Lesson Name

Valuing Diverse Identities

Grade Band

Middle School (6-8)

High School (9-12)

CASEL Core Competencies

• Relationship skills

• Responsible decision-making 

• Self-awareness

• Self-management

• Social awareness

Common Core ELA-Literacy Standards

• Speaking and listening

• Writing

NCSS Social Studies Themes

• Culture

• Individuals, groups, and institutions

• Civic ideals and practices

• Individual development and identity

• Global connections

Students will:

• Learn that our characteristics help inform our identities.

• Explain how a person’s identities can contribute to how they see the world.

• Recognize that differences among people are normal and worthy of respect.

• Identity: Characteristics important to who we are as individual people and as members of groups, also used to describe how people may perceive or label each other.

Divide students into five groups. Distribute one strip of paper from Handout 1 to each group.

Instruct groups to discuss their prompt, with each student sharing their personal answer to the question, why their response is important to them, and how their answer helps them see the world. Then, groups should discuss why it is valuable that so many of their identities are different from each other’s.

When group discussions have concluded, ask each group to read their question and share some of their responses so that everyone hears all five questions and a variety of answers.

List multiple examples of identities. Begin with some, or all, of these suggestions:

– Ethnicity

– Gender

– Generation (“Gen Z” & “Gen Alpha”)

– Religious or Non-Religious Beliefs

– Socioeconomic Status

Read the list aloud to the class.

Say: This is a list of some identities that some people use to describe themselves or other people. Some of the identities on the list may not apply to some of us personally; others might be central to how we see ourselves. Ask students to continue to add to the list with other identities they are aware of. Record student responses.

Ask: Which of these identities are visible? On the list use a blue marker to put a check next to the identities students identify as sometimes or always visible.

Ask: Why is it important for us to recognize that some of our identities are visible?

Ask : Which identities on the list can be hidden, or are not obviously visible in an everyday interaction? Use a black marker to check those that can be hidden or are not necessarily easily identifiable.

Ask: Why is it important to recognize that some of our identities are not visible?

Ask: Can you think of an example of why a person would hide, or obscure, an aspect of their identity?

Ask: What identities can be chosen, or changed, or change over time? Use a green marker to check identities students say can change.

Ask: In what situations or settings might an identity change? What kind of impact do you think it has on a person to know that parts of how they may identify themselves are changeable?

Say: Next, we are going to identify five different identities you would use to describe yourself. On the large paper each of you have, please represent these five identities with either a quick drawing or a word or two.

Say: Now, cover up one identity with one of your three index cards. Imagine that you have to hide or deny that identity; you
can no longer publicly acknowledge it as part of who you are or how you see the world.

Ask: What was it like to cover one of your identities? Who found it easy? Who found it difficult to choose one, or to make a choice to cover it at all?

Say: Now cover a second identity. Do not uncover the first identity you chose. Now you have hidden two important parts of who you are.

Ask: Was deciding which identity to hide this time different than the first time? How did it make you feel?

Ask: Should we keep going? Why is it difficult to cover up pieces of your identity like this?

Say: Suppose some of us could hold onto the five characteristics we chose, but some of us were told we must change or hide some of the ways we identify ourselves. How do you think it would affect us as a group of people who see and interact with each other every day?

Show “ Take a Seat, Make a Friend”, a short video from SoulPancake. Then ask students to get in pairs and talk about identities each of them has. Once one common identity is discovered, partners should share one story about this common identity with each other. Ask partners to share their experience with the class.

Ask: How can we use our understanding of each other’s identities, both those that are shared and those that are individual and unique, to strengthen our classroom as a community that demonstrates respect?

Taking Informed Action:

• Write an essay in which you explore how you see something from a specific historical event, or era, compared to how someone of a different identity might see this issue.

• Consider how two characters in a work of literature, or in a movie, have viewed the same situation differently based on their different identities. Write a new scene from the point of view of a character whose perspective might be largely shaped by their identity.