Childhood Trauma: Teaching Against the Gender Binary

Cynthia Papettas

“Intersectionality is an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and its relationship to power. Originally articulated on behalf of Black women, the term brought to light the invisibility of many constituents within groups that claim them as members but often fail to represent them.” – Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

Introduction

When discussing intersectionality, many begin the conversation by discussing race, gender, and socioeconomic status. But what is the majority of society thinking when they hear the term gender- female, male; girl or boy; woman or man? I would like to propose a question from National Geographic’s Gender Revolution guide, “When was the first time you understood how your gender would affect your life?” While you sit and ponder about this, maybe you find yourself having thoughts about how much you align with your assigned gender at birth, or you dig deeper and think about the privilege that comes with being a man, or of being a white cisgender female. But how do minority gender identifying people feel they have been affected by their gender? “One mother spoke of the difficulties that her son faced because of his gender non-conformity and, despite not yet having reached puberty or come to a sense of personal awareness about his own sexuality, was subjected to repeated verbal and physical abuses with little to no support from teaching or leadership staff in his primary school environment.”1 Maybe you identify as transgender or gender nonconforming and have interest in what resources are available to youth and to educators to allow future generations to dive into the realm of gender at a younger age.

Old State Elementary School is a suburban school located in Odessa, DE and is a part of the

Appoquinimink School District. Old State has approximately 750 learners for the 2019-2020 school year. I am a current 2nd Grade ELA teacher in a departmentalized setting where I see two classes (23 students in one class and 24 students in another). I serve 5 students with IEPs and provide accommodations based on their needs. This past year my students had lost their ELA teacher suddenly in November and are now experiencing what it is like to live in a remote world due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Trauma has surrounded my students greatly in a span of 4 months, and this is only a small piece of their own life experiences as they all have different home life backgrounds, cultural values, and identities that they are exploring during this time as well. I am in a school that is currently working on becoming more culturally competent, however, gender and sexuality have not made their way into the conversations we have. Gender is a foundation of our sense of self and it is important to discuss gender along with race and ethnicity. It is imperative for future generations that we take intersectionality into account in our public schools.

Rationale

Literature provides children a way to escape during times where healing is necessary, but also offers a new perspective into experiences and emotions that may have felt or are feeling themselves. My goal with this curriculum is for students to understand how characters express themselves, and how they respond to their experiences. This unit is going to be five days long and encompass tools for teachers to provide their students support with exploring gender stereotypes, what it means to be unique, and the different ways humans express themselves. Research shows that a child’s environment has long-term effects on their development. Children spend a large portion of their adolescence in school, so it is important that children are exposed to literature that shows characters that represent them and also represent diversity. Majority of literature in standardized curriculum depicts children from nuclear households in a middle-class society, and also incorporates gender norms that are socially constructed. As an educator, it is my job to ensure I am positively influencing kids by showing that they matter and that freely expressing themselves matters by sharing stories with diverse backgrounds and characters.

There is a lot of gender-based violence in schools for students who do not identify as heterosexual, as well as students whose gender does not align with their sex or are non-binary. By examining these texts, students will see how characters live their own truth and how they deal with society when it pushes back in a way that will help them continue to grow. Children learning to live their truth will feel more comfortable in a school environment, and by opening up these conservations at a younger age, will also lower the percentage of suicides linked to students who did not have support by peers and trusted adults with their identity. My hope is this curriculum empowers students to identify how they are different from others and to be able to better express how they are feeling and have tools to help them engage with peers who are different from themselves. Looking at student populations and the data collected, transgender and gender nonconforming students are the most likely to face violence and discipline in school and are the least likely to graduate high school.2 Majority of schools police students on how they dress based on their sex, and students are also legally in some states required to use bathrooms that align with their legal sex and teachers and administration are told not to use a student’s preferred pronouns or name if it does not align with legal documentation i.e. birth certificate, passport, social security.

