7th and 8th graders have spent the last few weeks exploring identity. After asking adults in the building to share a list of 10 words or phrases they would use to describe their own personal identity, we kicked off our identity unit by listening to The Who's "Who Are You" as students tried to match the identity lists to the correct adults. It was much more challenging than anyone expected, which goes to show how much there is to learn about people--even the people you see every day!
Afterward, students began to think about their own identities. We all made our own lists of 10 words or phrases and brought those lists to life by illustrating our identities. The results were impressive! Then we watched The Science of Character to learn more about character traits and how we can develop and strengthen our own traits. This video helped us to think about our own character traits--those that we clearly possess now and those that we want to build in the future. We then used this information to share who we want to become in our #IWantToBe posters and Flipgrid videos. If you are ever in the building, be sure to check out the display in the upstairs hallway of all the amazing products students created to share their present and future identities!
This past week, the 7th and 8th graders have been digging deeply into identity markers and discussing why we need to learn about them. Little by little, and with the help of daily mini-lessons, we completed our class identity wheel with definitions and examples of different aspects of identity, such as occupation/education, religion, gender identity/expression, and race/ethnicity. Once we all had a basic understanding of the many, many different ways that people may identify, we were able to discuss the importance of learning about all of these markers.
Through these discussion we learned about implicit bias, and the ways in which we all subconsciously make associations and assumptions in our minds about groups of people based on what we have seen/heard/experienced throughout our lives. We even took two implicit bias tests--one students took knowingly, and the other Mr. Chadburn and Miss G presented under the disguise of a check-in of their inference skills!
Through these discussion we learned about implicit bias, and the ways in which we all subconsciously make associations and assumptions in our minds about groups of people based on what we have seen/heard/experienced throughout our lives. We even took two implicit bias tests--one students took knowingly, and the other Mr. Chadburn and Miss G presented under the disguise of a check-in of their inference skills!
These discussions then led us to discussing privilege and how some people have advantages over other people simply because of the way they identify. We talked about many different kinds of privilege, including the privilege of seeing yourself and your history represented in learning materials. To better understand this, we conducted an audit of an old history textbook that students had used several years ago. We looked at the first two chapters together, searching for how often people of color were visually represented. The conversation for the first chapter went a lot like this:
There were a lot of maps, but for a chapter called "The First Americans," there was a shocking lack of people. It was not until Columbus arrived in the second chapter that people are shown, and any representation of Indigenous people also include Europeans. After students investigated the rest of the textbook, we discovered that in over 600 pages of text, people of color were only visually represented about 50 times--and almost always in the context of slavery, war, or the Civil Rights Movement.
Finally, we concluded the week talking about microagressions. We watched a video that explained that microaggressions were comments about a person's identity that are (often unintentionally) insulting and/or discriminatory, and then we wrapped up class on Friday matching types of microaggressions to their examples, but students will have to wait until next week to find out how they did!
It's been an amazing couple of weeks of deep discussions and inspiring questions with these 7th and 8th graders. Check back next week for an update on how the 5th and 6th graders are coming along in their inequality unit!
Thanks to Let It Ripple Film Studio, Flipgrid, MTV's Look Different, Hatch Kids, Jess Lifshitz, and Christie Nold for this week's lesson ideas and resources. We encourage you to click on their names to explore their work.