Teach YR

How to Promote Dialogue around Identity and Dismantle Harmful Stereotypes

Teach YR

By Colette Gunn-Graffy
11.11.22
How to Promote Dialogue around Identity and Dismantle Harmful Stereotypes

AUTHOR BIO 

Colette Gunn-Graffy is Chair of the English Department at Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School where she teaches Years 10 and 12 ELA and co-advises the award-winning literary magazine Prisms. She is also a playwright and poet. 

INTRODUCTION

This curriculum tool uses a series of model texts and low-stakes writing to lead students through the development and recording of a personal story about their identity.

It begins with students reflecting on how they would describe their identities, including aspects that can be seen from the outside, as well as those that are hidden on the inside. Students are then asked to consider how their identities may have been reduced to a stereotype or label at some point, what impact this had on them, and how this incomplete perspective either was or could be shifted. The unit culminates in students recording their stories to share and discuss with the larger classroom community.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION ICEBREAKER

1. Project or write on the board the following quotes for students to read to themselves:

  • “A people without knowledge of their past, history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” Marcus Garvey
  • “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “I woke up in this, I woke up in this / In my skin / I can't wash it away, so you can't take it from me / My brown skin.” Lizzo

Explain to students the the focus for this project is identity. Ask them to turn and talk with a partner (or join an online breakout room) to discuss what this word means to them. How do the quotes relate to their ideas? Have students volunteer responses to create a list of class ideas on a whiteboard or shared online document.

2. Have students create their own identity charts by writing their name in the center of a piece of  paper and drawing arrows outward to words or phrases that they consider to be key aspects of their identity. You may wish to generate some examples of what sorts of things constitute identity (family roles and relationships, race/ethnicity, religion, nationality, gender, sexuality, extracurricular interests, etc.) and/or create your own identity chart in advance to share with students as a model. (Editable online templates for this activity can be found at Facinghistory.org.)

3. (Note: The next activity can either be conducted anonymously or with names revealed. If you choose to do the latter, make sure that students are informed at the start of the previous step that they will be sharing their identity chart with the class and that they are welcome to share as much or as little as they are comfortable with.)* 

Ask students to leave their charts on their desks and move around the room reading what others wrote on their charts. Any time students see a word or phrase that they included in their own chart, they should leave a checkmark next to it on that person’s chart. Emphasize that not everything on the chart is likely to have a mark next to it, and that it’s perfectly OK to have some aspects of identity that are unique to you.

*(For an anonymous version of this activity, students could enter their words and phrases into an online polling platform like Poll Anywhere to create an word cloud that highlights the various aspects of identity represented in the class.)

4. Finish with a discussion about what students noticed. Which words or phrases were most common? Less common? Was anything surprising? What aspects of identity might not be obvious just by looking at a person?

Parts of this icebreaker have been adapted from “Investigating Identity,” by MoMA Learning.

ACTIVITY 1: INVESTIGATING IDENTITY

Part 1: Visual Text: “Accepting my Latina Identity” by Lucy Barnum

Explain to the students that they will be watching and listening to the video twice. After they’ve watched it once, ask students to turn to a partner (or join an online breakout room) to discuss how the video relates to identity. Explain to students that the second time they watch the video, they are to write down any “golden lines” or images that they particularly relate to or any that they have questions about.

Part 2: Discussion

Suggested questions: 

  • What are some of the different aspects that make up Lucy’s identity?
  • Why does Lucy feel conflicted about her name? 
  • What does Lucy mean when she says, “I didn’t understand that my name, my story, weren’t mine to rewrite”? How can identity be related to things outside of our control? In what ways is identity deeper than what we can see on the surface?
  • What do you think Lucy wants her audience to understand through the story she tells?

Part 3: Quick-write

Have students choose one of the prompts below to write to for a set amount of time. Emphasize that the goal of the activity is to write quickly not perfectly, jotting down as much detail as possible.

  • Write about an aspect of your identity that might not be apparent just from looking at you.
  • Write about an aspect of your identity that you are particularly proud of.
  • Write about an aspect of your identity that you are conflicted about and why.

Part 4: Peer-share and revision

Have students read aloud their piece of writing to a peer and identify places where the writing was most interesting, as well as places where more detail could be added or stronger word choice could be used. Students should finish off the activity by adding to or revising at least one part of their writing.

