Students will explore gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender stereotypes. Students will discuss such topics as a safe space, demonstrating respect, and making assumptions based on expression

Students will learn about respecting the gender expressions of themselves and others through short story scenarios. Students will collaborate and design alternate and respectful endings to the scenarios.

Students will paraphrase and summarize a key scene from Romeo & Juliet in writing, working both in groups and individually.

In this lesson we read a book called, Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept, a story about a young person who is touched inappropriately  and is told to keep it a secret. We talk about how feelings and emotions can be signals to us, sometimes they’re letting us know something in our world doesn't make sense and we might need help figuring it out. We also talk about the way people sometimes use their power and position to manipulate situations to their advantage and to keep their victims silent.

In this lesson students use the co-created process grid and their journal to create a collage using visuals and words from magazines to illustrate and celebrate all aspects of their identities, with the invitation to include gender expression and gender. 

The Sex Ed Open Learning Project User Guide provides background information and tips for navigating the collection.

We begin by defining sex, communicating to students that sexual contact can come in diverse forms, all of which require consent. Students learn about sexual reproduction as well as alternative modes of conception/family planning. Students end the lesson learning about contraception methods and the variety of ways they can choose to use to prevent pregnancy.

This lesson defines sexual intercourse and the cells involved with reproduction (sperm and egg) using an AMAZE video. It also includes a discussion of how pregnancy can happen via other methods as well. Using a small group activity, this lesson also examines the economic reality of accessing reproductive health care and how economic disparities impact who can and cannot utilize these methods. This information sets the foundation for understanding a basic physiological process and underpins future lessons about pregnancy prevention.

In this lesson students will learn about Louise Erdrich and then read her poem “Advice to Myself #2: Resistance.” As students read they will analyze how the writer uses words, phrases, and details to communicate a theme. Students will discuss the message of the poem in both small and large groups and discuss how the author’s literary choices help communicate this message. Students will then write about a message in the poem and explain what lines most strongly communicate that message as evidence to support their thinking.

In this lesson students will review what identity means. They will participate in an identity circle and fill in an identity worksheet.

This lesson seeks to engage in discussions about relationships, emotional, and physical relatedness, and whether biological connections are the only connections that make a family. Understanding how society has traditionally defined family may not be the way we define it – and that’s okay. In this lesson, participants will expand their knowledge of a more involved family tree. When it comes to describing family/kinship, does a biological connection hold more weight, or do emotional connections that develop over time hold equal importance? Understanding relationships, values, and what resonates as important is helpful in practicing and engaging critical thinking skills.