churches, extra-curricular groups, jobs, etc. play or don’t play?
6. What does the text say about justice, citizenship, and democratic responsibilities? If we want our students to be part of a democratic nation, how do LGBTQ characters negotiate their space in a democracy? How to do non-LGBTQ characters do it? What options does this text present to students, teachers, adults, etc?
Website of materials for discussing LGBTQ curricula- book lists, blogs, articles and discussion:
http://sites.google.com/site/henkinbanks/home
www.safeschoolscoalition.org
videos we watched are on google site as well
Elementary text we read:
In Our Mothers House by Patricia Polocco
Great text that discusses two gay moms, how they handled adversity, not a preachy text but a nice memoir, great for teaching character descriptions, good story to talk about adoption, but beware a little stereotypical gay
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My first trip to the National Writing Project began with a session for newcomers. The presenters told us a bit about how the conference worked and about upcoming events. It was a good session that helped orient those who were “newbies”.
ReplyDeleteThe first session I attended was called Writing in the Digital Age: Learning Environments and Student Writing. There were four main presenters in this session with each using a different type of digital writing in their classrooms. They gave us a brief overview of how they used podcasts, blogs, and digital storytelling. After the overviews we divided into four groups and were invited to participate in two discussion groups. The two I attended dealt with digital storytelling and blogs. The digital storytelling projects were done by high school students who were children of immigrants. They interviewed, wrote an article and put their writing together with pictures in a slideshow. The other discussion I participated in was concerned with how blogs were used in two Midwest classrooms during a study on the Holocaust. While both of these discussions involved information about projects done by high school students, some of the concepts could be used with my second grade class. I believe they could learn to do blogs and maybe some simple projects while learning how to use Photostory or Animoto.
Another session I attended was entitled “Pinpointing Promise: Looking Closely at the Writing of English Language Learners”. This session gave an overview of how members of two different writing projects showed us how to look for the strengths in the writing of ELL learners. We looked at examples of ELL students’ writing and assessed it for the strengths. It was not hard for me to find strengths since I teach 2nd grade and the writing was those of high schoolers. They had many things going for them and we were able to discuss those with a partner and then share whole group. This session was relevant to my area of teaching and it was a good strategy that can be used with any student.
The general session on Friday featured Poet Laureaute Billy Collins. I enjoyed listening to him read his poetry and his observations of life. He was inspiring and most certainly entertained. At the end, we were invited to write and share our writing with the conference. I wrote a short poem.
Last, I attended a session concerning writing in content areas. There were three presenters from math, science and social studies. They each provided an overview of how they used writing in their particular content areas. Math was an interesting area. Students were asked to design a park using geometric shapes and then write to describe their parks. Social Studies provided many different ideas to incorporate writing into the students’ learning other than asking students to read and answer the questions at the end of the chapter.