Lesson Plan: “I Have Two Dads”

Essential Questions

• What does it mean to be a family?
• How do our differences shape how we see the world?

Literature Connection

• Novel: You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article. Then preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the article’s title and subtitle. What difficulties do you think the child of a same-sex couple might face? Make a prediction. Answers will vary. Sample answer: People might ask a lot of questions, which could be tiresome to answer. People might focus only on what’s different about you, making it harder to connect. People might make incorrect or offensive assumptions about your family.
• Look at the photos of Alex that are included in the article and read their captions. What do they tell you about him and his dads? From the photos and captions, you can tell several things about Alex and his dads: They seem to enjoy spending time together; they have a dog; they’ve been to Hawaii.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the terms (specialty, biological, resent, gender, unconventional) aloud and discuss their definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow. 

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Set a purpose for reading: Tell students that after reading, they’ll analyze cause-and-effect relationships in the story. Point out the activity at the end of the story. 
• Encourage students to pause at the end of each section so they can monitor their comprehension. Prompt them to take note of sentences they think tell them important ideas in each section, as well as any words or sentences they don’t understand.

Guide students to read the article. Once they understand it well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• How is Alex’s family different from the families of most kids in the U.S.? How is it the same as many families? (compare and contrast) Different: Alex was adopted, and he has same-sex parents. Same: Alex and his parents have pets, enjoy going on vacation, and have activities they like to do together. 
• Alex says there is no one way to make a family. What does he say are the two things that matter in his family? (key details) Alex says that all that matters is that his parents love him and support him.
• Alex makes the following remark about his family’s vacation to Hawaii when he was 4: “Now I understand how important it was for our family.” What was important about that vacation? (drawing conclusions) Alex’s family took that vacation to Hawaii to celebrate his dads getting married. This was important because until 2009, they weren’t legally allowed to marry. Their marriage represented a big step forward for LGBTQ+ rights in the U.S. 

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• Alex mentions some TV shows that include same-sex couples. How do you think showing same-sex parents on TV shows can change the way people think about families like Alex’s? (cause and effect) Sample answer: For a long time, TV shows have shown mostly  families that are “typical” (made up of a mother, a father, and their children). This could give viewers the idea that there’s only one acceptable type of family. By showing other types of families, TV shows help viewers understand that families come in different forms. 
• What resources or organizations exist at your school to help support LGBTQ+ students and families? (making connections) Answers will vary.

• Assign students to work in small groups to complete the Spotlight Skill Workout: Cause and Effect activity.
• Go further: Use our Sequence of Events Skill Builder, available in higher and lower level versions.  (Click here to view all your Skill Builders.)
• Writing prompt: Think about your answer to the prereading question above (“What challenges do you think the child of a same-sex couple might face?”). Were your predictions correct in Alex’s case? What did you learn from the article that you might be able to add to your answer? Write a paragraph about how you originally answered the question and how you might answer differently after reading the article.