who am I? | Facing History & Ourselves

who am I?

Resources 11
Last Modified August 30, 2024
Description
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Lesson

Identity and Names

Students begin to explore the concept of identity by considering how our names represent who we are and reflect our relationship to society.

Students writing on a paper.
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Lesson

Identity and Labels

Students analyze a cartoon and a short video that prompt reflection on the ways we use labels, stereotypes, and assumptions to identify each other.

A man and woman warm up for a run on an outdoor trail.
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Lesson

Identity and Choices

Students consider their own agency in creating their identities through choices made about who we are and how we present ourselves.

Bayeté Ross Smith’s 2010 series "Our Kind of People" examines how clothing, ethnicity, and gender influence our ideas about identity, personality, and character.
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Lesson

Connecting to the Past

Students read personal essays that illuminate how the choices made by our families and previous generations influence who we are today.

One student talks while others listen.
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Lesson

Who Am I?

By asking the question "Who am I?" students explore the role that identity plays in forming their values, ideas, and actions.

A female student engages in discussion.
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Lesson

Who Are We?

Through a gallery walk activity, students learn that communities consist of a collection of people with unique identities.

Two female students work at their desks.
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Lesson

Understanding Identity

Students consider the question "Who am I?" and identify social and cultural factors that shape identity by reading a short story and creating personal identity charts.

An illustration from Fred Tashlin's The Bear That Wasn't.
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Teaching Strategy

Bio-poem: Connecting Identity and Poetry

Students clarify aspects of their identity or the identity of a historical or literary figure by writing poems that focus on deeper elements of personal makeup like experiences, relationships, hopes, and interests.

Middle school student writing at a desk
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Teaching Strategy

Identity Charts

Use identity charts to help students consider the many factors that shape their own identity and that of groups, nations, and historical and literary figures.

An example of an identity chart for a high school student living in the Boston suburbs.
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Teaching Strategy

Identity Charts

Use identity charts to help students consider the many factors that shape their own identity and that of groups, nations, and historical and literary figures.

An example of an identity chart for a high school student living in the Boston suburbs.
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Lesson

Why Little Things Are Big

Students reflect on the power of being labelled and use Jesús Colón’s essay to reflect on their own experiences of being misjudged.

Jesus Colon looks off into the distance.