In this series of lessons students explore the concepts of gender and gender expression through the use of mentor texts. Over the course of five sessions, you will read five texts and complete a process grid highlighting key components of each text. Students then create an illustration of how to demonstrate care for people across the gender spectrum.

Students will explore the concept of gender expression through a sorting activity. Students will discuss showing respect for others.

This presentation provides an introduction and explores the trends in the five sexual and reproductive health priority areas over the last decades:
Maternal and newborn health, family planning, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted infections and sexual health.

This lesson details the basics of healthy relationships: what they are and how to recognize them. It also covers consent, boundaries, power dynamics, red flags, and characteristics of different kinds of relationships. Students will engage in discussions and activities in which they will identify characteristics and assess the health of relationships in brief scenarios.

The KNOW Curriculum is one of several HIV/STD curriculum options available to school districts in Washington state. The following documents provide school districts with resources to assist in identifying and/or developing an effective HIV/STD prevention program for their students. Included in the OSPI-developed curriculum are HIV/AIDS prevention materials and considerations for teacher selection and training as well as parent and community involvement.

Available documents:
Grades 5-6, English and Spanish
Grades 7-8, English and Spanish

Students will be introduced to the reproductive system and the following body parts: penis, testicles, scrotum, ovary, uterus, vulva, clitoris, vagina, bladder, urethra, and anus. Students will get a basic understanding of anatomical orientation, basic function, and variation of these body parts. Students will discuss such topics as safe space, safe adults, and diverse bodies.

The lesson provides a refresher on basic anatomy, as well as the processes of ovulation, menstruation, and pregnancy. It goes through the stages of pregnancy, and the pregnancy options available to Oregon residents. The lesson ends with a Jeopardy-style lesson recap.

The lesson presents a definition of sex and asserts consent is a key aspect of healthy sexual experiences. Students will define the various parts of consent and review Oregon’s laws regarding consent, sex, and minors. They will investigate what influences their decisions about sex, and will then follow a fictional couple through various decision-making processes around deciding to or not to have sex, the use of birth control, pregnancy options, and decisions around parenting. Students will also research local reproductive and sexual health clinics.

This lesson explains and differentiates between sex assigned at birth, gender identity, and sexual orientation. There is also a discussion of why personal pronouns matter. It emphasizes the importance of respecting everyone regardless of their differences and walks students through ways to interrupt bullying.

This lesson provides a very basic overview of common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the best ways to prevent their spread. STIs are extremely common (1 in 2 people will be exposed to one by the time they’re 25), so this lesson reinforces the importance of prevention, testing, and treatment.

This is the second half of a basic introduction to sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This lesson focuses on prevention, the proper way to use condoms and other barrier methods, what to expect when getting tested for STIs, and how to talk to sexual partners about STI prevention.

This lesson introduces the topic of sexuality education, allows students to set ground rules for the upcoming lessons, gives them the opportunity to suggest topics they would like to learn about, introduces an anonymous question box, and explains why sex ed is important even if they aren’t sexually active.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"LGBTQ+ persons receive worse sexual and mental healthcare than heterosexuals and this disparity is even greater in rural and Northern communities What causes this inequality in healthcare access? After surveying persons in the Northwest Territories in the Canadian Arctic, researchers have now identified three key factors 1) Small communities had few healthcare facilities, leading to privacy concerns 2) Sexual healthcare was biased towards heterosexuality, limiting appropriate care 3) Stigma was perceived against LBGTQ+ identities and sexually transmitted infections, creating shame and fear To better serve LGBTQ+ persons, inclusive and non-judgmental approaches are needed such as self-identifying gender and taking a sex-positive approach and providers must thoroughly understand LGBTQ+ sexual health issues These strategies could help reduce stigma and improve health education, creating more inclusive care Logie, Lys, Dias, Schott, Zouboules, MacNeill, and Mackay..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This lesson intends to support learning about family makeup & how it impacts our lives. Relatedness or connection can take many forms when talking about family – it’s not one size fits or makes sense to all.In this lesson, participants will discuss their understanding of their family, identify/curate their family circles of connection, and how these circles impact their lives and decision-making. Understanding relationships, values, and what resonates as important is a part of practicing and engaging critical thinking skills.

 Students will learn about what constitutes various aspects of identity, including gender identity, sexual orientation, and explore how experiences of identity can shift across different cultures. We will discuss why acknowledging gender diversity is important, ways to respect each other, and more. 

 In this lesson we will explore how peer pressure is related to social bullying - when someone uses their influence to harm or humiliate another person or leave them out of the group. We will use scenarios to explore some of the ways we might sometimes feel pressure to go along with our friends even when they don’t want to. We’ll talk about integrity and how to use it to help us make decisions.  And what we can do when we see, or know that someone is being bullied. 

 In this lesson, teachers will describe how puberty prepares human bodies for the potential to reproduce as well as the process of human reproduction with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation. Teachers should review information learned last class while going through slides and questioning the students on what they recall. Teachers explain to students that all of the changes they experience during puberty are due to a new surge of hormones that both females and males experience, often differently. Teachers will also discuss the process of human reproduction by describing the steps needed to conceive a baby. The last activity has students create a diagram of the steps of conception in the right order for teachers to assess what they have retained from the lesson. All mistakes should be reviewed and corrected by the teacher, and then end the lesson with an open-discussion for question.

This lesson explains reproduction to students using a PowerPoint presentation and includes a teacher’s resource with sample definitions and language that can be used. Students then receive cards and try to arrange themselves in the correct order of a 28-day menstrual cycle showing where sperm would need to be present in order for a pregnancy to occur as well as how methods of contraception can prevent pregnancy. The homework is watching a short video about pregnancy myths and answering questions on a worksheet.

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.