Option for extension

Have students create an identity mandala. (See Wikihow for basic instructions.) This can be done with art supplies or through a digital design program. Students should draw 3-5 concentric circles and decorate each band to represent a different aspect of their identity. The outer-most band should represent an aspect of the speaker’s identity that is apparent to anyone who is acquainted with the speaker, while the center circle should represent an aspect of the student’s identity that is known only to the speaker’s closest friends. The bands in the middle can represent other “layers” of identity in between. 

ACTIVITY 2: HOW LABELS LIMIT OUR UNDERSTANDING OF IDENTITY

Part 1: Read and discuss “Identity” by Julio Noboa Polanco as a class.

  • How would you describe the identity of the speaker of the poem? What words or phrases from the poem lead you to this idea?
  • What sorts of things do we normally label as “weeds”? What associations do we have with this label?
  • How does the speaker challenge our assumptions?
  • Based on what we’ve discussed, what could be the author’s message? 

Part 2: Read and digitally annotate Dear Society, You’re Wrong about Introverts by Sophene Avedissian

Divide students into small groups to read and discuss the article. Direct them to annotate the article. This could be done on a shared paper handout or through an online platform like Hypothesis or Google docs. As they read, students should pay attention to how the author defines herself versus what society assumes about people labeled as “introverts.” Ask students to annotate and comment on the specific details that the author uses: how does she help us to understand her experiences so that we can see who she is behind the stereotypical label?

Part 3: Brainstorm and quick-write

Have students return to their Identity Charts from the icebreaker activity. Previously, they drew arrows out from their name to record aspects of their identity that they think define who they are. Now, have students draw arrows pointing inwards connected to labels that society might use to define them. (Editable templates for this activity can be found at Facinghistory.org.)

Have students choose one of these labels from their chart to write about for a set amount of time. Some questions that students may want to consider:

  • Why might society assume this label fits you?
  • What associations does society have with this label?
  • What do people misunderstand or not see about you if they only perceive you as this stereotype?

Emphasize that the goal of the activity is to write quickly not perfectly, jotting down as much detail and/or examples as possible.

Part 4: Peer-share and revision

Have students read aloud their piece of writing to a peer and identify places where the writing was most interesting, as well as places where more detail could be added or stronger word choice could be used. Students should finish off the activity by adding to or revising at least one part of their writing.

Options for extension

Help students to dig a little deeper into the concept of “implicit bias”, its relationship to racism, and where it originates: 

Consider how a lack of diverse perspectives leads to misunderstanding and stereotypes:

Explore how and why bias exists in artificial intelligence and the ways this impacts society:

ACTIVITY 3: MOVING TOWARDS A CHANGE IN PERSPECTIVE

Part 1: Reading and discussing student texts

Remind students that so far we’ve been reflecting on and discussing ways in which important aspects of our identity can go unseen or misunderstood by the outside world, particularly when labels or stereotypes are applied. A question that might arise is what can we do when these things happen? How do we change people’s perceptions so that they get a truer sense of who we are? 

  • Ask students to get into small groups to review “Dear Society, You’re Wrong about Introverts” to discuss how being labelled impacted the author. What was the author’s response? Do you think she succeeded in shifting perspectives? Why or why not?
  • Have students read and annotate “Escaping the Laughter” by Solomon Chang. Ask students to compare and contrast this author’s reaction to the previous one. Discuss as a class why each author might have felt compelled to respond in the way that they did. 

Part 2: Quick-write

Have students choose one of the prompts below to write to for a set amount of time. 

  • Write about a label or stereotype that others have used to define you. How has this label impacted your thoughts, words, or actions?
  • Write about a time you attempted to change how someone viewed you. What did you do? Was it successful? Why or why not?
  • Write a letter to someone who has labelled or stereotyped you in the past, setting them straight. What do you want them to know about you and the impact of their bias?

Emphasize that the goal of the activity is to write quickly not perfectly, jotting down as much detail and/or examples as possible.

Part 3: Peer-share and revision

Have students read aloud their piece of writing to a peer and identify places where the writing was most interesting, as well as places where more detail could be added or stronger word choice could be used. Students should finish off the activity by adding to or revising at least one part of their writing.

ACTIVITY 4: DEVELOPING A PIECE OF WRITING THAT PRESENTS YOUR IDENTITY

At this point students have a collection of 3 low-stakes pieces of writing. These may be of various lengths and stages of completion. The goal is now to develop these ideas into a longer piece of writing that presents a personal story about identity, which students will eventually record in the next activity.