Students will be starting this unit with their own basic knowledge of binary genders and how people present their internal selves physically. This unit will be incorporated at the beginning of the school year as students go from being out of school for an extended period of time due to Covid-19 but can also be utilized at any point of time throughout the school year. This unit will allow students to process their own lived experiences and relate to characters that share the same feelings and emotions. Students will be working as a whole group, in small groups, as well as independently. It will be important for me to highlight new vocabulary and to be vulnerable with my students and give examples to supplement what we are reading so they can make further connections to the characters in the texts.

There are three essential questions that can be addressed in this unit. First is, “What is gender identity?” This is the main focus of the lessons and will address where stereotypes about gender come from and will include learning new vocabulary like transgender and gender non-conforming. The second question is, “How does and can literature contribute to and/or counter

gender stereotypes?” This question pushes students into higher order thinking to compare how they present their gender identity to how others do (fiction and nonfiction characters). This tier 3 questions allows students to think deeper about where stereotypes are, and how it is presented in society versus how it is presented in literature. Students will understand gender is a spectrum and they can express themselves however they feel most comfortable. The last question is, “What does it mean to think about gender as a social construction?” This question is important because it shows how fluid gender is, and how it does not always reflect sex. It is important for students to understand a social construct is an idea created by people through culture, norms, and practices. It seems natural because we are used to it and do not question it.

With the completion of this unit, students will be able to compare how characters express their gender and identity in non-binary ways as well as reflect on how peoples and characters express themselves, including gender, in different ways. Students will describe an aspect of themselves that might not be apparent on the outside.3 During the lessons, students will be led with discussions focused on how what others see may not accurately reflect who we are on the inside.4 Throughout the lessons, the educator will highlight that we express parts of ourselves, including gender, in a variety of ways and that there is no right or wrong way to express who we are.5 In regard to trauma, students will reflect on and discuss how it feels to not fit in, why it does not matter how others look, and how it feels to be excluded. Students will understand how there are many things we can be, and some of us do not fit into binary choices or do not conform to

stereotypes.6

Content

Vocabulary

The most important vocabulary to discuss with young elementary students is gender based and not centered around sex and sexuality/ sexual orientation. Gender identity is your personal sense of your own gender, and how you feel.7 This can be as more feminine, masculine, or androgynous. Some people may feel more like a boy, girl, or neither. Gender identity is not to be confused with sex, which is assigned at birth by a doctor when they look at a baby’s body/ anatomy and identify a baby as a boy, girl, or intersex.8

People express themselves in many ways, such as through clothes or hairstyles. Sometimes people think that these things go with certain genders, but really you cannot guess someone’s gender or pronouns from how they look. In school students should strive to respect that every person is unique and different, and that people should not tease or bully anyone about their personal expression. This form of expressing ourselves based on our gender identity is called gender expression.9 By the age of about four, children learn gender roles and engage in behaviors that are either more stereotypical of girls or of boys.10 Cisgender is when your gender identity (how you feel) is the same as what doctors/midwives assigned to you when you were born (girl/boy or sex assigned at birth). Gender Binary is a way of seeing gender as only two groups—girl and boy.11 Non-Binary person’s do not feel like a “girl” or “boy” fits for their gender; they may feel like both or neither. They sometimes use pronouns such as they, them, and theirs.12 Transgender is when your gender identity (how you feel) is different than what doctors/midwives assigned to you when you were born (girl/boy or sex assigned at birth).13

“The best way I can describe [being transgender] for myself [...] is a constant feeling of homesickness. An unwavering ache in the pit of my stomach that only goes away when I can be seen and affirmed in the gender, I've always felt myself to be. And unlike homesickness with location, which eventually diminishes as you get used to the new home, this homesickness only grows with time and separation.”14

