Introduction to Gender and Gender Norms

This week we kicked off our final unit of this school year. We are reading the book Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. There are many ways to approach a book like this one. We will be looking at with a focus on its characters' gender identities and its setting's gender norms. Both of these are unique in young adult literature and helpful in exploring the idea of gender identity and the norms of our own community.

To begin this unit, we are discussing these two ideas (gender identity and gender norms) in class. By talking about them, we can understand better how to make our communities and schools a safe place for people whose gender identification and expression don't fit with our community's gender norms. Below are the materials we will be using for this first lesson.