In this article, the authors argue that the format and content of graphic novels that depict LGBTQ experiences are a unique and effective pedagogical tool to engage students in critical discussions about gender and sexuality. Through analysis of two exemplar texts, teachers are offered a vocabulary and method for engaging in these conversations by…

The Bechdel test, the author's student Marley explained, is named for the US graphic novelist and cartoonist Alison Bechdel. To pass the test, a work of fiction must contain at least one scene in which two or more women (preferably named characters) discuss something other than a male. Students who read from the canon of works regularly encounter…

Teachers who include intersex issues in their curricula can provide their intersex students with a sense of community. Intersex people, whether children, teenagers, or adults, often feel that they are going through their experiences absolutely alone. For them, realizing that there are others out there with similar experiences, facing similar…

In this article, the author describes how he uses performance pedagogy to open students' minds to sexuality and gender issues. The author uses Tony Kushner's "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes"--an epic play about the AIDS epidemic and its impact on the gay community in the 1980s. Through the possibilities of drama available in…

Drawing on published scholarship and her own high school teaching, the author describes how works by Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman can be used to integrate GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) issues into English classes. The author can't imagine a single high school that doesn't include Whitman and Dickinson at some point in its…

In an effort to ensure that students feel "safe" and "comfortable" in the classrooms, English teachers often avoid controversial topics, particularly issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality. The insidious hidden curriculum or the unintended consequences of what they choose to say or not say--teach or not teach--can have as much or more impact…

The question of how "teachers and students [can] connect their learning to the broader society" drives Jeraldine R. Kraver's search for ways to use critical pedagogy in secondary school and university classrooms. Focusing on the topic of gender equity, she shows how teachers can use literature to create critical classrooms. In addition, she offers…

Describes methods and strategies by which two teachers have succeeded in engaging their students in gender issues such as nontraditional roles and sexism in literature. (HB)

Patricia Zumhagen, a high school English teacher, highlights the gender inequalities present in older literature by attempting to develop a film update of Sherwood Anderson's story. The students have learned to see how stereotypes operated in literature and in their lives by various discussions and improvisations.