Gender: A Social Construct

Typically, gender is viewed as masculinity/ femininity and female/ male identity. Historically gender has developed as to what behaviors and roles are expected for males and females. Gender is referred to as the “social practice of perceiving and defining aspects of people and situations inconsistently” to force our observations to fit our social beliefs.15 These behaviors are learned through reinforcement at home, in school, and in the community. Something that is institutionalized is an established practice, which is how gender is institutionalized in society and how it is made up of our daily practices and behaviors.16 Some practices can be reflected in the types of professions some enters, clothing expression, emotional expression, and other practices. Gender is constantly being recreated from human interactions, and social life. Gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly “doing gender”.17

Chickering and Reisser’s Development Theory

In 1993, Chickering and Reisser published their Seven Vectors of general developmental directions. People are working towards developing competence, managing their emotions, gaining autonomy, developing mature relationships, establishing identity, developing purpose, and developing integrity.18 The fifth vector is establishing identity, and that phase of development is central to discussing the importance of gender identity. The formation of identity is how one identifies as well as how those identities are seen by others. Gender stereotypes are created by society and can be harmful because they send messages about what people should and should not be doing — based only on their gender rather than on their abilities and interests. These stereotypes can stop individuals from developing professional careers and making other choices about their lives. For children this can affect the extracurricular activities they partake in, the books they read, and how they interact with others.

Teacher Support

Schools across the globe are widely known as, “heterosexist organizations where particular subjective constructions constituted in dominant discourses of gender and (hetero) sexuality are normalized and perceived as naturally superior.”19 In schools, gender is reinforced through institutional processes including curriculum and policy, teacher perceptions, classroom practices, and playground interactions. Schools are an important piece when it comes to normalizing gender with students who challenge these constructions. The students are at high risk for experiencing harassment and marginalization.20

Sarah McBride fought for years in her home state Delaware to make changes to Regulation 225 (Prohibition of Discrimination) by the Department of Education to allow students to request for changes in regard to their identity without parental permission. This was denied multiple times and Section 3 to date still verifies that public schools must request permission by a parent/

guardian before accepting a request from a minor.21 This means that if a student identifies as a male and has a preferred name but has legal documentation as a female and a name that does not match the preferred name, the school must deny the request unless permission is granted by the student’s parent/ guardian(s). Teachers can provide support to students who are met with state and local restrictions to support their gender identity and use proper pronouns in the classroom, even if documentation does not match.

Majority of conversations about gender identity surface if students choose to go to college and take a humanities course that specifically teaches about gender identity and sexuality. There are also some frameworks on how student affairs professionals can promote change on campus to meet transgender students’ needs.22 A student-centered approach allows professionals to engage in conversations about gender identity and transgender issues on campus. This same approach can be utilized in different ways at the Elementary level. It is extremely important to not only provide support to students who do not fit in the binary realm of gender, but to educate the larger student population on gender identity. There is also a lot of jargon that comes with current topics of privilege, sexuality, and gender identity. Stripping confusion from these terms allows for both parties of the conversation to have a better understanding of how gender heavily impacts our identity and how society affects our gender expression.

As previously stated, the majority of conversations about gender occur at the higher education level. However, there are many communication models that can be mirrored in the K-5 world. There is no age too young to prepare students to engage in society as civic leaders and to be able to succeed in diverse work environments.23 “When there is no name for - no language - to describe who you are, how do you make meaning of self or of identity?”24 It is important to bring conversations about gender back to the point that gender is a way we express ourselves and how we feel, and that it does not always align with one’s sex. With elementary students, it is important to have discussions about inclusion, and how we are all different in how we present ourselves physically. The way we feel is not something others can see so we express our gender through our clothing as a way to communicate those feelings with others.

