Instructions for teachers and students:

Print the poem, make the number of photocopies you need and read it. Generally all you need to understand poetry is silent reading; often questions can destroy a beautiful poem if made before the proper time.

Mind that no answer is right or wrong, Hazel only wants to make you open your eyes...

1st activity: a questionnaire:

1. Do you know a person like Tara?
2. Do you sometimes feel like Tara? (You are not obliged to answer)
3. Would you like to make friends with her (him)?
4. Do you think she has suffered a lot in her life or she is just pretending?
5. Do you you think she is going suffer in her (his) future life?
6. Do people generally tease people like Tara in the area where you live?
7. Is homosexuality a taboo in your town or school?
8. Has Tara the right to lead the kind of life she (or he) has chosen?
9. Do you think she is going to solve all problems?
10. Do you think surgery is a solution?
11. In your opinion, what is homosexuality? A sin, a vice, an illness or something which is simply not accepted in society?
12. Are homosexuals very gifted for arts?
13. Are they generally sensitive people?
14. What would you do one day day you found out your best friend is a homosexual?

2nd activity: creative writing

Sit down in a circle of no more than four or five people. Do some brain storming to make up questions for an interview to Tara. Remember the rules of brain storming: everybody has a right to speak but not to monopolize attention! Every idea is good and someone must write down all ideas, as soon as they are being expressed. If you don't feel the *inspiration* you can say "Pass!" and when your turn comes again you will say two things instead of one, if you like. At the end of the brain storming session (four or five rounds) the best questions will be chosen and corrected, if it is the case.

Suggestions: ask her where she is living now, if she has found happiness and love, if she feels at home in her (or his) new body, if she would like to have children. Has she got a job? Does she like football like all men or she is still feminine in her tastes?

3rd activity: roleplay

The same groups who did the brain storming make a role play. One student plays the part of Tara. The others ask Tara the questions they have written before.

Please! Try not to make a parody of it!

The strange thing which usually happens is that when people play a role assuming they are another person, they usually end up by feeling sympathetic with that person's feelings and thoughts... Try it and..

good luck!!!

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