Connecting to our characters June 16, 2009

Students then were asked to focus on 1-3 identities that they felt were the most important or most meaningful to them. In 3rd grade, students do a lot of work around character development and mapping in order to create a strong realistic fiction piece. Building upon that, 4th graders had to model their main character around these shared identities. To really get inside the character’s head, each student was interviewed while role playing his/her main character. Some students were really excited about pretending to be their character. They also wrote “I Am” poems from the perspective of their fictional character. 

As this is all going on, students are looking at characters in their Independent Reading books and Read Alouds. They are exploring the characters’ identities and any conflicts those play, or could play. In my class, we read  Freak the Mighty. The main characters have very distinct identities as being both abled and disabled. This helped my students understand an issue of identity while promoting a supportive classroom community. Furthermore, we read the picture book Keep Your Ear on the Ball. In Liav’s 5th grade class, the main mentor text was a short story by Langston Hughes in the book America Street. Also, her students had already read books about the Civil Rights Movement and Jim Crow laws. Such books included Leon’s Story and Fire From the Rock. Students were clearly able to see how somebody’s racial identity can cause them conflict, and even danger.

Conflicts with identity June 16, 2009

As with each new beginning to “The Writing Process,” there are a few days completely devoted to “collecting seed ideas.” We wanted students to understand that while they should have pride in their identities and who they are, they must also realize that sometimes identities can cause conflicts in the world around them. For example, being a kid is fantastic. But sometimes being a child means that you are not taken seriously or your voice is unheard. We used a variety of role playing scenarios from the book Open Minds to Equality. Students read about girls who wanted to play sports, kids who were non-native English speakers, and children with disabilities. It began to open their eyes to how identities are not without conflict.

For our Writing Workshop, students were asked to return back to their list of personal identities. From there, each student picked one identity to focus on and were asked to brainstorm problems that might result from this identity. Students wrote about problems they have encountered and problems that somebody with that identity MIGHT encounter. Students picked one of those potential problems and began writing out entries in their notebooks deciding how a character with their identity might deal with that particular problem.

What is Identity? May 7, 2009

In my fourth grade classroom we were doing this unit in the beginning of the year so we used this as an opportunity to build self confidence and mutual respect. As for Liav’s classroom, that unit fell later in the year. She therefore, had already established the tone of respect in her classroom community.

First we had to define this new term for our students. I chose to jump into defining the term with the kids. They mentioned the secret identities of super heroes and from there we used dictionaries and personal definitions to understand the term. In Liav’s classroom, the students explored stereotypes first. She began with an exercise where students had to fill in the blanks to the prompt: “All _______ are _______.” Organically, the students wrote about stereotypes with comments like “All Mexicans are smelly.”  

We brainstormed different categories of identity (i.e. religion, gender, language spoken, country of origin). I often felt that children didn’t have words for things they knew and felt about themselves. In order to give words to these feelings, we had a lot of class and individual discussions. For example, many students could not tell me their religion. So, students described holidays they celebrated and then we discussed which religion connected to that holiday. We also looked at college applications in order to see that people are often asked to check off a box to explain their racial identity. We used as many real life examples to show how and when we are asked about our identity. I also addressed that we are made up of a lot of different identities, not just one. We hoped that by highlighting the range of identities, we can see ourselves as complex and unique. Again, this is working towards promoting positive self-identity.

In Reading Workshop, children looked at identities in their independent reading books by closely examining their characters’ identities. Simultaneously, children were looking closely at their own identities. In my classroom students made “Identity Trading Cards” as a way to demonstrate that some Identities in your life seem more powerful or valuable to you than others. Similarly, some trading cards seem more valuable. In Liav’s classroom other art projects were developed with the same objectives in mind. Children were able to really take ownership of their own identities as well as see similarities in their friends and classmates.

Throughout this unit the main problem we encountered in the early stages was understanding that identity was something that was more fixed and categorized; it was different than a character trait. Fourth and fifth graders, alike, struggled with this idea. This was mostly discussed during Reading Workshop. We used a variety of graphic organizers to list our main character’s traits vs. identities.

How it all began… May 7, 2009

My name is Alissa and I’m a 4th grade teacher on the Lower East Side, NYC. I worked alongside my friend and colleague, Liav, who is a 5th grade teacher at a school in Brooklyn. As both of our schools use the Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project, Liav and I decided to take a spin on the traditional Realistic Fiction unit. I felt encouraged to take an angle on the unit after going to a Professional Development on Character Studies and Realistic Fiction units. As educators committed to teaching for Social Justice, we felt it was vital for students to understand the concept of “Identity.” We used Identity as a lens for our Character Study in Reading Workshop, examined our own identities through Community Meetings, and wrote Realistic Fiction pieces during Writing Workshop.