Cultivating Identity Literacy
Students learn about a project, created by two young adults, that engaged people across the country in conversations about race, identity, and culture. Then they start to envision what sharing their own stories can look, sound, and feel like.
Use Poetry To Teach About Identity
Celebrate National Poetry Month with this mini-lesson that uses poetry to help students grapple with the complexities of identity and inspire them to tell their own stories.
Brave Girl Rising: A Refugee Story
Created in partnership with Girl Rising, this lesson invites students to engage with the story of a young refugee and to consider the power of storytelling to spark empathy.
What is Power?
Students define power and then analyze five perspectives about power in order to understand its many sources and the different ways it can be experienced.
Introducing Agency
Students explore the concept of agency, both in literature and in life, and examine the societal forces that play a role in an individual’s agency.
Agency, Choice, and Action
Students apply their thinking about power and agency to an analysis of four personal narrative essays written by young people.
The Power of Belonging
Students discuss the first half of Bethany Morrow’s short story “As You Were” and create character maps as a way of exploring the character of Ebony’s identity and sense of belonging in her school community.
Finding One's Voice
Through continued reflection on the short story “As You Were,” students consider the factors that impact power and agency in moments of decision-making and explore the possibilities and limitations of justice and reconciliation.
Reflecting on the Danger of Silence
Students use Clint Smith’s talk “The Danger of Silence” to create “blackout poems” that express their ideas for how they can use their voices to empower themselves and others.
Summative Assessment: Agency and Action in the World Today
Create a culminating experience for your students where they identify and explain an example of individual or collective agency in the world today that inspires them.
Analyzing “Aha” Moments
Students identify pivotal moments when a central character learns something important about themselves, others, and their real or fictional world.