Exploring Our Unique Identities

Essential Question

What are the characteristics that make you, YOU? Consider the outside influences that shape your personal identity (race, religion, gender, family, etc.).
Then, ask yourself who you are as an individual and what kind of person you aspire to be.

Texts

Literature

The Misfits

In this excerpt, the reader meets two characters from The Misfits: Addie, a girl who is exceptionally tall and smart for a middle schooler and Joe, who is creative and feminine in a way that makes his peers nervous.

James Howe

Grade Level

3-5 6-8 9-12

Topic

Gender & Sexual Identity

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

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

Multimedia

Meet Hoʻonani Kamai

Hoʻonani Kamai, a student at Hālau Lōkahi—a public charter school in Hawaii—introduces herself to us and expresses self-pride and knowledge of her cultural roots.

Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson

Grade Level

6-8 9-12

Subject

History

Geography

Topic

Gender & Sexual Identity

March 20, 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

emule

Exploring Our Unique Identities

The Misfits

The Skin I'm In (Chapter 4)

Families

Meet Hoʻonani Kamai

Thinking Notes

The Pages of My Life

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