13 & 14 I
That’s History
Remembering Matthew Shepard STUDENT HANDBOOK, PAGE 40
Objectives: Students will learn about Matthew Shepard, and how his death affected U.S. law and culture; students will also practice identifying key ideas and details in the text. 1 Warm-up: Please note that this article includes many sensitive issues. Some students may have been mistreated or even bullied for their personal appearance, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Be aware of students’ needs and lead each discussion with sensitivity. Please note also that this article includes description of violence, and some students may find that triggering. Please read the article before you present it to your students to determine whether it is appropriate for your classroom. Then prepare students by previewing the content. 2 Read: “Remembering Matthew Shepard” First read: Read the article aloud; you may also wish to ask volunteers to read aloud. At the end of the article, ask students to describe the gist of the article. (The article describes the life of Matthew Shepard, how he was brutally murdered in 1998 for being gay, and how his death has galvanized people to combat prejudice and violence against the LGBTQ community.) Second read: Ask students to read with partners or independently. (You can always read aloud if that works best with your students.) Instruct students: As you read, highlight the key ideas and details in the article. When students finish, ask what they identified. (A key idea is that Matthew Shepard wanted to make a difference in the world. Details include that he volunteered for an environmental group and that he was a peer counselor. Another key idea is that Shepard’s death sparked a movement. A detail is that LGBTQ people were given protection by the hate-crime law in 2009.) (Key ideas and details) 3 After Reading: Use these questions to check students’ understanding. You may wish to ask them to go back to the article to highlight where they found the answers. 1. Why might the author have started the article with information about Shepard’s childhood rather than with details of his murder? (making inferences) (Possible answers: The author wanted readers to understand Shepard as a person— not just as a victim of a terrible crime. The author also wanted to highlight the fact that Shepard was trying to make the world a better place before he was killed.) 2. How did the way Shepard treat others contrast with the way he died? (compare and contrast) (He cared about other people and wanted to help them, including by being a peer counselor at his high school. In contrast, his murderers treated him with hatred and cruelty.)
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