Trauma

Students who identify as LGBTQ are greatly affected by school policies that disproportionately affect them than their cisgender heterosexual peers. There is a large number of students who not only face discipline at school for how they express themselves, but also at home. This leads to the increasing percentage of students that are homeless in the United States.25 Childhood trauma can take on many forms, and homelessness and discipline are just some of the many way’s LGBTQ students are navigating the world early on. Students also face bullying in school and are harassed for how the present and even how they advocate for themselves.26

Bessel van der Kolk has done extensive research on traumatic stress during childhood and adolescence. Traumatic experiences shape how children conceptualize themselves as well as the world.27 When children are given a binary view of gender and typical gender roles, it can be traumatic for them to feel like they do not fit in either a female or male mold, or feel they fit a mold that does not align with their sex. Having this skewed perception of themselves can greatly affect their future behavior.28 There is a term called event centrality which links how a traumatic

event can affect one’s identity, which is our sense of self.29 There are different types of traumatic events that children can experience that will have different lasting effects in terms of posttraumatic stress. A child that loses their home due to a fire will be affected differently than a child who adults identify as a male is bullied and ridiculed by adults and peers for wanting to wear a dress or play with dolls. The latter child’s emotional trauma shows that this specific event centrality can increase the severity of the stress the child undergoes socially and intrinsically. This unit addresses the teaching against the gender binary to lower the likelihood of a student suffering from emotional trauma of not being represented in class and not feeling comfortable to act the way that they feel comfortably.

Trauma Associated with Gender

As students become conscious of their gender, if their gender identity does not align with their sex (cisgender), they often fear being misgendered by peers and educators as well as those people committing microaggressions against them.30 Microaggressions are verbal and nonverbal behaviors that communicate negative and often hostile messages to people based on their membership to a marginalized group, in this case people who are transgender or non-binary.31 In order to teach about trauma, traumatic experiences or identity-based trauma, it is important to understand how trauma manifests in school aged children. Children who are shown negative reinforcement of how they express themselves based on traditional gender roles typically have low self-worth which attributes to them believing they deserve consequences for going against gender norms.32 Imagine you are in charge of recess duty and see students playing house. You may notice one child deciding roles for others and how they should behave based on what they see at home and in their other environments. This act may be harmful to male presenting child, who does not identify with the role the other student is forcing them to play, but this teaches them what is socially acceptable. Students will continue to work within what others find is acceptable, especially their peers, to avoid bullying, harassment, and ridicule.

LGBT youth make up about 7 percent of the youth population. Of the youth that are in juvenile detention centers/ programs, 15 percent identify as LGBT and gender nonconforming.33 This shows a rough estimate of how many students navigate negative school climates and how they are affected. In order for the school-to-prison pipeline to slim down and to save students is by advocating for them and educating not only staff and administration on gender identity, but students as well. Ignoring the topic has not been the answer and the data shows that these students need more support and need more visibility. To put in perspective the severe need for students to be educated on gender, 1 in 10 transgender students experience physical violence at home. There is a greater percentage of students that decide to put a halt on their education to avoid mistreatment at school.34

Teaching Gender Identity

To allow students on non-binary genders to be more visible, educators can start by educating students in primary school on the different gender identities and stereotypes. Gender itself is a socially constructed identity that evolved from the behavior and roles men and women have historically taken on.35 In mathematics, best practice would be to avoid binary male/female labels and/or discuss the limitations of such categorizations and the impacts it may have on

understanding non-binary experiences. In social studies include lessons that focus on identity and use literature that is diverse not only by race, ethnicity, and age, but also by gender. In language classes that are gendered, include discussions about the impacts of gendered language use. This can be a discussion of how the language is a binary gendered language and what the language looks like when it is not gendered and more universal.36

Teaching Strategies

Pre-teaching Vocabulary

Prior to beginning new content, an activity, or reading, pre teaching allows students to identify vocabulary as you read/ teach. This is also an important piece for ELLs to expose them to new vocabulary that may need pictures to also help with understanding new vocabulary. Suggested words to pre-teach are identity, gender, stereotypes, and expression. Pre-teaching vocabulary can also help students follow the lessons more easily if they do not feel they are being bombarded with jargon and new terminology.

Inquiry Based Instruction

Pose thought-provoking questions which inspire students to think for themselves and become more independent learners. Encouraging students to ask questions and investigate their own ideas helps improve their problem-solving skills as well as gain a deeper understanding of academic concepts. As students explore the concept of gender, it is important to allow students to first think about how they would explain themselves to someone they have not met yet. Asking students to think “inside the box” and “outside the box” in regard to their gender, will help students inquire more independently on how people express their gender.

