Lampela, Writing Effective Lesson Plan While Utilizing the Work of Lesbian and Gay Artists
SUMMARY: The main idea from this article was how Lampela (2005) was able to combine her research of lesbian and gay artists with her teaching curriculum for her undergrad and grad students. By putting the two together, Lampela was able to discuss content she was passionate about as well as go over the components on what makes a good film.
Lampela opened up by talking about how her research came about where she wanted to “combined my research in art by lesbians and gay men with the instruction of preservice art teachers about curriculum planning” (2005, p. 34). To do this, she worked with her undergraduate and graduate students by modeling a curriculum to teach secondary students based upon lesbian and gay artists. To her, she did this so her students would bring their own identities and subjects they cared about into the learning process (p. 34). To Lampela, homosexuality is just another lens that “could lead to a greater understanding of some of the artists’ works” (p. 34). Although reducing artists to just their sexuality is narrow minded, students should be exposed to artist’s queer identities because it is another aspect of an artist’s identity. Another interesting point that Lampela included was how teaching lesbian and gay curriculum is seen outside the classroom to administrators and other teachers who “were aware of lesbian and gay artists and included the works of these artists in their teaching, but less than half mentioned that the artists were either lesbian or gay” (35). To Lampela’s earlier point, doing so is queer erasure. For her college students, Lampela made sure to keep the project concepts open by focusing on the main idea of identity through creating maps of how they see themselves and how others see them (p. 37). Afterwards she had them reflect on each other’s work using rubrics to reinforce the concept of performance criteria
Lampela concluded the article discussing how students and colleagues responded to her research, with one of them questioning how appropriate it is to teach lesbian and gay to high school students and if it is acceptable to school administrators (p. 38). Reactions from students were positive, because of the ‘real world’ applications of including these topics, and that it was possible for students to include these issues in their curriculum.
Source: Lampela, L. (2005). Writing effective lesson plans: While utilizing the work of lesbian and gay Artists. Art Education, 58(2), 33–39.
MY TAKEAWAY: For me, this article just reaffirmed my values and what I want to bring into the classroom- filled with inclusivity and acceptance of queer culture and stories. I remember growing up that I did not find out that Michelangelo was gay until high school and that really changed my perception on his work as well as thinking critically on how we remember artists and the queer erasure that happens constantly. Including the sexual identity of artists should not be just the main focus, but just an added bit of information that can change your lens and add to the whole story of an artist’s work. In our current day and age, I have constantly heard in art history classes that all we learn about is dead white men, so going forward, we need to have more inclusivity not just in race and gender, but sexuality as well. I think these concerns of ‘are they ready to learn about this’ is ridiculous because growing up, children constantly get internalized messages about the normalcy of heterosexuality so having positive images of homosexuality and gender fluidity is not harmful or explicit- and by hiding this curriculum you are only alienating possible students who might be struggling with these issues and need a safe space to be open about it.
It's Elementary, A Documentary about LGBT+ issues in school
Although. this documentary is dated, it was fascinating to see how students at different age ranges reacted to learning about LGBT+ issues in the classroom, as it seemed that the younger children who were not yet exposed and molded by the media, news and their parental influences seemed to be more accepting towards the community in comparison to older, high school students who more often than not came off as ignorant or insulting because of how they talked about LGBT+ people through using slurs and speaking about common and harmful stereotypes that they have heard about. Students of all ages were aware that gay people existed, and this just goes to show that ignoring them in the curriculum, in our schools and teaching leaves room for error and misinformation that we can change if we just speak out about it. I think one of the most jarring parts of the documentary was when they actually had two LGBT+ people attend a high school and had to listen to students asking inappropriate or offensive questions but because the student speakers had to represent the community, I respected with how professionally they answered questions with no judgement or malice. And some of the students who were asking oddly specific questions made me realize how important it was for those two LGBT+ people to visit, as those students might be questioning themselves as well. Not only do we need queer representation, but also it is important to include those intersecting identities such as queer people of color, as some students only thought that cis white males could be gay.
Source: Chastoff, D., & Cohen, H. (Directors). (1996). It's Elementary—Talking About Gay Issues in School [Film]. New Day Films.
It's Elementary, Cultural Connection to Star Wars
When watching this documentary about LGBTQ+ representation within the classroom and our class discussion regarding LGBTQ+ characters, it was interesting to see how younger children seemed more open and less questioning and discriminatory regarding this topic in comparison to the older children in middle or high school. When the younger students learned about Elton John and other characters or historical famous people were gay, it did not turn them off to not like them, provided that the initial shock wore off, and because they were young, their parents or the media have yet to prime them with possible homophobic messages. Last week in class, we had a critical look at Disney and their forms of representation in terms of diversity and strong female characters. With movies like Moana and Princess and the Frog, it seemed like by today, Disney has become more inclusive. However, with the release of the Last Star Wars movie, controversy struck as Oscar Isaac has publicly called out Disney for not being ‘ready’ to include LGBT+ characters in one of their most profitable intellectual property rights that is Star Wars. Growing up, and now I have never been interested in or attached to this franchise, because of my association with the fanbase being overly male, and space was not a genre I was interested in. But when the revival came out, and I heard about the inclusion of more people of color with the likes of Jon Boyega and Oscar Isaac, I thought that was a step in the right direction. According to both actors, as well as a lot of Star Wars fans, their characters, Finn and Poe ended up having so much natural chemistry, that romance between the two seemed like the natural progression between the characters. Isaac tried to push for it, and there have been multiple instances where Star Wars creators have implied or teased the inclusion of LGBT+ characters alongside their more diverse cast but that has been left in the dust. With a company as large as Disney owning such a large and important cultural franchise such as Star Wars, issues such as queerbaiting and exclusion of queer characters leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Children all over the world could have had the chance to see an interracial gay couple in one of their beloved franchises but that was probably left out due to the possible backlash and loss of revenue if Disney said yes to ‘Finnpoe’. LGBT+ characters in such a male dominated fandom such as Star Wars would have been so revolutionary and would have opened up the conversation between parents and their children early on about these types of issues, similar to the class video where the teacher revealed to the students about characters and celebrities who are gay. It also would have served to be another example of showing healthy gay relationships in the media, and that ‘white gays’ (which was mentioned in the film) are not the only gays.
Source: Marston, G. (2019, December 11). Oscar Isaac Ships Poe & Finn from 'Star Wars' But Says 'People Are Too Afraid'. Retrieved from https://www.space.com/star-wars-oscar-isaac-ships-poe-finn-people-too-afraid.html