Student Work Interpreting or Responding to Queer Class Materials
Interpreting Sonnet 18
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The best assessment I have of how my students reacted to the queering of Sonnet 18 comes from their poetry packets, a formative assessment they completed as they engaged with different poems to demonstrate comprehension of the work and literary elements or themes. A comprehension question for Sonnet 18 was “Who do you think is the poet speaking to in this poem?” Most students answered the question with a feminine identity, referring to the subject as a girl/woman the poet loves. However, a fraction of students seemed to have internalized the gender neutral language used in my teaching. They answered the question with gender-neutral pronouns, “the beloved,” or by referring to the subject as a person the poet loves. Some were consistent with this language, while others defaulted back to feminine identifiers in the other questions. None of them used masculine pronouns or titles.
It is hard to tell why students mimicked the gender-neutral language. It is possible that they just thought it was the most correct answer and they wanted full credit. Others may have understood that there was no concrete way to know. Still others might have just written what they heard with little consideration. In any case, it feels significant that some students were able to reproduce this queer language in discussing Sonnet 18.
It is hard to tell why students mimicked the gender-neutral language. It is possible that they just thought it was the most correct answer and they wanted full credit. Others may have understood that there was no concrete way to know. Still others might have just written what they heard with little consideration. In any case, it feels significant that some students were able to reproduce this queer language in discussing Sonnet 18.
Writing About Bayard Rustin
Question from March on Washington Packet:
Many people don’t recognize Rustin and his achievements because he was gay. Pretend you have to argue for Rustin to be included in a textbook chapter about the Civil Rights movement. In the space below, write a paragraph in support of Rustin. Include evidence from the excerpt we read and notes we have taken. You should use the TEXAS format.
Many people don’t recognize Rustin and his achievements because he was gay. Pretend you have to argue for Rustin to be included in a textbook chapter about the Civil Rights movement. In the space below, write a paragraph in support of Rustin. Include evidence from the excerpt we read and notes we have taken. You should use the TEXAS format.
After learning about Bayard Rustin, taking biographical notes that centered on his sexuality and the associated challenges he encountered, and reading “The Preamble to the March on Washington,” students had to synthesize their knowledge and produce a short paragraph in their March on Washington Packets. Students were tasked with writing one paragraph to argue for Rustin’s inclusion in a textbook chapter about the Civil Rights Movement.
When I explained the prompt, I asked students to describe what type of writing is in a textbook. They recognized that textbooks contain facts and information, and so they were reminded that their argument in favor of Rustin should be based in positive factual details about his accomplishments. They were armed with their notes, the “Preamble,” and the information they found online from the Biography.com entry about Rustin to support their argument. We told students to use the TEXAS paragraph format, which they were familiar with and would help organize their argument in a straightforward way.
For many of our students, writing is a challenge in any situation. We take a very formulaic approach to writing in our class to give the students the structure they need to organize their thoughts and focus on conveying their main idea. For many, the struggle is introducing evidence and connecting it to their own ideas without just listing loosely related points. This becomes more challenging when students are asked to synthesize different types of information or to confront ideas that may be new to them. With all of that in mind, many students had trouble with this prompt. There were multiple sources of information to balance, they had to be sure to cite their evidence properly, and they had to argue a point. However, some of the challenges seemed more to do with the content than their general writing skills.
It became clear fairly quickly that students were almost too focused on the fact that Rustin was gay. This fact, which was the subject of an entire lesson and part of their notes, as well as mentioned in the prompt itself, seemed to be the defining factor about Rustin that students recognized. When I was checking in with students verbally about their work, they would sometimes answer the question “Why was Rustin famous or important?” with “Because he was gay.”
The idea of this prompt was to have students highlight what Rustin had inarguably accomplished in his Civil Rights career, namely organizing the March on Washington and teaching Martin Luther King, Jr. about nonviolence, which would become the hallmark of the Civil Rights Movement. Students would have been able to answer the question fully without even mentioning that Rustin was gay because that fact was already conceded in the prompt. However, Ms. Esposito noticed as students began their work that they often mentioned it in the topic sentence of their paragraph. Many students even mentioned his arrest and time spent in jail for “homosexual activity.” Often, these students placed his sexuality at center stage and did not provide clear evidence to prove his importance in the Movement. Other times, they mentioned it in the middle of their paragraph without connection to their main idea. It was most common that when students mentioned Rustin’s sexuality it did not serve a clear function.
When I explained the prompt, I asked students to describe what type of writing is in a textbook. They recognized that textbooks contain facts and information, and so they were reminded that their argument in favor of Rustin should be based in positive factual details about his accomplishments. They were armed with their notes, the “Preamble,” and the information they found online from the Biography.com entry about Rustin to support their argument. We told students to use the TEXAS paragraph format, which they were familiar with and would help organize their argument in a straightforward way.
For many of our students, writing is a challenge in any situation. We take a very formulaic approach to writing in our class to give the students the structure they need to organize their thoughts and focus on conveying their main idea. For many, the struggle is introducing evidence and connecting it to their own ideas without just listing loosely related points. This becomes more challenging when students are asked to synthesize different types of information or to confront ideas that may be new to them. With all of that in mind, many students had trouble with this prompt. There were multiple sources of information to balance, they had to be sure to cite their evidence properly, and they had to argue a point. However, some of the challenges seemed more to do with the content than their general writing skills.
It became clear fairly quickly that students were almost too focused on the fact that Rustin was gay. This fact, which was the subject of an entire lesson and part of their notes, as well as mentioned in the prompt itself, seemed to be the defining factor about Rustin that students recognized. When I was checking in with students verbally about their work, they would sometimes answer the question “Why was Rustin famous or important?” with “Because he was gay.”