Turn and Talk

Turn and talks allow educators to scaffold instruction to check for student understanding, and to also let students think collaboratively. Time spent one on one during a lesson will also increase engagement and keep students focused throughout the lesson. It is almost important for students to have the opportunity to engage with their peers to learn new perspectives and work on their active listening skills. This also gives students an opportunity to articulate their ideas on gender and be able to use new terminology in a judgement free space without having to participate with the whole group, which can be more intimidating with new concepts. Also, this may be a useful teaching strategy if you notice students disagree with any of the gender discussions and they can turn to a partner to explain their thought process. This also allows the students to think independently from what the teacher thinks/ what the teacher is teaching, and they can voice their opinions.

Small Group Instruction

Small group instruction allows educators to reteach content or support students who are struggling with new concepts. This time can also be used to do a rereading of text with students below benchmark for reading fluency or comprehension. Suggestion to also use this time to

review vocabulary. It is important to differentiate instruction to help all learners understand new concepts. Small group instruction may be needed to help students understand the concept of stereotypes, gender binary, or gender expression. In these small groups you can focus on reteaching information or pulling out the most important takeaways. You can incorporate this while other students work independently or are completing a graphic organizer on what they learned for the day.

Graphic Organizers/ Anchor Charts

During or after instruction it may be helpful to show and update a graphic organizer on their learning for the day. This graphic organizer can have identity as the core with a list the class comes up with on how they self-identify (child, age, race, sports, etc.), and then as the lessons progress adding gender and different types of gender i.e. boy, girl, non-binary, transgender.

It may also be useful to use anchor charts to learn/ review new vocabulary (examples below).

Socially Constructed

-People -Build

-Communities -Create

An idea created by people through culture, norms, and practices. It seems natural because we are used to it and do not question it.

Examples: race, gender

Gender Identity

-Masculinity -Internal trait

-Femininity -Who you are

-Invisible

-Social construct

An internalized idea about who you are and how you present to the world.

Examples: boy, girl, transgender, gender nonconforming

Socratic Circle

Socratic seminars allow for students to expand their thinking about a reading through a series of comprehension discussion questions. The Socratic Circle can take place after reading one of the listed stories to the students and giving each student a number and having odds/ evens on the inner or outer circle. The odds or evens will then be the ones rotating after each question. This is a helpful way to keep students engaged and participating with students who are different from themselves and have different perspectives. The questions should be centered around how the character self identifies, and any adversity they may have faced and why.

Classroom Activities

Identity Portrait

Students create visual self-portraits that contain symbols representing their identity, beliefs, values or areas of interest. Examples can be surface level such as how they look, then having them dig deeper to what they enjoy, and parts of them that they view are important. Identity self-portraits give students an opportunity for self-understanding by encouraging them to reflect on what may make them unique from their peers.

Come back to this after teaching about gender and point out that although some people seem to fit into gender norms or stereotypes more than others, almost everyone has times or parts of themselves that are outside the box. Have students turn and talk to share one time they felt like they were “inside the box” and one time they felt like they were “outside the box” for their gender. Ask for volunteers to share with the class.

Teaching Tolerance is a public resource that allows educators to take a deeper look at an identity self-portrait. There are many lessons on gender identity that have been developed, and majority of the lessons have a reflection at the end, as well as connections for English Language Learners and Anti-bias Education. The Teaching Tolerance website has classroom resources such as lessons, lesson plans, student texts and tasks, teaching strategies, film kits, and more. For more information an extended learning on gender identity there are also professional development opportunities through this resource that include workshops, trainings, facilitator guides, webinars, and podcasts.

