LGBTQ in the classroom

Blog#3- LGBTQ

Lesley Sammons

GLSEN is a website that dedicates themselves to ensuring that LBGTQ is integrated into the curriculum. There are lesson plans, books, and several articles on LGBTQ. The lessons plans cover several specific topics such as bullying, bias, or diversities within the LGBTQ community. It covers history, themes and important people involved in LGBTQ. A great way to integrate LGBTQ into the classroom is to use the activities and lesson plans on this website to get a great idea of what a specific classroom could learn about LGBTQ. For example reading your classroom a book involving LGBTQ and then conducting an activity about it afterwards allows the students to present their thoughts. A great activity to conduct is “Think, Pair, Share”

            First, the students start out with the “think” portion. During this section students take the time to think about the discussion or prompting question provided by the teacher. Once they have thought about their opinions about the topic, they discuss their answers with a partner or small group.  This part of the activity fulfills the “pair” part. They can discuss anything about the topic as long as it is school appropriate. The students can share what they like about the topic, what they dislike about the topic, and whether and why they agree or disagree with their peers. They collaborate to determine what each group member’s thoughts are. This also helps the students recognize what similarities and differences between each classmate's thoughts. This activity could even cause the students to change their opinion on topics after seeing the topic from a different perspective. After the discussion the students conduct the “share” portion, which is when the students are directed to write down their group’s thoughts on a large piece of paper to combine their thoughts together. Then each group will share out their discussions.

When completing this activity, students will get the opportunity to discuss their thoughts and opinions on the book that was read by the class, allowing students to really be confident in their opinion and gain perspectives in other categories. It teaches them that there are other opinions that people have, and it can help them see other perspectives when reading or learning a new topic. And it is important to respect others opinions in the classroom and outside the classroom.

LGBT-Inclusive Curriculum. (n.d.). Retrieved November 01, 2017, from https://www.glsen.org/educate/resources/curriculum