The idea of this prompt was to have students highlight what Rustin had inarguably accomplished in his Civil Rights career, namely organizing the March on Washington and teaching Martin Luther King, Jr. about nonviolence, which would become the hallmark of the Civil Rights Movement. Students would have been able to answer the question fully without even mentioning that Rustin was gay because that fact was already conceded in the prompt. However, Ms. Esposito noticed as students began their work that they often mentioned it in the topic sentence of their paragraph. Many students even mentioned his arrest and time spent in jail for “homosexual activity.” Often, these students placed his sexuality at center stage and did not provide clear evidence to prove his importance in the Movement. Other times, they mentioned it in the middle of their paragraph without connection to their main idea. It was most common that when students mentioned Rustin’s sexuality it did not serve a clear function.
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An interesting trend in students’ writing was that when they mentioned Rustin’s sexuality, it was often framed as a deficit. Many students seem to have considered the fact that Rustin was gay as an obstacle, rather than the fact that society treated queer people unfairly in his era. Examples of ways students framed the information are:
- “I think people should focus more on what Rustin accomplished than him being gay.”
- “He did a lot for others, people would realized what he had doned if they don’t focus on him being gay.” [sic]
- “Besides being gay, he was a good supporters…” [sic]
- “Just because he’s gay it doesn’t mean anything he still helped to insure racial equality…” [sic]
- “Rustin life wasn’t that great…Rustin was arrested for sex perversion and spend 60 days in jail. Because he was gay. But he didn’t give up.” [sic]
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Other students approached the paragraph by sharing their personal views on whether or not sexuality “matters” or is relevant information. They seem to think that Rustin’s sexuality is not important to understanding his life or achievements, and it is used to distract people from what good Rustin did. Some examples include:
- “I think Rustin being gay shouldn’t matter at all. People recognize that he’s gay but they don’t recognize the good he has done.”
- “I believe people shouldn’t be judje base on their sexuality. Because if he’s a good person we shouldn’t care what sex gender he likes since that don’t concern us.” [sic]
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Some students expressed overt support of Rustin through their opinions or frustration with the fact that his identity was held against him. These answers were not always entirely on topic in regards to the prompt, but students used the space to express how they personally saw the way Rustin was, or gay people at large are, treated. Some examples include:
Few students were able to mention Rustin’s accomplishments in conjunction with his sexuality without disrupting their work or even actively supporting their point, but those who did treated it as just another fact from Rustin’s life.
I selected the above examples by reading through most of the students’ answers and documenting ones that stood out to me. However, with some students, I intentionally sought out their response to see how they handled the information based on the fact that they often were involved in using homophobic language in class or otherwise were resistant to some inclusive ideas about queer identity. Hector, who has often been a part of conversations labeling queerness as a negative other, mentioned Rustin’s sexuality in passing and in a way that was relevant to his writing. Alaina, who is confrontational when redirected about homophobic language, did not mention his sexuality at all. Kwame, who admitted he felt uncomfortable talking about Rustin’s sexuality and used the word “faggot” to identify Rustin, did not submit the assignment.
Overall, it seems difficult to introduce queer identity to students in a way that doesn’t immediately label it as “other” or somehow super-relevant. My inference is that since students likely aren’t presented with this type of information about historical or literary figures, they may code it as important due to its rarity. I also admit that we did spend a significant amount of class time discussing this aspect of Rustin’s identity, which could lead students to misunderstanding how it connects to his general achievements in his Civil Rights career.
As a whole, this experience proves that queering the curriculum or normalizing queerness in the classroom is in fact an ongoing, iterative process that must be built upon throughout students’ careers. Ideally, students would not be learning about a queer person for the first time in ninth grade, but now that they have, throughout high school they may be more able to empathize with a queer person or become less distracted by information relating to a non-heterosexual identity.
- “Being gay is not a crime, just because Rustin Bayard was gay doesn’t mean you have to treat him differently from everyone else! ... People didn’t believe in Rustin because he was a gay man. I think that is very wrong! You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.” [sic]
- “He put standing up to get equal rights was bigger than himself and it shows he would let other people take credit for his work.” [sic]
- “People should just let people live there lifes and let them be happy.” [sic]
- “All this though was overlooked because he was Gay. It’s sad to know that someone who also had a powerful message to get across but wasn’t able to until his death.” [sic]
Few students were able to mention Rustin’s accomplishments in conjunction with his sexuality without disrupting their work or even actively supporting their point, but those who did treated it as just another fact from Rustin’s life.
I selected the above examples by reading through most of the students’ answers and documenting ones that stood out to me. However, with some students, I intentionally sought out their response to see how they handled the information based on the fact that they often were involved in using homophobic language in class or otherwise were resistant to some inclusive ideas about queer identity. Hector, who has often been a part of conversations labeling queerness as a negative other, mentioned Rustin’s sexuality in passing and in a way that was relevant to his writing. Alaina, who is confrontational when redirected about homophobic language, did not mention his sexuality at all. Kwame, who admitted he felt uncomfortable talking about Rustin’s sexuality and used the word “faggot” to identify Rustin, did not submit the assignment.
Overall, it seems difficult to introduce queer identity to students in a way that doesn’t immediately label it as “other” or somehow super-relevant. My inference is that since students likely aren’t presented with this type of information about historical or literary figures, they may code it as important due to its rarity. I also admit that we did spend a significant amount of class time discussing this aspect of Rustin’s identity, which could lead students to misunderstanding how it connects to his general achievements in his Civil Rights career.
As a whole, this experience proves that queering the curriculum or normalizing queerness in the classroom is in fact an ongoing, iterative process that must be built upon throughout students’ careers. Ideally, students would not be learning about a queer person for the first time in ninth grade, but now that they have, throughout high school they may be more able to empathize with a queer person or become less distracted by information relating to a non-heterosexual identity.
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