The Single Story - LGBTQ

The single story for the LGBTQ community is one that can be observed clearly in the following cultural artifacts:

Articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT

http://www.alliance1.org/ppf/youth-and-positive-identity

http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/20-things-lesbians-are-tired-of-hearing#44yxyhq

http://www.minddisorders.com/Py-Z/Transvestic-fetishism.html

"Gay Men Will Marry Your Girlfriends" - video 

The stereotypes presented against the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender, and queer populations are baffling to say the least.  The single story of gay men tends to go something like this: they love shopping, they have great fashion sense, they take care of their bodies, and they would be better boyfriends and partners to strait women than most strait men.  The lesbian single story tends to label lesbians as women with short hair, muscular bodies, and a tendency to dress and act like men.  Transgender, bi-sexual, and queer people are often portrayed as freaks or people who are simply confused, excessively horny, or "going through a phase."  As if the single stories that attempt to label each individual community weren't bad enough, the LGBTQ community as a whole also has single story stereotypes that attempt to portray the members of this community as consistently atheist, democratic, overbearing, ostracized from their families, suicidal, and explicitly public with their affections.

These single stories can have a severe impact on not only students who are experiencing LGBTQ tendencies within themselves, but also students who have been raised by gay, lesbian, or bi-sexual parents.  Many people of Christian faiths often view anyone affiliated with the LGBTQ community as anti-Christian and therefore discourage their children from associating with the children of LGBTQ parents or children identifying with the LGBTQ community themselves.  Furthermore, many parents promote the idea that if one does not agree with the particular practices of any social group, then mean behavior and overall dehumanization are justified practices.  This could inevitably lead to exclusion of LGBTQ students from group conversations or friendships made in the classroom just because certain students were raised by their parents to believe the single story of the LGTBQ community.  In addition, students who begin to identify themselves as members of the LGTBQ community may alter their behaviors, clothing, and mannerisms to match the single story of a homosexual in order to "fit in" with the LGBTQ community.  These actions to assimilate themselves into the LGBTQ community often influence an adolescent's development of self identity or even become their only sense of self identity.

It is extremely important for all educators to be aware of the portrayals (past and present) of certain cultural groups in order to have a general idea of the single stories that other students or other teachers may be projecting onto other students in our classrooms.  By possessing an understanding of the most common perceptions of cultural groups, particularly LGBTQ, we will more easily be able to understand the often ignorant, judgmental, and overall rude behaviors that students display towards individuals belonging to these groups.  Moreover, by understanding the single stories associated with cultural groups, educators are one step closer to refusing to accept the single stories of any of these groups as a correct representation of every individual in that group.  I hope to be able to look at every LGTBQ student with a new pair of eyes that will allow me to see past the stereotypes and into the heart of that student as an individual.

My Future Classroom

A typical lesson:

A typical lesson in my classroom would begin with about 5-10 minutes of allowing my students to respond to a free write prompt in their writing notebooks.  Sometimes the prompt would have to do with the lesson or the particular unit we were studying, other times the prompt would simply be an opportunity for students to use their imagination and begin to view themselves as creative writers.  Once the majority of the students are done writing, I would ask two or three people to either read what they had written out loud or share what they had written with a partner.  After any student reads their except out loud, the class would clap enthusiastically to thank them for sharing something so personal and to make the students feel comfortable and accepted should they share their own pieces of writing in the future.  If this lesson were taking place at the beginning of a unit on persuasive writing, I would then begin the class by asking the entire class if they knew what a persuasive essay was.  I would ask them for examples of when they were persuaded by someone, why their argument was persuasive, etc.  Once I felt we had discussed persuasion adequately based on the knowledge my students already had, I would proceed to teach my students the parts of a persuasive essay and why each part was important to the whole.  I would then pass around sample persuasive essays (some good, some excellent, and some mediocre) and ask the students to identify the thesis, topic sentences, concrete evidence, and commentary in each sample in small groups.  After about 10-15 minutes of group work, we would then come back together as a class and discuss what each group had found in their essay samples.  At that point, I would answer any questions that people still seemed to have about persuasive essays and then work through particularly hard writing samples as an entire class.  To end the class, I would ask my students to begin brainstorming potential ideas for persuasive essays and tell them that we would talk about their upcoming writing assignment the next day in class. 

My students:

My students would come from a wide range of backgrounds.  Some students would be listening attentively and hanging on to my every word because of their love for me and the subject of English, but other students would look at me with a mask of apathy and make it clear that they did not want to be at school at all, let alone in my English classroom.  No matter how interesting I find the subject matter at hand to be, not all of my students will be enraptured with everything that I have to say and everything that we have to talk about.  Whether I teach at a junior high or high school, many of the students will be friends already before the class begins and often distract each other with mumbled side comments before, during, and after class.  Other students will seem to live on the fringes of the classroom and interact very little with their peers before, during, or after class.  Some students may often come to class wearing the same outfit a few days in a row because their families are too poor to afford to buy them the brand name clothing that these kids believe will lead them to instant popularity.  Many girls will come to class with caked on makeup and tight fitting shirts as a result of their exploration of their sexuality and a test to see how many boys will notice them that day.  Some students will be athletic and very involved in sports at school and outside of school; others could care less about the next football game or the next school pep rally.  As a teacher, it may be tempting to stereotype my students and group them into good students, druggies, gangsters, know-it-alls, jocks, or recluses, but I must strive to see all my students as individual people who each possess the ability to contribute to and learn from the discussions and activities in my classroom. 

