A high school student shares their thoughts during a school workshop.

Collection

Coming of Age in a Complex World

Developed for grades 6–12, this modular collection invites students to explore the complexity of identity and develop a sense of agency as they reflect on what it means to grow up in the world today.

Published: July 14, 2021

Last Updated: November 4, 2022

Collection

Language

English — US

Subject

English & Language Arts

Grade

6–12

Overview

The resources in this collection help you diversify the range of stories that students read and combine reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills with ethical and empathic reflection.

The collection includes:

Back to School Toolkit to help you build community with your students
Three multi-genre text sets with lesson plans and assessment ideas
Unit Guide for teaching Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming
Unit Planning Toolkit and Educator Workbook to help you design a coming-of-age literature unit for a book of your choosing
Book Club Guide with the resources and tools to launch student-centered book clubs
Whole School Read Planning Guide

Inside This Collection

Text Set

Designed for students in grades 6-7, this text set includes lesson plans and multi-genre texts for a two-week unit exploring the essential question “How do we become who we want to be in the world?”

Female students engage in classroom discussion.

Text Set

Designed for students in grades 8-10, this text set includes lesson plans and multi-genre texts for a 1–2 week unit exploring the essential question, "What makes me, me?"

Text Set

Designed for students in grades 11-12, this text set includes lesson plans and multi-genre texts for a 1–2 week unit exploring the essential question, "How do I empower myself to speak up and take action on behalf of myself and others?”

Four students at their desks, working in a group.

Toolkit

This toolkit provides the framework and classroom resources to help you design a coming-of-age literature unit for middle or high school students using a book of your choosing.

An English Language Arts teacher prepares to teach a literature unit for middle and high school students.

Guide

Teach a unit on Jacqueline Woodson's coming-of-age memoir in verse that invites students to reflect on their own experiences and identities.

A girl leans against a wall while reading a book.

Guide

Implement book clubs that build community and help students make meaningful connections to books they are excited to read.

A close up of shelves in a school library filled with books of different sizes and colors.

Guide

This planning guide will help you design and implement a Whole-School Read that centers students’ voices and experiences.

Blue and purple toned books, view from above

Toolkit

These back-to-school activities and teacher resources will help you lay a foundation for a reflective and caring community at the start of the school year.

Students move around the classroom in conversation with each other. One student looks directly into the camera with a smile on their face.

Additional Resources

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

Explore the process of choosing texts with a focus on equity and voice, as well as creating classroom spaces for exploring literature through a critical and ethical lens.

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

In this webinar, we introduce educators to Judith Heumann’s 2021 memoir, Being Heumann, an Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist and the young adult version: Rolling Warrior: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels Who Helped Spark a Revolution.

A student speaks while another listens attentively.

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

Explore questions of identity and belonging in literature and life and learn how you can center students' identities and experiences through literature and dialogue.

Assessment

Create a culminating experience for your students that helps them draw new connections between the concepts and ideas presented in this text set, themselves, and the world today.

Lesson

Students reflect on how aspects of their identities are more visible or felt in certain situations and read an informational text to help them consider the interplay between individual identity and social identity.

Activity

Students reflect on a meaningful, inspirational, or thought-provoking quotation.

The back of a white book with a quote from Brianna Wiest which reads "I thought becoming myself was improving each part piece by piece. But it was finding a hidden wholeness seeing the fractures at the design."

Activity

The Rose, Thorn, Bud exercise increases students' self-awareness as they reflect on recent successes, challenges, and opportunities.

Activity

Students communicate how they are feeling in response to a chosen prompt, giving teachers a pulse on the class’s opinions or well-being.

A person holding a rectangular white photo frame near a body of water.

Activity

Read aloud a chapter of a book your students are interested in to build community around stories and storytelling.

Person sitting on the floor while holding a book.

Activity

Students identify their strengths and areas for growth in a journal reflection.

A student in a grey sweatshirt looks down at a paper with a pencil in hand.

Activity

Students get an opportunity to give feedback about the class and communicate their needs and worries.

A person holds a compass in their hand with the ocean in the background.

Activity

Students share how they are feeling, what their needs are, and what goals they’d like to set in an exit card.

A person holds a glass door open with a backpack over one shoulder.

Collection

These opening and closing classroom routines will set a welcoming tone, allow students to connect with one another, and encourage goal setting.

Two students in conversation while looking down at a laptop computer.

Lesson

Students explore the costs and benefits of sharing aspects of their identities, discuss an informational text about “narrative identity,” and apply these concepts to their own lives in an original poem.

Activity

Students explore the relationship between our names, identities, and the societies in which we live.

A pile of "Hello my name is" nametags and sharpie markers sit on top of a desk.

More Like This Teaching Resources Learning & Events

What’s the Word is a monthly newsletter for English and Language Arts educators. Get new resources, upcoming events, and professional learning delivered directly to you.

Facing History & Ourselves is designed for educators who want to help students explore identity, think critically, grow emotionally, act ethically, and participate in civic life. It’s hard work, so we’ve developed some go-to professional learning opportunities to help you along the way.

Professional Learning

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Listen to #DisruptTexts founder Julia Torres about taking a critical lens to text selection in ELA classrooms.

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Professional Learning

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Issues of equity and education have long existed in our country and continue to manifest today. How can writing and the power of one's voice help us respond to these disparities? Listen to writer and educator, Dr. Clint Smith, where we hear his poetry and reflections on working for justice, equity, and civic agency in our schools.

Professional Learning

On-Demand

Virtual

Explore approaches to centering student voice, building authentic relationships and cultivating community with Molly Josephs, the creator of This Teenage Life, a youth-driven, story-sharing podcast that started as a school club.

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The resources I’m getting from my colleagues through Facing History have been just invaluable.

— Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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Coming of Age in a Complex World