Curriculum Resources
The Instructional Entry Point offers the most direct way to create greater gender literacy among students and staff. Our collection of lessons and other resources for teaching about gender and gender diversity will help teachers bring gender inclusion to life in their classrooms.
Elementary School Lessons and Resources*
Introducing Gender: Boys Girls and More (Colors) Lesson for primary grade students to help them recognize that what they like is individual choice. There are lots of ways to be a kid, not simply boy ways or girl ways.
Short or Tall, That’s Not All! Short lesson illustrating the difference between using a binary versus a spectrum for trying to capture a concept’s complexity
All I Want to Be Is Me Through story and song lesson provides positive imagery about gender diversity
What Can I Say, in a Nice Way? Teach and practice specific language students can use when confronted by gender stereotypes, or when observing someone else being confronted.
U-niquely You Allows students to celebrate their unique set of abilities/interests in a colorful way!
What No One Can See What can’t we see when we look at someone else?
Exploring The Gender Binary: Students Design Modern TOY STORIES: Students examine and understand gender roles and recognize gender stereotyping as it is marketed/messaged to kids through toys.
Tomboy: (video) Alex is a 9-year old who deals with gender stereotypes and teasing, getting advice from her mother on being proud of her uniqueness in a world that doesn’t understand or appreciate gender diversity.
Inside Outside Me: Through this project, students reflect on those aspects of their gender they share with the world and those they keep hidden. In what situations do they favor one approach over the other?
14 Children's Books Starring Trans or Gender-Nonconforming Kids: Great list of books featuring gender diverse characters from the Seattle Public Library
Annotated Bibliography of Children’s Books About Gender Diversity: An ever-growing number of books are being written that celebrate the gender diversity of young people, or that offer ways for kids to see that few if any things come in either/or, binary packages.
Instructional entry points come in two forms:
Lessons and activities that are directly focused on
learning about gender.Lessons and activities that integrate notions about
gender diversity into existing content.
Secondary School Lessons and Resources*
Understanding the Gender Spectrum: This three part lesson asks students to reflect on their current knowledge and comfort level with gender diversity, introduces the three dimensions of gender, and provides an opportunity to consider their own gender based on those dimensions.
What is Gender/Mapping My Gender: A simple way to review the three dimensions of gender and have students then locate themselves across each of them.
Letter to a Playground Bully: Focused on the use of figurative language, this lesson uses a spoken word performance of an adult’s experience of growing up around people who did not get their gender.
Mapping the Media: This lesson asks students to explore different forms of gender messaging they observe in advertising and to reflect on the degree to which they reinforce or challenge binary notions
Inside Outside Me: Through this project, students reflect on those aspects of their gender they share with the world and those they keep hidden. In what situations do they favor one approach over the other?
Finally Making History for all the Right Reasons: This short reading and the accompanying questions explore the experience of a Fa’afafine soccer player from American Samoa and their society’s view of gender
Gender Jeopardy: A review of various concepts related to gender diversity, with categories such as “Dimensions of Gender,” Who am I?” and “In Gender-al”
Young Adult Books with Transgender Characters: A nice list of books from the Los Angeles Public Library Teen Web
Annotated Bibliography of Teen Books About Gender Diversity: An ever-growing number of books are being written that celebrate the gender diversity of young people, or that offer ways for kids to see that few if any things come in either/or, binary packages.
* Suggested age levels for lessons are approximate and overlap. Most of the above lessons can be easily adapted to work with students of any age.