Mentor Time: Identity

Essential Question

What makes us who we are?
How are our identities today shaped by society?
Do the ways we identify ourselves change over time?
What are the benefits and challenges of belonging to multiple identity groups?
Why might people not feel safe to express all their identities?
What does it feel like to be belittled or criticized because of your identity?
What part do culture and history play in the formation of our individual and collective identities?
What are the benefits and challenges of belonging to multiple identity groups?

Texts

Informational

Always Running

In this excerpt from his memoir, Rodriguez provides a stirring recollection from his adolescence: the first time he experienced racism as a result of being an immigrant in America. As he says, the experience "stays with [him] like a foul odor."

Luis J. Rodriguez

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Class Immigration Race & Ethnicity

July 2, 2014

Literature

Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question

In this poem, the speaker--who is Native American--responds to a series of unspoken discriminatory questions. The reader can deduce the missing questions based on the speaker's responses.

Diane Burns

Grade Level

6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Literature

The Skin I'm In (Chapter 3)

Maleeka gets made fun of at school about her clothes, her grades, even the color of her skin. In this chapter, she talks about getting teased on a school trip and how even her friend Char was ashamed to be seen with her because of her clothes.

Sharon Flake

Grade Level

3-5 6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Literature

The Skin I'm In (Chapter 4)

Maleeka gets made fun of at school about her clothes, her grades, even the color of her skin. In this chapter, one of her teachers, with white blotches on her face, shows how she's been able to accept the skin she's in.

Sharon Flake

Grade Level

6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity

July 3, 2014

Multimedia

Knock Knock

Until Daniel Beaty was 3 years old, his father would "knock knock" on his door every morning. This performance explores the shaping of personal identity in an incarcerated parent's absence.

Daniel Beaty

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Topic

Class Gender & Sexual Identity Race & Ethnicity

October 30, 2014

Informational

Families

This excerpt explains that families are defined by love, caring and sharing, not the number or gender of its members.

Ann Morris

Grade Level

K-2 3-5 6-8

Topic

Race & Ethnicity Religion Class Immigration

November 7, 2014

Literature

Raised By Women

In her poem, Kelly Norman Ellis brings to life a vivid picture of the kind of women she was surrounded and brought up by during her childhood in Mississippi. The poem's speaker takes you down south and makes you feel like a guest at the kitchen table by way of her descriptions.

Kelly Norman Ellis

Grade Level

6-8

Topic

Gender & Sexual Identity Race & Ethnicity

January 5, 2015

Teaching Strategies

Close and Critical Reading

Thinking Notes

Thinking notes are text annotations (highlights, underlines or symbols made on the text or in the margins) that document student thinking during reading. Depending on how you structure the task, these notes can indicate agreement, objection, confusion or other relevant reactions to the text.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

July 19, 2014

Student Tasks

Write to the Source

The Pages of My Life

The Pages of My Life asks students to demonstrate their writing skills when constructing a personal narrative.

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

CCSS

W.6-12.3, W.6-12.4

July 19, 2014

Plan Built By

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Mentor Time: Identity

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