The following mini-unit was designed for a tenth-grade World Literature class with the assumption that the students have been studying cultural identity and examining stereotypes and how they affect perceptions around identity. They will now take this information and apply it to a text and examine the identity of a fictional character. Singletary, Ruggs, Hebl, and Davies writes, “research suggests that the negative effects of stereotype threat on performance are mediated by psychological and physiological mechanisms such as anxiety, arousal (i.e., readiness to respond to specified stimuli), and working memory (Schmader & Johns, 2003; Spencer et al., 1999; Steele, 1997). Individual differences such as the extent to which a person identifies with their group (e.g., gender) or a particular domain (e.g., math) also seems to influence the impact that stereotype threat has on individuals’ performance. Stereotype threat not only creates performance decrements but ultimately may also impact major life decisions (i.e., choice of profession) and prevent individuals from reaching their full potential within a threatened domain (Gupta & Bhawe, 2007)” (1). I want students to consider this in a literary context and look towards this text with an eye towards social justice. These are incredibly important facets of development for teenagers in their journey to develop individualism and to connect with others.

However, when I have previously given assignments that dealt with defining identity many of the students expressed that they found it incredibly difficult to define who they were. The article “Identity and Adolescents: How Adults Can Help” suggests that the age fifteen is when students start really considering their identity and pushing for autonomy (Jones, 2004). Jones also states that teenagers at this age start to push back against authority while they seek to define who they are as individuals, and suggests that adults helping by guiding them with questions rather than commands. This seems to be very helpful in this classroom, as students respond favorably to activities wherein they are given a chance to voice their opinions rather than being told to do an activity. Additionally, the students in this tenth-grade literature class excel at discussion. While they sometimes veer from the main subject and seek to debate with another classmate directly, they are adept at expressing their viewpoints in a detailed manner and making connections between issues in a text and current events. The body and closing of this lesson revolve around getting students thinking and talking in preparation of their Socratic seminar. The students also respond well to learning through less traditional means; an example in this lesson is using a song currently popular on the radio to help teach parallelism. 

References

Singletary, Ruggs, Hebl, and Davies. (2009).  Literature overview: Stereotype threat: Causes, effects, and remedies. Assessing men and women in engineering. Retrieved from:  http://www.engr.psu.edu/awe/misc/arps/arp_stereotypethreat_overview_31909.pdf

Jones, C. (2004). Identity and adolescents: How adults can help. The Fourth and Fifth Rs: Respect and Responsibility, (10)2.

                                              Defining Identity 

Students will be able to:

·         Define the word ‘identity’

·         Identify themes of identity in literature

·         Consider the significance of identity in literature

Using the website Padlet on the classroom laptops, students will respond to the prompt: “How would you define identity?”

The teacher will take attendance

Estimated Time: 5 Minutes

·         Each student will read read their classmates responses and respond to two other posts.

·         The teacher will pass out a handout on identity as an introduction to the unit and call on students to read parts out loud.

Estimated Time: 15 Minutes

Part One: Students will read the poem “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” by Emily Dickinson to themselves several times. Students will then write a tentative answer to the question: “What do you think this poem means? How does this poem relate to identity?”

Part Two: The teacher will read the poem once more out loud and then call on approximately 6 students to express what they answered in the prompt. The teacher will then provide an explanation for the poem and discuss the theme of identity within the text.

Part Three: Using this poem generator website, the students will create their own poem about some aspect of their identity. 

Estimated Time: 35 Minutes

Ticket Out of the Door: This is a daily activity. With the remaining class time students should pull out their phones and from their twitter accounts respond on the class minute to the prompt: “Describe yourself in one word”

These daily tweets make up most of the overall participation grade; these are designed to be succinct as they must be under 140 characters

Estimated Time: 5 Minutes

The teacher will examine the students’ poems to evaluate which students have grasped the theme of the unit

The teacher will validate the Ticket Out of the Door to gauge participation

Paper

Pencil

Anthology Textbook

Identity Handout

Classroom laptops

Access to: padlet and the poem generator

For the next class period students should come in prepared to discuss a scene from Invisible Man called “Battle Royale” by Ralph Ellison.