Interactive Read Aloud

An interactive read-aloud can take place in whole or small group instruction. You can read aloud a book of your choosing about gender diversity or choose a book or books from the selection below, which is suggested by Holly Baxter, Coordinator of Safety and Equity at Oak Park Unified School District in California. Students will think and talk about and respond to the texts as a whole group or in pairs. Lesson Plans to follow by Holly can be found online, and permission was given to share publicly. To find these lessons you can look into Oak Park Connects and will find a section on gender diversity.

Recommendations for literature to read aloud to students are It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr, Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall, Neither by Airlie Anderson, Sparkle Boy by Lesléa Newman, and Jamie Is Jamie: A Book About Being Yourself and Playing Your Way by Afsaneh Moradian. These suggestions have lesson plans by Holly Baxter as well online in the Oak Park Connects. These books are appropriate for K-5 grade levels and are further broken down into K-2 and 3-5 on Holly’s lesson plans.

Gender Unicorn/ Genderbread Person

It is important to keep in mind how much information a child should take in, which is dependent on their cognitive and emotional development. The Gender Unicorn and Genderbread Person are both resources to utilize for lessons on gender identity, gender expression, and sexuality. They are visual tools to help show students a model of how to think about gender and how it relates to people. For K-2 you may choose to only focus on gender identity and expression, and 3-5 you may choose to have discussions about sexuality and attraction. The Genderbread Unicorn and Genderbread Person each have their own websites with an ample amount of resources to help you decide what is developmentally appropriate for your students to teach. Gender can be broken up into three parts (or more if you choose)- gender identity, gender expression, and biological sex to help students better understand the genderbread person.

The Genderbread person is suggested to be used to teach how gender identity if your psychological sense of self, and gender expressions is how you present your gender through your behavior, clothing, and actions. You can show a visual representation of gender on the board by drawing a scale with man on one end and woman on the other end. Explain how these two ideas are called the gender binary, because there are two elements described. You can use a gingerbread person to move along the scale to show that some people may be very close to the man end if they strongly identify as a man, and same thing for a person who identifies strongly as a woman. Push students to inquire about the scale and what is in between, which would be people who identify as non-binary or genderqueer.

Closing Activity

To wrap up students’ learning about gender identity, you can choose to use one of the interactive read aloud books but move on to your grade level competencies to move towards analyzing text features while using books that are relevant to gender identity. Students can also “show what they know” by making their own Genderbread Person but using your school mascot or their favorite animal. Ask students to incorporate what they have learned about gender, identity, and expression. This will allow students to reflect on what they have learned while making their own meaning out of the lessons in a way that makes sense to them and is engaging. You can follow this up with a gallery walk so students can see what their peers came up with and to discuss in small groups what others gained from the lessons as key takeaways.

English Language Learners

Different countries, cultures and even languages can have both similar and different ideas about gender stereotypes. After completing the gender activities, have students work with a partner to do a similar activity in their home languages, but this time invite them to think about stereotypes and ideas that come from their home country or culture. Students can discuss similarities and differences with their partners.

Bibliography

Agans, Lyndsay J. “Beyond the Binary: Gender, Identity, and Change at Brandeis University.” College Student Affairs Journal 26, no. 2 (2007): 201-207.

Agans’ source provides insight to a case study that has a framework on how student affairs professionals can promote change on campus to meet transgender students’ needs. This article provides a student-centered approach that allows professionals to engage in conversations about gender identity and transgender issues on campus.

Baxter, Holly. “Gender Diversity Lessons.” Last modified August 15, 2019. https://sites.google.com/opusd.org/oakparkconnects/elementary-dk-5/gender-diversity/k-5-lessons?authuser=0.

This resource has a list of gender diversity and gender inclusion lessons to do with K-5 students. Holly Baxter provides lesson plans as well as activities to utilize with elementary aged students.

Berman, Steven L. “Identity and Trauma.” Journal of Traumatic Stress Disorders & Treatment 5, no. 2 (2016): 1-3. http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2324-8947.1000e108.

Berman explains the concept “event centrality” to explain how different types of traumatic experiences manifest into post-traumatic stress. He also cites research that shows how identity can be shaped by different trauma events and memories.

