Materials needed: copies of one or more of the articles below, access to videos below, examples of “Breaking News” report from YouTube to give students ideas, board, dry-erase markers
The Right Moment
Partial Class
Brooks tells the story of a situation that compromised his commitment to waiting for the right moment to have sex.
For all videos:
- What did you see in the video?
- What do you think this video was about?
- What stood out to you most in this video?
For this video:
- Based on his values, did Brooks make the right choice?
- When you hear the term “abstinence,” what comes to mind? Who comes to mind? What situations come to mind?
- How does someone decide whether or not to be sexually active?
- Are there situations where it is easy to choose these options? More difficult?
Step 1.
Tell students that they will learn about the history and controversy surrounding the word virginity. To start, ask them to share what they know about virginity. As students volunteer to speak out, write down their responses on the board for everyone to see:
- What does it mean to be a virgin?
- Where does this word/concept come from?
- What does our society say or believe about virginity?
- What are some things your family and friends say about virginity?
- Is the concept of virginity a good thing or bad thing?
Step 2.
After you have a good amount of responses, tell the students that they will be presented with a variety of arguments that challenge the traditional beliefs surrounding virginity. The articles and videos below are recommended materials to use with the students. Depending on your class, you may choose to break the students into groups and assign each group a different article/video below to read/watch or you may choose to do this together as a class.
Step 3.
After reading/watching, ask the students to pretend they are news reporters and they must come up with a brief 20-30 second “Breaking News” report skit that explains to viewers that the concept of virginity is hurtful, damaging, and dangerous. Encourage them to be creative, humorous, and as based in reality as possible. Have each group take turns presenting their skits in front of the class.
Recommended articles:
- https://medium.com/the-establishment/a-quick-and-dirty-history-of-virginity-9ceb24b7e08a
- https://psmag.com/social-justice/stupid-tests-for-stupid-people
- https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/living-myths-about-virginity/283628/
- https://www.statepress.com/article/2017/02/spopinion-virginity-is-a-social-construct-rethink-purity
- https://everydayfeminism.com/2013/08/losing-virginity-for-good/
Recommended videos:
Materials needed: paper, pen/pencil, list/audio of popular holiday songs
Step 1.
Divide students into groups of two to three and tell them that they will work together to create a jingle about abstinence, masturbation, waiting for the right partner, or the right (to choose) to have sex. They could choose a popular holiday song (encourage both English and Spanish songs), a TV ad jingle, or a theme song and change its lyrics to convey a strong message about body autonomy.
Step 2.
Give groups some time to work and rehearse.
Step 3.
Ask groups to take turns performing their pieces in front of the class.
- HS.2.G.16, HS.5.G.25, HS.1.M.8, HS.6.G.33, HS.7.M.27,