Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 06:50:31 -0800 (PST) From: jessea@uclink4.berkeley.edu (Jessea NR Greenman) Subject: (MODEL) Survey (for ESL Teachers) || LGBT suicide survey on WWW || [The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project circulates this for two reasons: for the ESOL folks out there for OTHER folks considering doing similar MUCH-NEEDED surveys in OTHER subject matter areas. GO FOR IT!] Dear Teacher: We are ESOL teachers planning a colloquium for TESOL '97 on teaching lesbian/gay/bisexual (lbg) issues in the classroom. The purpose of the colloquium is to give attendees a sense of how teachers are addressing or not addressing these issues in the ESL/EFL classroom. Below is a questionnaire asking you about your opinions and/or experience in teaching lesbian/gay/bisexual issues in the ESOL classroom. We hope you will be willing to spend 10-15 minutes answering this questionnaire. Your responses will be kept confidential. Please e-mail your responses by Dec. 2. You may also choose to mail the completed the questionnaire to: University of Washington ESL Programs Attn: Lisa Carscadden Box 354232 Seattle, WA 98195-4232 USA Our research also involves conducting 30-minutes interviews in January. If you would be willing to be interviewed or want more information, please include your name and number in your response or contact Lisa at (206) 685-6345. If you're interested in the results of this questionnaire, you can contact Lisa (address above) and she'll be happy to send a summary of the results to you after March. Alternatively, if it is possible for you to attend TESOL, please plan to attend the colloquium at TESOL on Friday, March 14, 1997 at 8:30 to 10:15 am in the Clarion Hotel, the Grand Ballroom Section B. We hope to learn from each other effective ways to raise lbg issues in the classroom and look forward to hearing about your experiences and opinions. Thank you for responding. Sincerely, Lisa Carscadden Sue Hodes Laurie Stephan SURVEY Facts about you: 1. At what type of institution do you usually teach? (Put an X next on one or add your own) (a) community college (b) language school (c) community based program (d) university (e) elementary school (f) secondary school (g) high school 2. How would you describe the student population you usually teach? (Put an X next to appropriate categories and/ or add your own) (a) refugees (b) international students (c) immigrants (d) business people 3. What level of students do you usually teach? (Put an X next to one or add your own) (a) beginning (b) intermediate (c) advanced 4. How many years have you been teaching ESL/EFL? (Put an X next to one) (a) 0-2 years (b) 3-5 years (c) 6-10 years (d) more than 10 years 5. What country do you teach in? 6. Do you identify as (a) lesbian (b) gay (c) heterosexual (d) bisexual 7. How would you identify in terms of ethnicity/cultural background? 8. Have you ever attended professional workshops about teaching lesbian/bisexual/gay (lbg) issues? SURVEY QUESTIONS: 1. How often have lbg issues come up in your classroom? (X one) (a) Never (b) Rarely (c) Several Times (d) Regularly 2. How often have you specifically taught lbg issues in your classroom? (X one) (a) Never (b) Rarely (c) Several Times (d) Regularly If you have taught lbg issues in your classroom, please answer the following: 3. What led you to raise lbg issues in the classroom? What were your goals? 4. When you have taught this topic, has it been as a complete unit or as part of a unit? Please describe the unit of which it has been a part. 5. What kinds of materials have you used? (X all that apply) (a) Speakers (b) Pamphlets (c) Fieldtrips (d) Textbooks (e) Journalistic articles (f) Videos ____Other (please list) 6. In what type(s) of classes have you taught this issue? (Check all that apply) Course Type: (a) Culture/ social issues class (b) Discrete skills class (c) Integrated skills class Level: Student Population Type: (a) Beginning (a) Refugees (b)Business people (b) Intermediate (c) Immigrants (d) International (c) Advanced Students 7. How have students responded to the lessons you've taught dealing with this topic? (if you have any student written responses to such a unit, please include examples you feel are representative of the responses exhibited) 8. Did you meet your goals in bringing this topic up in class? If so, please explain how. If not, please explain why not. 9. What are some strategies/activities that have been successful for you in teaching lbg issues successfully? What are some things to avoid? 