Department of Education. 2018. Regulation 225. Delaware: DOE.

Section 3 of Delaware’s Regulation 225 explains the rights minors have in school in regard to changes in their identity. This regulation does not allow Delaware students to make decisions about their identity without parent permission.

“Exploring Gender Stereotypes in Stories.” Teaching Tolerance. Accessed December 3, 2020. https://www.tolerance.org/classroom-resources/tolerance-lessons/exploring-gender-stereotypes-in-stories

The resource is one of many lessons on gender inclusivity and teaching against/ countering gender stereotypes. Teaching Tolerance also includes English Language Learner extensions to their lessons. This is a useful resource for countering gender stereotypes utilizing literature.

Foubert, John, Monica L. Nixon, V. Shamim Sisson, and Amy C. Barnes. "A Longitudinal Study of Chickering and Reisser's Vectors: Exploring Gender Differences and Implications for Refining the Theory." Journal of College Student Development 46, no. 5 (2005): 461-471. doi:10.1353/csd.2005.0047.

The authors expand on Chickering and Reisser’s seven vectors of student development. The seven vectors are developing competence, managing their emotions, gaining autonomy, developing mature relationships, establishing identity, developing purpose, and developing integrity. The authors show how students’ progress in their development along three measured vectors throughout their college career. Important gender differences emerged, particularly regarding issues of tolerance.

Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). Education Exclusion: Drop Out, Push Out, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline among LGBTQ Youth. GLSEN. New York: GLSEN, 2016.

Educational resource with data that highlights the school-to-prison pipeline and what percentage of students who fall in this institutionalized oppression identify as transgender. This source provides rates of school discipline as well as different types of discipline used on LGBTQ identifying students.

Harbin, Brielle. “Teaching Beyond the Gender Binary in the University Classroom.” Last modified July 6, 2020. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-beyond-the-gender-binary-in-the-university-classroom/.

Harbin provides information on important vocabulary to understand when teaching beyond the gender binary. Harbin also discusses implementing gender-inclusive pedagogical practices to utilize in the classroom.

Kramer, Laura. The Sociology of Gender: A Text-Reader. New York, NY: St. Martins Pr., 1991.

Kramer provides a sociological background on gender identity and societal views of gender systems as well as sexual orientation.

Lorber, Judith. “Night to His Day: Social Construction of Gender.” Accessed October 24, 2020. https://wgs10016.commons.gc.cuny.edu/lobber-night-to-his-day-the-social-construction-of-gender/

Excerpt from Paradoxes of Gender (Chapter 1) that is about gender being the ground routine of everyday activities. Lorber discusses how gender is a social construct and that it is assumed to be bred into our genes.

McBride, Sarah. Tomorrow Will Be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality. New York: Crown Archetype, 2018.

Candidate for Delaware State Senator expresses her struggles with coming out as Transgender, and her journey of helping with legislation nationally under Barack Obama’s administration. Sarah shares her experiences as well as educates the public on transgender rights and how the transgender community if affected by current legislation.

National Geographic. Gender Revolution: A Journey with Katie Couric. United States: National Geographic, 2017.

Discussion guide for educators and parents to help facilitate conversations on gender identity with youth. This guide comes from Katie Couric’s interviews with different gender rights activists as well as people who identify as transgender. This guide includes information on the transgender community as well as people who are intersex.

Ullman, Jacqueline and Ferfolja, Tania. “The Elephant in the (Class)Room: Parental Perceptions of LGBTQ-inclusivity in K-12 Educational Contexts.” Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(10), 2016.

The authors focus on informing educators' practices and presenting an analysis of interview data from focus groups with parents from across the Australian state of New South Wales. They engage in discourse with parents about preparing students for adult life with modern gender practices in mind. Learning about gender diversity promotes positive social values through compulsory content while simultaneously respecting diverse sets of values.

University of New Hampshire. Making the Invisible Visible: Gender Microaggressions. Accessed October 11, 2020.

