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Claiming Our Place: LGBTQ+ Experiences in the United States (2021)
Students explore the contributions and experiences of LGBTQ+ Americans in the past and present.
ELA
Unit 6
7th Grade
This unit has been archived. To view our updated curriculum, visit our 7th Grade English course.
Unit Summary
In this unit, students will read The 57 Bus, a nonfiction text about a momentary encounter between two teenage strangers on a bus in Oakland, California. One late afternoon in November of 2013, Richard—sixteen, African-American, male, from an economically depressed section of the city—took a lighter and lit the skirt of a sleeping teenager on fire. That teenager, Sasha—eighteen, white, agender, from a middle class area of the city—was rushed to the hospital with severe burns. Richard was arrested and charged with a felony hate crime. This text is an exploration of race, class, gender, sexual identity, criminal justice, and the gray areas that exist in the world and within us all. The supplemental texts that students will read alongside The 57 Bus are intended to support their understanding of the history, struggle, and successes of LGBTQ+ Americans as students continue their year-long study of what it means to be American.
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Texts and Materials
Some of the links below are Bookshop affiliate links. This means that if you click and make a purchase, we receive a small portion of the proceeds, which supports our non-profit mission.
Core Materials
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Book: The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater (Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2017) — 930L
Supporting Materials
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Article: “Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement” by PBS.org (WGBH Educational Foundation)
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Article: “LGBTQ Rights Milestones Fast Facts” by CNN (Cable News Network)
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Article: “Victory! Federal Court Rules Trans Students Must Have Access to Bathrooms That Match Their Gender” by Lambda Legal (Lambda Legal)
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Article: “We Need Gender Neutral Bathrooms Everywhere” by Adryan Corcione (Teen Vogue)
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Video: “Trans People Nail The Absurdity Of The Bathroom Debate | Trans 102 | Refinery29” by Refinery29 (YouTube)
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Video: “Oakland Police Seek Witnesses, Good Samaritans Aboard AC Transit Bus” by KRON 4 (YouTube)
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Video: “Oakland California Victim in Bus Burning Fire” (YouTube)
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Article: “Hate Crimes, Explained” by Swathi Shanmugasundaram (The Southern Poverty Law Center)
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Website: Hate Crimes by FBI.gov
- Resource: Recommended Texts for Independent Reading
Assessment
The following assessments accompany Unit 6.
Content Assessment
The Content Assessment tests students' ability to read a "cold" or unfamiliar passage and answer multiple choice and short answer questions. Additionally, a longer writing prompt pushes students to synthesize unit content knowledge or unit essential questions in writing. The Content Assessment should be used as the primary assessment because it shows mastery of unit content knowledge and standards.
Fluency Assessment
The Fluency Assessment measures students' ability to read a grade-level text with accuracy and prosody, at a proficient rate, with a reading passage drawn from one of the unit's core texts. Find guidance for using this assessment and supporting reading fluency in Teacher Tools.
Unit Prep
Intellectual Prep
Essential Questions
- What challenges have LGBTQ+ Americans faced in the past, what challenges do they continue to face, and how have they survived and thrived in spite of repression, violence, and discrimination?
- How does binary thinking shape the way that we understand other people and the world around us?
Enduring Understandings
- LGBTQ+ have had to fight for social acceptance and equal protection under the law in the face of discrimination, persecution, and violence.
- Binaries limit our understanding of people and of the world around us; the world is a much more complex and interesting place than binaries allow us to see.
Vocabulary
Text-based
affirmbinarycallousconspicuousconscientiousconsensualdiverteccentriclenientmalleablenonconforming
Root/Affix
bi-hetero-homo-
Academic
central idearelevantstructuresufficient
To see all the vocabulary for Unit 6, view our 7th Grade Vocabulary Glossary.
Supporting All Students
In order to ensure that all students are able to access the texts and tasks in this unit, it is incredibly important to intellectually prepare to teach the unit prior to launching the unit. Use the guidance provided under 'Notes for Teachers' below in addition to the Unit Launch to determine which supports students will need at the unit and lesson level. To learn more, visit the Supporting All Students Teacher Tool.
Notes for Teachers
We are very mindful of the fact that this unit only provides students with the most rudimentary introduction to the history and experiences of LGBTQ+ people in this country. Our core text provides students with a window into the life of one agender person (and their friends, who have diverse gender, romantic, and sexual identities). For their final project, students will have the opportunity to spend time studying an LGBTQ+ American more closely. But one of the strengths of this community is its diversity; students must leave this unit understanding that while LGBTQ+ Americans may share some common history and experiences, the community is anything but monolithic.
As always, it is essential that teachers ensure that their classroom is a safe space for all students, with a particular focus on supporting students who may experience this unit as more of a “mirror” than “window.” You may have students who are out as LGBTQ+ in your classroom, but it is equally important to teach this unit with the knowledge that you very likely have LGBTQ+ students in your classroom who are not out. There are many fantastic resources available for supporting LGBTQ students and building awareness of queer issues and history in your classrooms. Here are just a few:
- Developing LGBTQ-Inclusive Classroom Resources (GLSEN)
- Safe Space Kit: A Guide to Supporting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students in Your School (GLSEN)
- Model School District Policy on Suicide Prevention: Model Language, Commentary, and Resources by Christine Moutier, M.D., Doreen S. Marshall, Ph.D., Jill Cook, M.Ed., CAE, Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach, Ph.D., NCSP, and Sam Brinton (The Trevor Project)
- Creating an LGBT-Inclusive School Climate: A Learning for Justice Guide for School Leaders by Learning for Justice (Learning for Justice)
- 10 Tips for Building a More LGBTQ-Inclusive Classroom by Joe English (Education Week)
We recommend letting parents know that you will be teaching this book and discussing sexuality and gender identity in the classroom. It is also important to let school support staff know so that they are aware of what will be addressed.
This text raises a number of very important issues about race and class in the United States. While students will regularly engage with these topics within lessons, our overarching focus in this unit is on gender and sexual identity. If you have the time and flexibility within your schedule, we encourage you to supplement this unit with texts that dive more deeply into the American criminal justice system, and the way it intersects with race.
A note on terminology: We have made the choice to use the acronym LGBTQ+ in this unit. There is no perfect acronym or word to use that encapsulates the entirety of this community, but we have chosen this acronym because of its inclusion of the “Q” (for queer, an umbrella term that a growing number of people prefer) and the “+,” which is an (admittedly imperfect) acknowledgement of the diversity of people included in the community.
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