Students will be able to:

·         Identify what roles they occupy as members of society

·         Effectively explain what their roles mean in the context of this class

·         Accurately identify what negative connotations are attached to their identities

·         Examine what negative connotations they have attached to other people’s identities

Ask the students to pull out a sheet of paper and instruct them to fold it in half. Ask them to on one side write labels/identities that they identify as. On the other side students should be instructed to write how they think other people perceive each label. It is imperative to stress that the identities should be factual, and not based on opinion, i.e. words like ‘nice’, ‘fun’, ‘smart’ should be avoided.

The teacher will take attendance during this activity.

Estimated Time: 5 Minutes

Part One: The teacher will randomly call on approximately five students and have them one by one read out their second column of assumptions only. As the called upon student reads their list the class will call out what they think the identity is; the student reading will let them continue guessing, providing additional stereotypical information, until someone says the right answer.

Part Two: After the chosen students have gone, The teacher will begin a quick lecture covering: What is a stereotype? Where do they come from? Why are they harmful? How did they come to be so ingrained in our society that a stereotyped identity is so easily identifiable?

·         Ask the students to pull out another sheet of paper, or turn their earlier paper on the back, and respond to the following prompt: “Choose one of the identities that you listed earlier and in approximately a paragraph explain how a stereotype you have heard about this identity has affected how you feel about it”

·         Two students, preferably volunteers, should read their responses out loud.

Estimated Time: 25 Minutes

Part One: Begin the lesson by having a student summarize the main plot. Follow by asking another student to discuss what they believed were the significant moments of this story. Ask the class at large the following; what is the point of the story? What are some of the underlining societal issues that the story addresses? How does this story address the theme of identity?

Part Two: Using the projector, pull up two or three pre-picked important quotations from the story and begin a class discussion based around analyzing these quotes and linking them back to the theme of identity. At this time, ask students if they have any questions about the text; what confused them? What was unclear? Was something a difficult concept to grasp? Resolve their questions.

At this point, the teacher will ask if there were any questions the students brought in that were not discussed fully or at all. If so, the teacher will answer them.

Estimated Time: 20 Minutes

Part One: Once more, ask students to pull out a sheet of paper. This time, instruct students list identities of the Invisible Man—the narrator of “Battle Royal”.

This is meant to be a challenge, however, this should be quick and off the top of their heads, a minute at maximum.

Next, instruct them to quickly write a response of a few sentences to the following prompt: “What assumptions did the various characters in the story make about the narrator based on the stereotypes surrounding his identities?”

If time allows, have one student read their response to the class

Part Two: Ticket Out of the Door: This is a daily activity. With the remaining five minutes of class students should pull out their phones and from their twitter accounts respond on the class minute to the simple prompt: “Name one thing you learned from class today”

These daily tweets make up most of the overall participation grade; these are designed to be succinct as they must be under 140 characters

Estimated Time: 10 Minutes

The teacher will consider the prompt responses from the closing activity to measure students’ understanding of stereotypes

The teacher will validate the Ticket Out of the Door for a participation grade

Paper

Pencil

Assigned Anthology textbook

Cell phone

Projector

Electronic access to the “Battle Royal” quotes

For the next class period students should come in prepared to discuss “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates.

Using the app Slack  on either their phones or computers, students should write a one paragraph response to the prompt: “List one negative stereotype that you believe to be true, or believed to be true in the past. Where do you think this stereotype stemmed from for you personally? If you no longer believe it, what was the catalyst in changing your mind? If you still hold these beliefs, how would you react if you learned that someone close to you held an identity that you had negative stereotypes about? Do you think it would change your perspective? For example, if you held negative views about homosexuality but then found out your best friend was gay—what would you do?”

 This is due on my desk first thing in the morning of the next class period for a homework grade.

Goal: The goal of this lesson is to continue students thinking about their own identities. Specifically, the unique identity one holds in adolescence; it is constantly changing and being molded by their friends, family, and immediate environments. For this lesson my aim is for students to recognize aspects of their personalities they have adopted from others and what that means in the larger context of adolescents in society through the study of literature.

Standards: ELAGSE9-10W4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

Students will be able to:

·         Identify at least one aspect of their identity that has been shaped by society

·         Effectively analyze the character of Connie in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You been” by dissecting her identity through contextual clues about her family, friends, and the time period she lives in

·         Engage with the story with enough proficiency to connect the story to their own lives

·         Improve their critical thinking skills through participation of in-class discussion and responding to writing prompts

Students will be instructed to recreate a scene from the story using bitstrips that encapsulates a defining moment for the character Conn. After, the teacher will take a class consensus; raised hands for who liked Connie and then who disliked her. Approximately six students will be called on to quickly give one or two pieces of evidence that support their opinion.

