Transgender Awareness Week Resources
Did you knout it was Transgender Awareness Week? November 13-19th is observed each year in the lead up to The Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th. The original vigil was held to honour Rita Hester who was a person murdered in 1998 for being who she was: a woman.
The day now is a time to think about those who have lost their lives in acts of anti-transgendner violence.
The statistics about transgenered youth are alarming. Higher rates of violence. Higher rates of suicide attempt. Higher rates of suicide. Feeling unsafe in their own homes. We have all read newspaper articles or heard about atrocities faced by transgendered youth. As an educator and human being, I do not want any of my students become a statistic. I want to build a more compassionate and better world. This blog post is about things you can do this week to mark Transgendered Awareness Week and things you can continue to do in your classroom forever.
Before we continue you should know, I am a cisgender female who uses the pronouns she/her. I have friends who are living their truest life right now and have taught students who are doing the same. I am aware of my privilege in going through the world cisgender and use my privilege to amplify voices and teach awareness. I do not claim to speak for any group, but I am trying to bring awareness and support to all the humans in my classroom.
Big Things that Seem Small
Teach a lesson about pronouns
Use the child’s preferred pronouns
Use the child’s preferred name
Put a transgender flag in your classroom (my kids made the flag above for my room today!)
Talk about LGBTQ2+ in your classroom and make it clear everyone is welcome
Call out transphobic language and actions
Explore gender stereotypes in your classroom
Read the SOGI 123 curriculum if you have access to it
Picture Books
There are so many amazing pictures books that have been published in the last several years. Talk to your teacher librarian to see what is available in your school library. The three books in the picture above are what I am using this week:
Red A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall: Primary and Intermediate appropriate. A crayon named Red just cannot be red as hard as he tries. Everyone tries to fix him and help, but nothing works. One day a friend comes along and asks him to draw a blue ocean. Red tries. It works! Red happily accepts who he is and colours blue everywhere.
My Shadow is Pink by Scott Stuart: Late primary and intermediate appropriate. A beautiful story about a young person accepting who they are and their family learning as well. The illustrations are powerful.
Introducing Teddy a gentle story about gender and friendship by Jessica Walton: Primary and intermediate appropriate. It is a lovely story about Errol and his best friend Thomas the Teddy. Thomas actually feels like Tilly and she is able to tell Errol. They are best of friends still and get to do everything together.
Lesson: Picture Book Analysis Red A Crayon’s Story
You can download a copy of the lesson here.
A Powerful Discussion
This story created powerful discussion. The students loved the images and the message. They were really impressed by how well the Michael Hall was able to take a complex topic and make it understandable.
Closing Sticky Notes
The class shared thoughtful ideas on the sticky notes. To help them remember which colour answered which question, I stuck it right on the board. I find this visual reminder really helps!
This is how I set up the 11 X 17 sheet of paper. You could also make a graphic organizer.
Novels
The Fabulous Zed Watson by Kevin and Basil Sylvester
Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell (Graphic Novel)
Melissa by Alex Gino
Rick by Alex Gino
There are many novels, but I only wanted to mention the ones I have personally read. Talk to your librarian for more.
Adult Novels
This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel
There are many novels, but I only wanted to mention the ones I have personally read. Talk to your librarian for more.
Make Flags & Talk Definitions
Look at the variety of flags and the history of flags
Talk about definitions
Explore language and why it is important
Talk about how reading books like allows kids to see themselves or their families reflected in the curriculum and why that is important
Final Thoughts
Did you know the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms explicitly talks about discrimination based on sexual orientation but transgendered rights are not explicitly outlined in the document yet? In fact, gender based rights are specifically still defined as male and female. This document needs to change because it needs to represent all people in Canada. The point of the charter is that is protects vulnerable people and provides a basis for human decency-so why have transgendered rights not been specifically outlined? This is an incredibly vulnerable subset of society.
Well, if you look at the history of our charter, every right was hard won. Mostly in court and most took a very long time. So, I am sure changes are coming, but not fast enough. If we educate our youth and provide a safe space for all students, we will create engaged citizens who push to make this country better.