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.