The teacher will take attendance during writing time

Estimated Time: 10 Minutes

The teacher will begin the lesson by presenting back-ground on the author and the story. The teacher will provide a handout with lyrics from various Bob Dylan songs that directly apply to the text in some way. The students will be instructed to search the text for contextual connections to the lyrics provided.

While the students complete the handout the teacher will play the song “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” by Bob Dylan in the background to provide context for the dedication and some of the symbolism in the text.

Estimated Time: 10 Minutes

Part One: The teacher will open the floor for class discussion on the story, focusing primarily on Connie and secondarily on the mysterious character of Arnold. Some possible leading questions:

·         Would you say that Connie has a fully realized sense of self or that she is still figuring out who she is?

·         Where does Connie’s resentment towards her mother and sister stem from?

·         What do you make of Connie’s multiple personas?

·         Do you consider Connie’s behaviors normal for a teenage girl?

·         What, if anything, can you pinpoint about Connie’s identity for certain?

·         Think back to the activities from last class. What are some assumptions you have made about Connie’s character based on stereotypes she fits?

·         Regardless of the accuracy of the assumptions, why do you think you made them?

·         What role does Connie play in living up to these assumptions?

*If the class discussion does not fully cover or explain the following ideas, the teacher will extrapolate on them:

·         Connie’s unstable identity and wildly different presentations in various environments is caused by a combination of clashing expectations thrust on her by her family and society, and her adolescent brain.

·         Identities are fluid in general but none more-so than that of a teenager; they are highly susceptible to media, peers, and social environments and are more likely to mold their personality based on the situation they are in or the people they are around.

·         Connie’s identity is a construction pieced together by facets of herself that she believes are the most pleasing to people she wishes to impress.

The last point will be explored further by the teacher which will lead into a discussion of constructed teenage identities in general. The teacher will call on several students asking them each a question from the following:

·         What is a habit you picked up from your mother?

·         Name a phrase you picked up from a friend.

·         What would you wear on a date?

·         What would you wear to an important interview?

·         How about lounging on the couch?

·         Have you ever done something just to fit in or feel included?

The teacher will instruct the students to think about their answers to these questions while they move on.

Part Two: The teacher will give background into Arnold’s character and ask the students how they have interpreted his arrival. A few students will be called on to answer, before the teacher presents three of the multiple readings of the texts:

1.       Arnold was actually present and Connie experienced everything detailed in the text.

2.       Connie was dreaming the entire encounter and Arnold is simply a figment of her imagination that represents both her greatest desires and fears.

3.       Arnold was neither there or not there. The entire sequence, and story in general, is an extended metaphor for the transition from girlhood to womanhood.

The teacher will request that the students think to themselves about which reading of the text they most agree with and write a few sentences explaining why on the classroom padlet.

Estimated Time: 40 Minutes

Ticket Out of the Door: This is a daily activity. With the remaining class time students should pull out their phones and from their twitter accounts respond on the class minute to the prompt: “Remember the questions I asked you to think about and use them to identify a part of your identity that has been ‘constructed’ due to the influence of another person or an expectation placed on you”

These daily tweets make up most of the overall participation grade; these are designed to be succinct as they must be under 140 characters

Estimated Time: 5 Minutes

The teacher will grade the homework from “Battle Royal” for a completion grade

The teacher will assess the bell-work prompt on Connie for correct character analyzation

The teacher will assess the main activity prompt on Arnold for effective textual analysis

The teacher will validate the Ticket Out of the Door for a participation grade

Paper

Pencil

Anthology Textbook

Lyric Handout

Cell Phone

Classroom Laptops

Electronic Access to “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”

For the next class period students should come in prepared to discuss “Courting a Monk” by Katherine Min.

Students should bring in two questions they had about the text.

Students will be handed a printed copy of a Facebook template as they leave. They will be instructed to fill in the blanks to create a profile for either Connie or Arnold using the text as a guide and imagining the rest based on their perceptions of the characters.