Belonging on Your Own Terms

• What are the forces that shape belonging?
• How can we reduce barriers to belonging for ourselves and others?

• How do you navigate the tension between your desire to fit in and your need to express your own individual identity? 
• What steps can we take to create a more inclusive and accepting class and school community?

In order to deepen their understanding of the text, themselves, each other, and the world, students will . . .

• Analyze the internal and external conflicts that characters face and the impact these conflicts can have on an individual’s choices and actions, both in the text and in the real world. 
• Recognize that their decisions matter, impact others, and shape their communities and the world.

This lesson is designed to fit into two 50-min class periods and includes the following texts and materials:

• Handout: Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors
• Reading: I Am the Only American Indian
• Reading: I’ve Been Called Worse
• Reading: Living in Two Worlds

Unless students read their personal narrative for homework, plan to spend two class periods working with these essays. On the first day, students will do the first part of the Jigsaw activity in “expert” groups and complete a reflection. They will discuss the stories in “teaching” groups and as a whole class on the second day.

In this lesson, students will read and discuss personal narrative essays that feature young people finding a sense of belonging in their schools and lives. Before teaching the lesson, familiarize yourself with the Jigsaw teaching strategy and decide whether you will assign students specific readings, create random groupings, or preview each reading with the class and let students choose the one that interests them. The narratives range in length and text complexity. “Living in Two Worlds” includes an audio recording, so you might assign it to students who would benefit from audio support. “I Am the Only American Indian” is illustrated, so you might assign it to students who would benefit from images. You could work with a group that would benefit from teacher support to read “I’ve Been Called Worse.” The narratives are short, so students might read them to themselves or out loud together.

All of the narratives feature young people sharing personal stories about their sense of who they are and where they belong. Take time to review your classroom contract with students before beginning the lesson so that they are ready to engage with the story they read. This extra step will help to reinforce the norms you have established for engaging with texts and the idea of the classroom as a brave space for students to raise questions or express emotions that may arise.

• Distribute the Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors handout and read the quotation together to introduce Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop’s observations about the relationship between reading and identity.
• Then have students reflect on texts that have provided windows, mirrors, and sliding-glass-door experiences for them. For this exercise, we have expanded Dr. Bishop’s idea to include all kinds of texts, not just books. 
• Debrief the activity in pairs and see if any volunteers would like to share with the class. It can build community when you share your own responses to this prompt alongside your students.

• Then let students know that they will be reading and discussing four personal narrative essays using the Jigsaw strategy. While each student will only read one of the three essays, there will be opportunities to learn about and discuss all three together. Depending on each student’s identity and experiences, these readings may provide mirror experiences that resonate with them, windows into someone else’s world, or sliding glass doors that they can step through in their imagination. 
• Then explain the activity and move students into their “expert” groups of four. Pass out the Belonging on Your Own Terms: Connection Questions handout and the readings for this activity:
  • I Am the Only American Indian 
  • I’ve Been Called Worse 
  • Living in Two Worlds
• Let students know that in this class period, they will read and discuss their stories with their “expert” groups. Encourage students to support their ideas with evidence from the personal narratives, the text set’s readings, their journals, their handouts, and their own experiences. In the next lesson, they will share what they learned from their story and engage with the other stories in new “teaching” groups.

• With students still in “expert” groups, use the 3-2-1 strategy to help them synthesize ideas from their reading. They can record their ideas in their journals or on an exit ticket if you would like to collect them to check for understanding.
  • What are three things that you learned from your group’s text or discussion?  
  • What are two ways that you contributed to your group’s reading of the text and discussion?
  • What is one question that you have about your text or something that came up in your discussion? 
• If you have time, you can ask for volunteers to share ideas from their responses. Let students know that they will have a chance to learn about all of the stories in the next lesson.

• Have students sit with their “expert” groups from the previous lesson. Let them know that they will have a few minutes to review their stories and Belonging on Your Own Terms: Connection Questions handouts before they move into “teaching” groups to share what they have learned. 
• Project the following question on the board and have students write a quick response in their journals: In your opinion, what is the most valuable idea in your story about fitting in or belonging? 
• Then invite students to share their ideas with others in their group so that they all feel confident in what they will share with their “expert” groups.

Move students into “expert” groups and direct their attention to Part 2 of the Belonging on Your Own Terms: Connection Questions handout. After reading the instructions, circulate while students address the questions with their peers.

• Facilitate a class discussion to help students synthesize key ideas from the text set. Start with a version of the first essential question, recording students’ ideas on the board: What factors influence whether or not someone feels like they belong in a group or a place?
• Have students work in pairs to rank the factors from most influential to least influential. You might want to focus on the top five if they generated a large list. Invite students to share their ideas. Record the first list on the board and see whether there are any challengers whose lists differ. Such students should support their challenge with evidence from the text set and their own experience. 
• Next, ask students to discuss the following questions: 
  • What steps can we take to reduce the barriers to belonging for members of our classroom community?
  • How can we create a more inclusive and accepting space where everyone feels a strong sense of belonging?

• To capture students’ thinking at the end of the text set, have them complete a final exit ticket. Consider sharing their ideas anonymously in a future lesson to see if there are steps that the class is willing to commit to taking. Then check in on a weekly basis to assess the group’s progress. On an exit ticket that you create, have students respond to the following questions: 
  • What is one concrete step you can take in the upcoming weeks to help reduce the barriers to belonging and create a more inclusive and accepting space in this classroom?
  • How would having this kind of classroom environment impact your learning?
  • How might it impact other members of your class community?