10. Do you think it's worthwhile to teach lbg issues in the ESL/EFL classroom? Please explain circumstances in which you feel it is worthwhile or not worthwhile and any hesitations you may feel in bringing up these issues. 11. Have you ever come out as lbg in the classroom or do you know of other teachers who have come out in the classroom? What do you think the benefits and/or drawbacks of this are? Why? If you're willing to be interviewed, please give us your name and number: If it's convenient, please include one or more examples of materials you have used to teach lbg issues in the classroom. ============ ============ [a P.E.R.S.O.N. reader alerted us to the existence on the Web of a survey about factors related to lgbt suicide. While it doesn't focus specifically on youth, he does split the survey up into questions about before age 20 and "now" if you are over 21. It appears at http://www.louisville.edu/~jwwhit01/survey.html and seems legitimate, so y'all might want to spread the word, particularly to young people, to participate in this research effort.] ============ ============ UPDATE from El Centro CA [readers may remember at the end of october we sent an action alert regarding the situation in el centro, ca, where Catherine Drew, a gay supportive teacher, was backing her students to start a supportive group for L.G.B,T.Q students. There was a backlash from some religious groups. Weds. we got a followup message regarding the situation there...] ---begin included message--- "Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 02:13:50 -0500 Subject: Re: More on CO school censorship story || ... Thank your for the interesting article on censorship. We face that same issue here with the same group heading that fight as the fight against our Project 10 group. Bigotry knows no bounds. Tonight was a Board mtg....and the board did nothing!!! The VICTORY Coalition (Voters of Imperial County Totally Opposed to Ruining our Youth) requested a moratorium on all of our club activities, research into "all the legal ramifications", definition of curricular and non-curr. as per the Mergens decision re. Limited Open Access. The board listened politely and then moved on. You shudda seen the leader's face! Ha! They are seeking their own legal counsel. Any info. on the "Rutherford" case/document/ law? I wasn't sure what it was, but they made it sound important. We are in the clear for a while, and the kids are thrilled. Now to get down to the business of supporting each other." ---end included message--- p.s. from P.E.R.S.O.N. : The Rutherford Institute is a radical religious right wing group: Rutherford Institute, P.O. Box 7482, Charlottesville, VA 22906-7482 Founded by , the Rutherford Institute distributes tapes from reconstructionist and of Eagle Forum, among others. ~Web site: http://www.rutherford.org/ ~ In recent years the Rutherford Institute has become well known for its aggressive attacks on the civil rights of LGBT Americans. It spends $8 million a year attacking the civil rights of LGBT Americans, women's right to choose, AIDS education and in support of teaching of Biblical creation and promoting Christian prayer in public schools. The Rutherford Institute is a Virginia-based Christian legal organization that promotes the Christian Right agenda through the courts. The following report offers some pertinent and basic information about this influential organization. Samuel Rutherford, a 17th-century Scottish minister, is best known for his defiance of the King. Rutherford proclaimed that, as kings were not divine, kings' laws were not above God's laws. He urged his followers to disobey any royal decrees that failed to follow God's laws. In 1982, attorney John W. Whitehead, writer/filmmaker Franky Schaeffer, and other "concerned Christians" formed a new organization to act as "the legal arm of Christian civil liberties in this country." They named it the Rutherford Institute after Samuel Rutherford. It is a militant fundamentalist theocratic group. *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ OK TO RE-POST. Jessea NR Greenman, The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project (Public Education Regarding Sexual Orientation Nationally) The P.E.R.S.O.N. Project is an all-volunteer effort CHECK OUT OUR FREE INFO-LOADED WEB PAGE AT http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/ "The struggle will never end so enjoy it!" Maudelle Shirek