Reading the Rainbow: LGBTQ-Inclusive Literacy Instruction in the Elementary Classroom
Both Ryan and Herman-Wilmarth have years of experience teaching in elementary classrooms themselves, although they each now hold positions in higher education. They draw not only from their own experiences, but also from those of three other teachers whose classrooms they have studied (and in some instances, cotaught in) over the course of several years. Ryan and Herman-Wilmarth also both identify as queer, lesbian, cisgender and White, as does one of the other teachers; the remaining two are White, straight, cisgender allies.
By including LGBTQ people and ideas in classrooms, they explain, teachers provide students with “new windows and mirrors of the world around them.” They add, however, that “Teaching about LGBTQ people isn’t about making students think a certain way,” but in helping them gain a greater understanding of possible family configurations and identities, and about the experiences and contributions of LGBTQ people. And discussion of LGBTQ-inclusive books can allow students to practice various language arts skills, such as learning multiple meanings of words, using more nuanced vocabulary, and crafting arguments, while also deepening their understanding of our diverse world. They offer a plethora of examples of how their panel of teachers helped students use inclusive texts as tools to better understand their own lives or the lives and situations of others whom they encountered.
At the same time, they rightly insist that reading a single LGBTQ-inclusive book cannot show the full range of LGBTQ lives—and indeed, the number of such books for elementary-age readers is still fairly limited, particularly in showing LGBTQ people who are not White, suburban, or partnered. For this reason, and because some teachers may still find it challenging to get past parental and administrative concerns about LGBTQ-inclusive books (however unwarranted), Ryan and Herman-Wilmarth also explore how to “queer,” i.e., “mess up and complicate,” traditional categories related to bodies, gender, sexual orientation, and love, even when not explicitly reading or talking about LGBTQ people. Classrooms can explore ideas of gender expectations, for example, even in books without LGBTQ characters. The authors acknowledge that this approach can, if mishandled, lead to the ongoing silencing of LGBTQ identities, but they offer it as a supplemental way to promote LGBTQ inclusion and a possible tool for beginning to shift students’ understanding, especially in environments where discussion of clearly LGBTQ characters may not yet be possible, such as states with “no promo homo” laws that forbid discussion of LGBTQ people or topics.
Ryan and Herman-Wilmarth also go the extra step of saying that, “As inclusive teachers we want to move away from asking simply if LGBTQ people are represented and instead turn our attention more specifically to how they are represented and what the overall message is to students as a result of those representations.” How can teachers expand the representation of LGBTQ people in the classroom but also critique the ways in which portrayals are limited—by race, class, or other intersecting identities? How can multiple LGBTQ voices be layered into the ELA curriculum? Again, they provide real-life examples from their panel of teachers, and connect them to specific ELA practices and goals, such as clarifying terms, independent research, writing prompts, and classroom discussion.
They also offer suggestions and resources for finding support, including organizations such as GLSEN, the GSA Network, HRC’s Welcoming Schools project, COLAGE, Family Equality Council, and more. They recommend that teachers familiarize themselves with their states’ nondiscrimination and safe-schools laws (or lack thereof). Laws aside, they also suggest various ways of talking with parents and administrators about introducing LGBTQ-inclusive books or topics. And they list a small selection of picture and chapter books, media resources, and lesson plans. (One unfortunate omission is the American Library Association’s annual Rainbow Book List of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s and young adult books.)
We should be grateful for Ryan and Herman-Wilmarth’s willingness to go beyond just a list of LGBTQ-inclusive books and arguments for why they are needed in classrooms—even though they also set out such arguments in detail, backed by social science research. By recognizing that some teachers, despite their best desires, may still not be able to bring such books into their classrooms, and giving them concrete strategies for “queering” other texts and raising issues of gender and identity in different ways, they show how a truly LGBTQ-inclusive classroom means more than just reading a book or two. They also go beyond a mere booklist by packing the book full of actual exercises and classroom scenarios drawn from their panel of teachers. I wish this panel had been more diverse—the inclusion of teachers of color and transgender teachers would have added useful perspectives—but they nevertheless provide a starting point as well as allies’ ways of looking at the intersections of gender, race, and other identities. Reading the Rainbow is a terrific, nuanced, practical resource that many ELA teachers should come to value. Children in their classrooms, whatever their identities, will be the better for it.
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