A resource by the University of New Hampshire that explains what microaggressions are, and how they present with marginalized gender groups. This resource also gives scenarios to think about and an extensive list of examples of how microaggressions can manifest.

van der Kolk, Bessel A. Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society. New York, New York: The Guilford Press, 2007.

Bessel fills this book with research and studies on how post-traumatic stress disorder

(PTSD) manifests in children, adolescents and adults. Part V. Developmental, Social, and Cultural Issues in the book has a further emphasis on how childhood trauma can affect and negatively impact typical development.

Watt, Sherry K. “Difficult Dialogues and Social Justice: Uses of the Privileged Identity Exploration (PIE) Model in Student Affairs Practice.” College Student Affairs Journal 26, no. 2 (2007): 116.

Watt puts an emphasis on how to incorporate peer support systems on college campuses to support transgender and nonbinary students, especially queer transgender people of color. While there are counselors and student run organizations that may already exist or could be advocated for, it is extremely important for the campus climate to be one that is safe and supportive of its queer students. This translates to how important it is for students at a young age to feel supported by their peers and to have a school climate that is knowledgeable of gender identity and different ways to express ourselves.

Appendix A

Implementing District Standards

Currently Delaware public schools follow the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. Within these standards are reading literature, informational texts, and foundational skills. This unit will align with standards within reading literature for 2nd grade students. While we explore diverse texts, it is important to me that students are reading to gain knowledge of how characters express themselves and their gender (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.3 & CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.7). While I have a diverse group of students from ethnicity and race to socioeconomic status, it is important I also include texts of diverse cultures to determine the central message of each text (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.2). I am also looking to have students compare and contrast two texts with different examples of characters responding to trauma based on gender stereotyping in them and how the characters respond to their experiences (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.9).

It is also important that this unit incorporates writing standards, as students will be creating their own tool kit of ideas on how they express their personalities as well as identities physically i.e. how they dress, activities they participate in. At Old State 2nd graders currently do not have a 1:1 ratio for technology, but if that were to change, I would add a digital tool component to the

unit to increase engagement, and to also allow students more free reign with their creativity to show what they have learned about how different characters show resilience during times of adversity (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.6). Throughout the unit, students will be writing narratives to recount events from the stories that we read with detail and extra attention towards the characters’ actions, thoughts, and feelings (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.2.3). This will be especially important for students to independently express their ideas about the texts and how they view gender and expression through their own lens.

Appendix B

Remote Learning Opportunities

With minimal modifications, the classroom activities can be used in an in person, hybrid, or virtual learning environment. Students can participate in the warmup “Identity Portrait” virtually via Zoom or other video conferencing platforms. Students can participate by drawing their portraits on a piece of paper with color, or on Classkick so the teacher can see their portraits. After, you can begin a discussion about what makes each of us unique and have students point out what makes them similar to others in the class and what makes them different. Towards the end, if students are not there, begin to discuss that some may notice they are different based on whether or not they are a boy or a girl. At this time, you can share your screen and begin a discussion about gender and how people identify. This would be a great time to utilize anchor charts on your screen to pre-teach vocabulary.

On the same day, or in a series of lessons, you can then utilize Holly Baxter’s lesson plans to do a read aloud and create a presentation to guide your reading to help students’ understanding of the stories. You can choose to download the story and share on your screen or use a hard copy and do a normal read aloud. Use the lesson plan and guided questions accordingly to help guide your lesson(s). At times when it is useful to include turn and talks throughout the read aloud books, virtually you can have students discuss in breakout rooms or in small groups. You can assign students based on Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 levels to make the instruction accessible to all students. I would suggest utilizing comprehension discussion time to let students discuss in pairs and pull your group of students that need small group instruction per their IEP or tier. For the Closing Activity, you can utilize Classkick so you can have access to your student work and be able to still complete a “gallery walk” virtually. You will be able to share your screen and show each student’s product and they can explain and present their picture and what they thought was most important in the lessons.

Notes