Surroundings in the classroom:

My classroom will be by large windows, allowing the room to be lit primarily by natural light as the day progresses and fostering a classroom that does not feel like an artificially-lit prison to my students.  The walls will be decorated with inspirational quotes by famous writers throughout the ages and grammar posters with helpful rules that students often forget.  In the back of the room, where will be bookcases with books for my students to check out at their leisure, encouraging students to read not only when it is required, but whenever they have the desire to expand their minds and escape from the toils of daily life as a teenager.  The books would range from the latest and greatest young adult novels to nonfiction memoirs of people who changed the world.  No matter which grades I taught, I would provide books that fit into various reading levels and covered a wide variety of content and genres in order to ensure that any student would be able to find something they could read for pleasure in my classroom.  My desk would be a type of organized chaos with a long list of to-dos, piles of papers to grade, and pictures of my family and loved ones to remind me that I was never alone.  My desk would also be a place to store the handouts in an organized bin with a slot for each class period for each day's lesson.  For example, the variety of writing samples used in the lesson I delineated on an introduction to persuasive writing would be stored in the bin for second period English 9 and then passed out.  I would also have a bin for each class period to turn in their papers and writing assignments, including their writing notebooks every 2 weeks.  At the front of the room would be a whiteboard with a projector screen installed in the ceiling that could be pulled out whenever I used the projector, particularly with powerpoint slideshows when teaching new concepts to my students.  These technological tools would be used as I taught my students the important components of a persuasive essay before they split into groups to label the writing samples. 

Lesson topic:

As I mentioned in my initial description of the lesson, I would be teaching my students the basic components of a piece of persuasive writing.  The components I would focus on would be thesis statement, topic sentences, supporting evidence, and commentary.  Of all these components, I would spend the most time emphasizing the importance of a thesis statement in a persuasive piece and the need to make a specific argument in the thesis statement before a persuasive essay can be built around it.  The main thing that I want students to take away from this lesson is a general familiarity with how an argument is usually formed in writing and why each of these components is important in order to create a successful persuasive piece of writing.  Later in the week, I would introduce to them their new assignment to write a persuasive piece of writing on their own.  In order to prevent students from being overwhelmed by this new assignment, it is imperative that students possess a familiarity with the basic pieces that make up a piece of persuasive writing.  This initial phase would also allow me, as the teacher, to assess how familiar my students are with writing persuasive pieces of writing and whether or not the majority of my students have written persuasive pieces in the past.  This will allow me to anticipate any adaptations that I need to make to the persuasive writing assignment before I even give the assignment to my students. 

Work as a teacher during the lesson:

While my students are writing in their writing notebooks, I am taking attendance based on the seating chart that I have put my students in.  At this point, I should know the majority of my students' names, but if I don't, I am practicing my ability to match names with faces according to the seating chart I have put in place.  I am also looking around to assess the interest level of each of my students; some are writing furiously, others stare off into space as if they don't know where to begin or how to continue, and others think of this time as an opportunity to sleep.  I gently remind any sleepers that I will be checking off their notebooks and giving them points that Friday, so they need to be sure to write something in order to get those points.  I also make a mental note of the students who are having a hard time with the prompt and try to cater tomorrow's prompt more to their interests and ability level as a writer.  After I have led the discussion on persuasion and persuasive writing and appropriately assessed my students' familiarity with tho writing genre, I launch into teaching my students the basic components of a persuasive essay.  Rather than talking the entire time, I often ask students to read excerpts and blurbs from the powerpoint presentation and also ask students questions to keep their interest and involve them in the lesson.  Once I ask the students to get into groups and pass out the writing samples for them to work with, I wander casually around the room; sitting in on conversations, listening to group discussions, answering questions that students have about concepts they are struggling with.  I also observe students who seem to be struggling or who are getting off task and ask them specifically if they need assistance rather than waiting for someone to ask me if I think that the students are too embarrassed or shy to ask themselves.  Once the majority of the groups are done, I give a 2 minute warning and tell the other groups to wrap up their discussion and be ready to share what they have found with the class.  From there, we come together as a class once more and I ask students to classify their writing samples as persuasive or not persuasive and back their claims with evidence.  At the end of this group discussion, I offer to answer any questions or clarify any points of confusion and wrap up the lesson by telling students what they can anticipate for tomorrow's lesson. 

Lesson activities:

The first lesson activity, no matter what the lesson, will be a time for the students to write in their writing notebooks.  This activity is not designed to simply keep the students occupied while I take roll or quiet them down quickly, but rather it is a way to incorporate writing into the daily curriculum of my classroom and emphasize its importance in daily life.  The variety of prompts are also designed to get the students interested in writing and help them to see themselves as writers and as people who are capable of expressing new and exciting ideas.  The invitation for students to share what they have written after the time is up gives students the opportunity to open up and become more comfortable around each other in order to create a safe classroom space.  This time to share also allows students to recognize and admire the different ways that people approach each prompt and the rich diversity that each writer in the classroom can bring to the class.  The group work where students are asked to identify the components of a persuasive essay in various writing samples will give the students an opportunity to talk and interact with each other while also providing a way for students to immediately apply what they have just learned.  In addition, this group work is an easy way for me to assess the level of understand of my students without any formal assessment so that I can ascertain how slowly or quickly I need to move through my lesson material and the unit of persuasive writing as a whole.  The group discussion implemented throughout the class gives the students the opportunity to learn from each other and value the opinions and knowledge of others as well as their own opinions  and knowledge.  These various activities are also designed to expose my students to persuasive writing instead of simply expecting them to learn about it from what I tell them.