Objectives:

After this lesson, students will be able to:

 Describe the history that has influenced Queer Theory

o Assessed via post-lesson quiz

 Define Queer

o Assessed via discussion and post-lesson quiz

 Describe the way Queer Theory is used in the different realms of research

o Assessed via discussion and post-lesson quiz

 Conceptualize how Queer Theory might or might not be able to influence your area of

expertise

o Assessed via discussion and post-lesson quiz

 Analyze a scene from a TV sitcom using Queer Theory to determine how queer is

represented and how that representation influences society.

o Assessed via activity discussion

Lesson Outline: 11.13.18

 INTRODUCTION

 ROADMAP

 What is Queer Theory

 History of Queer

o Ask students on their knowledge of Queer history

o Brief history of sexuality

o Gay Liberation

o Lesbian Feminism

o All the orgs since

 Definitions
 o Adjective

o Noun

o Verb

 What makes up the Inquiries

o In Language, Literature, and Arts

o In Historiography

o Queer Life Histories/Stories

o As Praxis

 Combining with other Theories

 How can you Queer a Study? (Discussion

 Analysis Activity

Post-Quiz

This lesson would have a post lesson quiz that the students can take at any point after the

class. The questions would cover general retention and comprehension from the lesson. The

students would get full participation for the quiz for completing as long as they attended the

lesson.

1) Briefly describe the history of the Queer Rights Movement emphasizing the key focus

from the lesson.

2) Define in your own words Queer and provide details on the differences and the meaning

in the differences.

3) Choose one of the four areas of inquiry (Language, Literature, and Arts; Historiography;

Queer Life Histories/Stories; and As Praxis) and describe a key feature.

4) Briefly describe how you could Queer a Study in your area of focus.
Description of teaching strategies and learning activities

Throughout this lesson I utilized a few teaching strategies in the hopes of maintaining

engagement with the students. First, I chose to create a PowerPoint to help to lead my students

through the lesson and give them something to focus on while I explained the material. I

decided to break the lesson into about four different topics: history, definitions of queer,

inquiries, and activity. I did this to combat fatigue from the students as lessons have been

shown to be too long for students to stay attentive to (Nilson, 2016). I am made a point to ask a

question between each of these sections to make sure that the students are following the lesson

and give them time to recuperate from the last section before moving into the next.

Each discussion was done with a think, pair, share. This allowed the students to gather their

thoughts, to combine them with a neighbor and create new ideas as a group, and finally to

share with the whole class for discussion (Nilson, 2016). Doing this allows the students to both

come to a group as equals because they both have given thought to the question already, then

it allows them to critique each other and synthesize new thoughts together before sharing with

the class. This also helps students who might not want to speak up in front of the class to gain

confidence by talking in a group first. I made it a point to walk around during the lesson to help

people with their thoughts and to clarify any questions that they might have had while

discussing.

I finally ended with a clip analysis. Queer Theory is first and foremost a theoretical framework

for knowledge construction. I wanted the students to get some practice with this so I created an

inquiry based on a tv show clip that we could answer as a class. This allows the students to

practice synthesizing the material that they were given during the class and apply it to an actual

research setting.
References

Nilson, L. B. (2016). Teaching at its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors

(Fourth Edition). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Reflection on Lesson

I thought that my lesson went pretty well. The majority of the class seemed to enjoy the lesson

and materials. I rushed through a slide and forgot to change the slide at the end before one of

the discussions, but overall, I feel very confident about this lesson. My peer feedback was

relatively positive, and brought up some points for me to consider in the future. I will begin by

addressing the constructive criticisms and will end with the praise.

My feedback from Dr. Oughton was relatively good. Dr. Oughton brought up the fact that I

should have had a few notes as I lost the thread of my ideas at times. I completely agree and

did have notes in the PowerPoint. However, these notes did not have the anecdotal information

that I intimately know. I would have never thought that I could forget Danny Kaye’s, Bing

Crosby’s, Bob Hope’s, and Cary Grant’s names. A few of the students also had this comment

and I fully apologize for forgetting their names. Not only to those who had to watch me stumble,

but also to these comic greats. Dr. Oughton and the other students all brought up the fact that

some slides were illegible. I believe that this is due to the projector and will make it a point to

preview the PowerPoint on the room projector before finalizing the font and graphics. I wish I

could also apologize for seeming to gloss over a point instead of talking on it for sake of time.

This was a slide that I was supposed to flip to at a earlier time in my talk but forgot that it

existed. Because of this I spoke on the slide, but the slide did not get a chance to be shown. In

the future I will make sure to be diligent with flipping the slides appropriately. My final piece of

constructive criticism is the fact that the students might not be as familiarly with phrases and

words that are used in this lesson. With this in mind, I will consider making a cheat sheet with
easy definitions to reference along the way, or to simply ask the students every slide or so if

there are any questions, if everything is clear, etc.

The positive feedback learned all to my passion and energy. The students felt it went a long

way toward keep them engaged that I was maintaining a lite mood, but also a serious mood:

that walking that line with this topic really helped to keep them interested in the topic while being

respectful and keeping the mood from turning to a dirge.