Curriculum  /  ELA  /  6th Grade  /  Unit 11: Declaring Identity: Being Jazz (2020)  /  Lesson 1

Declaring Identity: Being Jazz (2020)

Lesson 1
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ELA

Unit 11

6th Grade

Lesson 1 of 28

Objective

Use a text and video source to define terms related to gender identity and provide basic information about what it means to be transgender.

Readings and Materials

  • Video: “An Introduction to Transgender People” by National Center for Transgender Equality 

  • Website: Understanding Transgender People: The Basics by The National Center for Transgender Equality 

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Target Task

Writing Prompt

How can cisgender people be supportive of transgender people? Provide information from both the video and the article to support your answer, and list at least two ways people can show support.

Key Questions

  • What does it mean to be transgender? Provide evidence from both the video and the text to support your answer.

  • What does it mean to be non-binary or gender-neutral? Provide evidence from both the video and the text to support your answer.

  • What challenges do transgender people face? Provide information from both the video and the article to support your answer, and list at least two challenges.

  • Discussion: Why do you think it’s important for us to discuss these issues even if we don’t know any trans people?

  • Discussion: What questions do you have?

Lesson Guidance

Notes

  • This subject matter is complex and delicate. Students may come into this unit with ideas and opinions about trans people based on religious beliefs, information they have seen in the media, and conversations with friends and family. It is important to establish the basic premise that transgender people are people, and because of that we should treat them as we would want to be treated: with respect.
  • Teachers need to prepare the class by making sure students are feeling mature and understand that they will be talking about sensitive things (like genitalia) that they are not used to talking about in school. This may feel uncomfortable for students, so just name it aloud to them. (Example: "This may feel uncomfortable or awkward for some of you to talk about in school and that’s okay. I trust that you’ll be as mature and open-minded as you have been when talking about euthanasia in The Giver and other mature topics this year.")
  • Do not require students to participate aloud today if they need time to get used to these conversations. This subject will spur a lot of healthy debate. Students should feel free to respectfully express their beliefs and discomfort about transgender issues. We suggest posting sentence starters for respectful agreement and disagreement on the wall throughout the unit.
  • You may wish to provide a glossary of terms for students to refer back to during this unit.
    • Sex: The genitalia that identify a person as male, female, or intersex.
    • Gender: The set of behaviors and activities that are culturally identified as "masculine" or "feminine." These include clothing, hairstyles, body language, occupations, hobbies, and so on.
    • Gender expression: The outward signals (e.g., make-up, clothing, hairstyle) that people often adopt to express their gender identities, which may or may not reflect their sex or genitalia
    • LGBTQ: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer. (Root alerts: bi-, tran-)
    • Cisgender: A person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth. People who are not transgender are considered cisgender.
  • Clarify for students that being transgender does not mean that someone is gay. Gender identity and sexual orientation are two different things.

Homework

  • Read Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen, pages 1–12.

Supplemental Resources

  • The website The Gender Unicorn by Trans Student Educational Resources is a helpful resource for understanding the difference between sex and gender, but the amount of information provided may be overwhelming for students at this point in the unit.

Common Core Standards

  • L.6.6 — Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
  • RI.6.7 — Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

Next

Identify narrator Jazz’s point of view and how it is conveyed in the first chapter of Being Jazz.

Lesson 2
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