To coincide with the June 2019 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a team from Teachers College Columbia University is working with the National Park Service to create curriculum materials to teach about Stonewall. The curriculum materials are for elementary and secondary teachers and are mostly geared towards social studies and English/language arts classes. Before the materials are released publicly at the end of June, the team is looking for teachers who can pilot an activity or set of activities so they can improve them.

The lessons will focus on Stonewall specifically and LGBTQ+ history and themes surrounding and extending from Stonewall. The team has developed three areas of lessons: The Legacy of Stonewall; The Struggles of Social Movements; and Social Movements and LGBTQ+ Movements Today Around the Globe. These lessons fit in with conversations about the Civil Rights Movement, identity, global social movements. The idea is to make them applicable for teaching about LGBTQ+ history or looking to use Stonewall and LGBTQ+ moments as a case when you are teaching about civil rights, identity politics, contemporary policy debates.

There are three ways you can help:

• First, you can pilot an entire thread of lessons in your classroom and offer feedback.

• Second, you can use one activity in your classroom and report on how you used it, how its fits with your curriculum, and offer feedback.

• Third, if it is too late in the year for you to use the materials in your classroom, your feedback is still welcomed. You can evaluate any or all materials, read them with a teacher’s eye, and offer insight into how you might use them.

If you are interested in piloting or accessing the materials, please contact the team at aml2281@tc.columbia.edu . You will be added to their Canvas site (expect to receive an email request that you will need to accept) where you can use and examine the materials.