Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke Educator Guide

Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke by Andrew Maraniss (Philomel Books 2021) explores the experiences of one of the first openly gay professional athletes, while bringing to life the developing LGBTQ rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

To help you make the most of this title in the library and classroom, we're sharing these resources:

— Curriculum ideas and recommended book pairings below, with an accompanying lesson ("The American Dream")

— Author Q&A with Andrew Maraniss

—Singled Out story map created by the author (https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/ab418e07bf958f2f749f0a816cdb642a/singled-out-glenn-burke-story-map/index.html)

— "LGBT Rights," a curated research list from ABC-CLIO's American History Educator Support Site that includes articles and images following the gay rights movement in the United States.

Curriculum Ideas & Book Pairings by High School Librarian Suzanne Libra

Maraniss' wholistic approach in Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke creates opportunities to discuss the culture of professional sports, the intersectionality of being African American and gay, and the mixed blessings of fame. This book would be a great opportunity to work with social studies, health, or physical education teachers. It would also be a chance to bring in speakers—professional athletes, career counselors, and community health workers—to discuss the issues raised by the book.

Curriculum Connections

An interesting way to introduce Singled Out would be to project two pictures: The ancient relief of Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (https://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/2263724) shaking hands with a Babylonian ruler and the picture of what is believed to be the first high five captured on film, between Glenn Burke and Dusty Baker in 1977 (https://theundefeated.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/dustyglennhighfive.jpg?w=1024). Students can free write on the similarities and differences about what is being expressed and their personal connections to the two gestures. This could lead to a discussion of sports celebrations, masculine appearance and changing societies (the teacher could add in a discussion of the elbow bump and if hand shaking will disappear). From here, the class could move into a discussion of Glenn Burke's life and how he overlapped changes in society around the inclusion of African Americans and LGBTQ peoples.

Glenn Burke's story offers a chance to collaborate with health or science teachers. Topics can include the discovery of a new disease, the science needed to understand it, misinformation that spreads about diseases or cures, and the treatment of people who have the disease. Discussions can include everything from the flu to smallpox, from AIDS to the coronavirus. An interesting project might be to look at Dr. Anthony Fauci's role in both AIDS research and the current pandemic.

The book could also provide a springboard for a discussion through a social justice angle. Students can research other game-changing athletes: Billy Jean King, Jackie Robinson, Megan Rapinoe, Muhammad Ali, Colin Kaepernick, and many others, to compare the arc of their careers to Burkes'. Possible nonfiction books to use for a social justice unit include Maraniss' Games of Deception (Philomel 2019), The Boys in the Boat (Penguin Books 2013), and Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle School Football Team (Roaring Brook Press 2017). Students could also look at game-changing leaders in other fields: Alan Turing in science, Audre Lorde in literature, Harvey Milk in politics, Wanda Sykes in comedy, Freddie Mercury in music, or many others.

Another aspect to explore, in the classroom or possibly with career counselors, would be the baseball farm system and the realities of professional sports. Would Burke's life have played out differently if he had a fallback career, education or training that prepared him for life after sports? Has anything changed since the early 1970s in the way athletes approach their careers?

Book Pairings

Working with English teachers, the librarian could help create a list of books to pair with Singled Out as the mentor text. The fiction book, A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner (Farrar Straus Giroux 2020) looks at Burke's influence on a young, gay baseball player. Alan Gratz's novel, Samurai Shortstop (Dial 2006) looks at baseball in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Jackie and Me (Avon 1999), part of Dan Gutman's baseball card series, looks at Jackie Robinson's time in the major leagues. There are even books in verse about baseball that would provide a genre contrast and a great final project. These include Swing (Blink 2019), All the Broken Pieces (Scholastic, 2009), and Shakespeare Bats Clean up (Candlewick 2003).