Part 1: YR Models

Return to the YR Media pieces, “Dear Society, You’re Wrong about Introverts” and “Escaping the Laughter” as a mentor texts, discussing how the authors create a story arc to show a change in perspective. This is essentially the same as a traditional “plot diagram”, but you may want to define these different parts more specifically for this assignment. 

The writer:

  • presents us with an initial incident or situation that is problematic (exposition/inciting incident)
  • describes how they reacted to that incident or situation (rising action)
  • explains how they or others were impacted by that reaction (turning point / climax)
  • acknowledges how something changed as a result, and (falling action)
  • ends with a final message to the reader. (resolution)

Have students divide into groups to reread the texts and identify 3 places where they think each writer does a particularly excellent job of engaging their audience. 

  • Ask students to discuss what the writer is doing that they find effective and to give this technique a “name.” 
  • Have students point out and share their observations of these techniques with the whole class, then use these observations to create a rubric that identifies the sorts of writing skills and techniques that students will attempt to demonstrate in their full-length story. 

Although the requirements of this rubric will vary with the pre-existing skills and background knowledge of the class, some things it could include are narrative devices such as characterization, dialogue, and conflict; language choices such as vocabulary, imagery, and concrete details; and the structural components listed above.

Part 2: Returning to previous work

Ask students to revisit their previous pieces of writing and highlight golden lines or ideas that they wish to include in their final story. Students may want to use a second color to highlight any ideas that they wish to use but need further detail or development. Students can also map out the order that they will present particular events or details by using a template such as this one from Free-Printable-Paper.com.

Part 3: Pulling it all together

Students use their highlights and story map to compose a draft of their final story. It may simply be an extension of one of their previous pieces of writing or include elements from all three. 

ACTIVITY 5: RECORDING YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Part 1: Peer revision

After students have completed a full draft, they should share their writing in small groups, using the co-created rubric to determine areas where they should return to revise.

Part 2: Preparing to record

Once students have finalized their stories, have them return to listen to the YR Media story “Visual Voices: Accepting my Latina Identity.” Ask them to notice how the author uses tone, emphasis, and pacing to tell their story and convey their message. Have students practice reading their stories aloud to their peer feedback group until they feel ready to record.

Part 3: Record!

Students can use any voice recorder to record their stories. 

Options for extension

Have students take it a step further and try out the Participatory Action Research (PAR) method of Photo Voice by creating a visual to accompany their audio recording. This could simply be video footage shot on their phones and edited using a program like Quicktime or iMovie to produce a short film similar to “Accepting my Latina Identity.” Alternatively, students could also create a slideshow of personal images on the computer to move through while reading their stories and record both their screens and audio at the same time.

ACTIVITY 6: GALLERY WALK & CLASS DEBRIEF

Have students upload their story recordings to a shared online space that the class can access, such as a class website or blog, Soundcloud, GoogleDrive, or Padlet. Ideally, students should give their recording a title that will “hook” their audience and invite them to listen.

Allow students time to listen to each other’s stories.

Option for Peer Critique: Provide a way for students to comment on and respond to each other’s stories directly. This could be done individually in writing (for example, through a “comments” function on an online platform or simply with post-it note exchanges) or tied into the class debrief below. 

Finish with a class debrief:

  • What are some things that you liked about this activity?
  • What was challenging about it?
  • Did anything surprise you?
  • What new insights has this project given you?
  • Is there anything you wished we had spent more time on or other topics that you would also like to have addressed through this project?

RELATED RESOURCES

“Identity and Storytelling,” Facing History & Ourselves

“Identity Charts,” Facing History & Ourselves

“Investigating Identity” from MoMALearning

Mentor Texts by Allison Marchetti and Rebekah O’Dell, published by Heinemann, 2021.

STANDARDS ADDRESSED

CCSS

ISTE

  • ISTE 1.1 Empowered Learner
  • ISTE 1.2 Digital Citizen
  • ISTE 1.6 Creative Communicator
  • ISTE 1.7 Global Collaborator

INVITATION FOR ACTION & CONNECTION  

Teachers, are you excited about the work your students created? As always, if your students love what they created please invite them to join YR Media’s community and pitch their pieces to our editors. And teachers, sign up here to receive email updates when new curriculum tools are published and become a member of our growing teacher network! 

Support the Next Generation of Content Creators
Invest in the diverse voices that will shape and lead the future of journalism and art.
donate now
Support the Next Generation of Content Creators
Invest in the diverse voices that will shape and lead the future of journalism and art.
donate now