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Unit  Community Building for Elementary Classrooms
Lesson Name  Our Names (Identity and Self)
Grade Band  Elementary (3-5)
Required Materials

  • The Arabic Quilt by Aya Khalil

  • Papers in various colors, sizes, patterns for students to use for their own pieces of the class name quilt

  • Magazines or other sources for images students can cut out to create collages, if they choose

  • Scissors

  • Glue

  • Markers, crayons, colored pencils

  • Sticky notes (optional for the gallery walk)
Standards / Competencies 

SEL Core Competencies: 

  • Self-Awareness: identifying emotions, experiencing self-efficacy, linking feelings, values and thoughts, demonstrating honesty and integrity 

  • Self-Management: managing one’s emotions, exhibiting self-discipline 

  • Social Awareness: taking others’ perspectives, recognizing strengths in others, demonstrating empathy and compassion, identifying diverse social norms, showing concern for the feelings of others 

  • Relationship Skills: communicating effectively, developing positive relationships, showing leadership in groups, resolving conflicts constructively, seeking or offering support when needed 

ELA Standards: Listening and Speaking, Reading, Writing 

Social Studies Theme: Individual Development and Identity 
Recommended Time  35 mins 
Essential Question  What do our names mean to us?
Learning Objectives  Students will begin their study of Identity with a focus on their
names. Students will create their piece of the class Identity
quilt.
Activating Prior Knowledge  You may start by asking students what they know about the story of
their names. Ask students to share with the whole class, within a small
table group, or with a partner, what they know about their names. After
students have had a chance to talk about their names, you may have
groups or individual students share with the class.
Core Instruction 

The lesson will begin with a reading of The Arabic Quilt by Aya Khalil. Teachers may pause at different points to discuss (see the Educator Guide with discussion questions under Additional Resources). 

After reading, explain that the class is going to create its own identity quilt with students’ names. Each student is going to make their part of the quilt using words, pictures, or both. Examples may include acrostic poems with names, “I am” poems (see Additional Resources for templates), “I am from” poems inspired by the work of George Ella Lyon (see Additional Resources for guidance), collages, drawings, paintings, or other visual representation. 

Invite students to work independently for a given amount of time, and then to pause and explain/reflect on what they’ve done so far with a partner. Invite partners to ask questions about the words and images chosen by their classmates. Continue to switch back and forth between periods of independent work and periods of shared reflection. 
Wrap-up  Students should have a way to display their individual quilt pieces
around the room. Once everyone is finished, students may engage in a
silent “gallery walk” through all of the individual pieces. Once
everyone has had time to walk through the gallery, invite the class back
together to share observations, appreciations, and new information
learned about their peers. You may choose to do this with sticky notes
(see the protocol under Additional Resources) or to do it as a large
group discussion.
Supplementary Resources 

Additional read aloud options or independent reading choices: 

Discussion guides and lesson resources: 

  • Gallery
    walk protocol     from Harvard Project Zero (note that for this lesson, you would use the “gallery walk to view finished work” variation found near the bottom of page 2 of this document)
Instructional Content Adaptations 

  • ​​Students’ acrostics and name poems can be modified to meet individual students’ needs. Example modifications for English learners or emerging writers may include: name letters to trace, cut out letters to glue, alphabetical word lists, or guided poem starters, line by line. 

  • Example modifications for gifted learners may include additional written work, such as about their names or research on a particular aspect of their identity or family history.