Lesson Plan: Exploring Important LGBTQ Characters in History Class/Subject: 11th/12th Grade Social Studies

Student Objectives: Students will gain knowledge about the various roles that LGBTQ people have played throughout history. Students will develop a deeper understanding of important historical figures that were LGBT but were not recognized in the traditional teaching of history. Students will further investigate these characters in order to analyze how their sexual orientation shaped their actions in the past. Our peers will brainstorm and develop ideas about how to teach LGBTQ issues and people in throughout their normal historic narrative. Content Standards: IL16.A.5a Analyze historical and contemporary developments using methods of historical inquiry (pose questions, collect and analyze data, make and support inferences with evidence, report findings). IL16.B.5a (US) Describe how modern political positions are affected by differences in ideologies and viewpoints that have developed over time (e.g., political parties positions on government intervention in the economy). IL16.B.5a (W) Analyze worldwide conse- quences of isolated political events, including the events triggering the Napoleonic Wars and World Wars I and II. IL16.B.5c (W) Analyze the relationship of an issue in world political history to the related aspects of world economic, social and environmental history. Materials/ Resources/ Technology: Laptops Handout for research questions (one for each group Richard will also receive a copy his copy will include websites where the information can be found easily) The Invisible Man handout (Richards copy will have one side the original document and one side the modified; this way he is able to choose which he would like to use other students will not be aware that he has been given a different copy) The Invisible Man questions handout (one for each group) Projector PowerPoint Teachers Goals: We want students to realize that there are important historical characters that were associated with the LGBTQ community that traditional textbooks have neglected to draw attention to. We want to increase student sensitivity to the diverse student body and community they are a part of.

We want students to use their critical thinking skills to analyze the important historic actions of specific characters in relation to their sexual orientation. We want students to use this knowledge to think critically about todays society and how the LGBT community is portrayed and acknowledged in the media, pop culture, and news. We want our peers to think critically and creatively about various important historic events and how they would teach those through an LGBTQ lens.

Time: 90 minutes Start of Class: We will start the class by setting up some groundwork for the decorum and respect we expect from our students throughout the lesson plan. We realize that this may be a topic that could produce controversy or hostility from some students, but we think it is one that is important to teach. We will give each student a copy of an excerpt from The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison as well as a handout with questions regarding the excerpt. The students will be given 10 minutes to read and answer the questions regarding the excerpt. The teacher will take some amount of the ten minutes to offer aid to Richard. Because he is at a below-grade-level for reading and reading comprehension, the teacher will read aloud the excerpt to Richard. The teacher will read the original version of the excerpt and gage Richards level of understanding. The teacher will then read the modified version of the excerpt and ask Richard for his level of understanding. The teacher will then ask aloud to Richard the questions regarding the excerpt. Richards verbal comprehension is at grade level and when text is read to him he is able to answer comprehension questions at an 85-100% accuracy. His assessment will be on the conversation with the teacher regarding the excerpt and the questions associated with it whereas the other students will turn in their reading questions. We will use a prepared PowerPoint with 15 names on the slides. We will ask students if they believe each person was associated with the LGBTQ community in any way. We will ask them to raise their hands with their answer. We will go through all the names on the PowerPoint, tally the total of yes and no for each person and then we will introduce the main part of the lesson. Our goal for this part of the lesson is to hopefully surprise students with important historical figures who were associated with the LGBTQ community and whose sexual orientation were not previously discussed. We want students to be curious and excited to look up more information about these characters.

Lesson Instruction: The students will be given 10 minutes to read and answer the questions regarding the excerpt. The teacher will take some amount of the ten minutes to offer aid to Richard. Because he is at a below-grade-level for reading and reading comprehension, the teacher will read aloud the excerpt to Richard. The teacher will read the original version of the excerpt and gage Richards level of understanding. The teacher will then read the

modified version of the excerpt and ask Richard for his level of understanding. The teacher will then ask aloud to Richard the questions regarding the excerpt. Richards verbal comprehension is at grade level and when text is read to him he is able to answer comprehension questions at an 85-100% accuracy. We will pass out questions to each group to answer about their assigned historical figure. We will also have the questions on the PowerPoint for the benefit of visual learners. Students will be put into groups of 3 to research their assigned figure. These groups will be pre-selected by the teacher in order to maintain a controlled environment in the classroom. The pre-selected group for Richard will be peers which he has worked, and worked well with, in the past. His group will include students who are at grade level or above grade level in order for their abilities to aid and encourage his abilities. Students will utilize laptops and internet to research their character and answer the questions given to them. They will have about 15 minutes to research and answer the questions. Students will be asked to prepare a brief presentation, which answers their given questions and adds any additional information they found about their character. The questions the students will be asked to answer are: Who was your character? What were their most notable contributions to history/society? How do you think their sexual orientation motivated their actions throughout their lifetime/history? How difficult was it to find information to support whether or not your historical figure was part of the LGBTQ community? Do you think that history textbooks should discuss these figures sexual orientations more openly? Why or why not? Prepare to defend your answer. In each group, one student will be asked to be the scribe. This student will take the job of physically writing the information that the group provides from their research. The questions will be provided for each student on a handout. The handout given to Richard will include each question in a bulleted list, and there will be a website provided next to each of the questions. The websites provided will be ones which the necessary information can be found in a quick and easy manner, in an effort to lessen the possibility that Richard will become frustrated by his assignment. Richards assignment differs from the rest of the class as he will be able to sketch out a drawing of his historic LGBTQ individual and include notes on the drawing rather than writing out answers to the questions given.

Assessment/ Checks for Understanding: The students will be assessed on their answering of the questions from the reading excerpt. This includes complete sentences, accuracy, and evidence from text. Richards assessment will be on the conversation with the teacher regarding the excerpt and the questions associated with it whereas the other students will turn in their reading questions. The student presentations about their historical figure will be the assessment of the lesson. One student will be asked to be the ambassador for their group they will present the information they researched to the rest of the class. Students will be asked to tell the class about their figure, the answers to their questions and then any additional information they found interesting about their figure. These presentations will be

informative for the other students and the students will be able to learn about each character and how their contributions in history were shaped by their sexual orientation. At the end of the lesson, the groups will be asked to turn in their written answers on the handout. Although the group Richard has been placed in will turn in their written answers, Richard will also be required to turn in his drawing.