Essential Questions - Identity

The Doorway to Understanding

* A lot of my activities and assessments explore several different essential questions at the same time.

Essential Questions

1.

Elementary School: Where do you see your identity show in your everyday life?

High School: What role does identity play in your everyday life?

Why: In everyday life, someone’s identity will determine that person’s actions and decisions and their sense of belonging. Identity can be present in one's culture, community, or experiences and is all around them. The goal is for the students to be able to identify parts of their identity and where they come from. For example, if a person defines their identity as being an artist, they will experience the world in an artistic way. Identity also influences one’s social and emotional learning and having a strong sense of identity can affect self-esteem and self-worth in a positive way.

Activity: Students will create a mindmap art project that assesses how their values and interests make up their identity. They can include how these values are present in their everyday life.

Assessment: Students will describe how their artwork shows their identity through a short video and worksheet.

2.

Elementary School: How can you show your identity through art?

High School: What role does identity play in art? How did you express your identity through art-making?

Why: The concept of identity inspires artmaking all of the time, whether it is related to the artist’s personal identity and experiences, identity as a social construct, or the collective identity of different social groups. In Contemporary art, the artist’s unique identity as an individual often becomes the basis for work exploring personal emotions. Students will be able to relate and explore their identity through art making and understand how art and identity can be connected.

Activity: Students will have five days to complete an art project that expresses their identity however they wish to express it in a medium of their choosing. They must be able to explain how their work conveys the ideas they came up with in their mind map.

Assessment: Students will answer a short reflection worksheet that connects their identity to art and will be asked to explain their reasoning.

3. Elementary School: How does your gender, culture, and community influence your identity?

High School: How is identity defined by gender, culture, and community? In what ways is your identity influenced by these concepts?

Why: Society has historically been socially affected by culture, gender, and one's community, with minority groups traditionally held at the bottom. Thus, a person’s experiences with these concepts can affect their perceived social status and self-worth. When someone uses characteristics relating to these ideas to define themselves they become a part of their identity. Through an investigation of identity, students can begin to understand possible issues that they experience and have a sense of belonging to a group.

Activity: Students will watch a video about identity and reflect on these ideas by creating a small art piece and participating in a class discussion online about their identity and others.

Assessment: Students will respond to others through a discussion about how identity is affected by various aspects.

4.

Elementary School: How do you connect your artwork to your identity?

High School: How do you connect your artwork to your identity? What elements describe your identity and how?

Why: Art can be a great way to express and understand big concepts including identity. If the students learn early on that they can express themselves this way then they can have art-making as an emotional outlet to express their feelings and experiences.

Activity: Students will have five days to complete an artwork that connects to their identity.

Assessment: Students will fill out a plan for their artwork and describe its purpose and which studio habit they are using to explore their identity. Students will also fill out a reflection at the end of the project that asks them to thoroughly explain how their art connects to their identity.

5.

Elementary School: What experiences have you had in life that relate to who you are and your identity?

High School: How do experiences shape identity? What defining experiences have you had that helped you understand your identity?

Why: Our experiences are all different and are what develop us as people. Although experiences, good and bad do not define someone as a person they can help them understand who they are. When students being to explore this idea they can understand early on that their identity will affect their experiences in the world and may be less confused or hurt if they have a bad experience relating to who they are.

Activity: Students will reflect on their experiences after a class discussion and watching a video. They will complete a mind map to explore the values they have developed through their experiences.

Assessment: Students will have several opportunities to express their connection to identity through experience including through the discussions, mindmap activity, the planning phase, the actual project, or the reflections.