Text: Are you a boy or are you a girl?
By Sarah Savage and Fox Fisher
lesson plan by Andrew Moffat www.equalitiesprimary.com
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Resources: questions for groups (see below)
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SEAL Outcomes: Getting on and falling out: I try to
recognise when I or other people are prejudging people and I make an effort
to overcome my assumptions/ I know how it can feel to be excluded or treated
badly because of being different
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LI To
consider how we use pronouns
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Starter: Ask children in
partners to prepare a description of a police officer, a footballer, a
teacher, a doctor, a ballet dancer. Children should describe what the people
are wearing, their appearance and location. (when you are explaining this
task, use the pronoun ‘they’, although don’t highlight this to the class; the
aim is to see if they use he/she pronouns instead)
Ask
some children to feed-back and ask another child to secretly make a tally for
the number of times children use pronouns he or she in their descriptions.
Ask the children who are giving their descriptions whether they are
describing male or female people, as you didn’t specify. Ask why children
have chosen to use pronouns to describe each person.
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Main : Check understanding of pronouns-
what is a pronoun? When is it used? Do we always need to use pronouns? Are
there times we don’t need to use pronouns? Does every story need pronouns?
What would a story be like if there were no pronouns?
Read
“Are you a boy or are you a girl?” At the end put children in to small groups
and discuss: what is the message in the story, are pronouns used in this
story? Are pronouns needed? Describe Tiny.
Children
feedback
Look
at the page where a boy shouts, “Tiny, what a silly name. I can’t tell if
it’s a boy or a girl” Tiny doesn’t answer- why not?
Are
we given a gender for Tiny? Does that matter? How has Tiny chosen to live
life?
Put
word Transgender on board – what does this mean? Give definition as “When a
person is born they are assigned a gender. For a transgender person the
gender they have been assigned does not match how they feel inside. So
someone who is told they are a boy feels like they are a girl, or someone who
is told they are a girl, feels like they are a boy”
What
does Tiny feel like? In the story Tiny does not identify as either a boy or a
girl. We must respect Tiny’s wishes to be referred to neither as a boy or
girl because that is how Tiny feels; it is not our job to assign a gender to
Tiny!
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Student led activity: whole class: If Tiny joined our
class we would need to reconsider how we use pronouns. We use them every day
without thinking, but we also say at our school, “There are no outsiders” so
we need to change our behaviour and our language to make sure Tiny does not
feel like an outsider. In small groups give children a list of questions to
ask about the story. The children answer and discuss without using the
pronouns he or she:
Why
has Tiny moved to a new house? What is the name of Tiny’s little sister? What
do Tiny and Fiona like to pretend to do? Fiona is dressed as a cowboy, what
is Tiny dressed as? What is Dad doing when Tiny and Fiona get back? What does
Mum give Tiny to wear for school? What does the boy at school say to Tiny
about her name? Why does Tiny show Mia there is a lady driving the fire
engine? Why does Buster say girls can’t play football? How does Charlie
answer Buster? What does Buster call Tiny and how does Teacher respond? What
does Tiny dress up as to rescue Mia? When Mia asks if Tiny is a boy or a
girl, how does Tiny answer?
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Activity: Ask children about
the Equality Act 2010
legislation. Explain the law is in place to ensure people do not face
discrimination (check understanding of discrimination). There are 9
“protected characteristics” in the law and it is against British law to
discriminate against a person because of them. They are: age, disability,
gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy, race,
religion and belief, sex, sexual orientation. Children record definitions for
each protected characteristic.
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Plenary: We say there are no outsiders at our school
and that everyone is welcome. Would Tiny feel welcome at our school? What can
we do to make our school a safe and welcoming place for everyone including
Tiny? British law says a person who is transgender cannot face
discrimination, but, for example, which toilets would Tiny use? If we make
Tiny use the boys or girls toilets are we discriminating against Tiny? How
can we change to make sure Tiny feels welcome? Is there anything else in our
school that only boys or only girls do? How can we make our school a place
where everyone feels welcome?
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Suggested
AFL questions: Today I have learned… Transgender means…..
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