Why Teach Kids about Identity?

How Activities Support my Big Idea

The Big Idea present in my lesson plan is Identity. I want students to learn to connect their identity to culture, community, interests, and values. With this Unit Lesson, students will not only learn what those concepts are but be able to assess how they are present in their life and the lives of others. I want my students to be familiar with the ideas of identity, culture, community, interests, and values on a personal level and be able to identify these terms in others. It is important for my students to begin to consider what makes them them and how they exist in the world. Identity can be a validating part of people's lives, but kids often don't begin to think about it until much later. This lesson will define these key terms and guide students in understanding the multiple parts of identity and how others present their own identities.

My lesson plan is broken up into several smaller learning activities that guide the student in making decisions about their project. This lesson plan is set up as partial TAB where students get the guidance and framework to form their thoughts on identity but in the end make decisions on their own about what to create and how. The mind map exercise and video get the students familiar with key terms and allow them to brainstorm their values. The art detectives' worksheet guides the students to find examples of artists who use identity in their own work. The planning process worksheet gives students a chance to decide on a purpose, medium, and studio habit and allows them to describe their idea with some sketches. The actual project gives them the freedom to experiment and dive deeply into self-discovery through artmaking and play. And the reflection worksheet and critique allow them to solidify their ideas and explain to others their "Why". Lastly the portfolio gives them the chance to see their work over a span of time to measure improvement.

Relevant Goal and Learning Outcomes

There are several important goals that I have when it comes to teaching students about Identity. All of my goals directly align with the Colorado Standards for Art in the 4th grade. To begin, students will be able to connect one's own values to the values of others. This aligns with the first standard: Observe and Learn to Comprehend. Students will be able to “respond to an artist's point of view being mindful of historical, contemporary and cultural context.” (CDE). The other standard that this aligns with is the third standard: Invent and Discover to Create. “Students will investigate ideas of personal interest to plan and create works of visual art and design.” (CDE). They will be able to achieve this first through the Art Detectives worksheet, then though their critique, and finally though the small class discussions. The next goal is for students to be able to identify and compile materials related to personal and cultural identity. This aligns with the third standard as well. They will achieve this through bringing in objects that relate to them, identifying things that relate to their identity in the mind map, the creation of the project, and their reflection explaining their reasoning. Students will also be able to plan and execute art with a purpose. This aligns with both standard two, and three. Standard two is Envision and Critique to Reflect. Students will be able to “interpret and evaluate personal work and the work of others with informed criteria.” (CDE). They will do this with the aid of the mind map, proposal worksheet, and the creation of a larger piece. Next, students will grow confidence in the medium of choice through their five days of creating a larger piece with that material. This part aligns with standard three. Students will be able to learn about the self and how identity is powerful. This part goes right along with standards two and three. They will do this through the mind map and the creation of a larger piece. Students will also be able to reflect on their identity and what artistic decisions they made to convey it with their reflection worksheet and the video they make for critique which aligns with standard two. Lastly, students will reflect on how they explored their art purpose, materials, and studio habits with their reflection worksheet and the video they make for critique which also aligns with standard two.

My end goal is for the students to understand the definition of identity and to be able to pick out parts of their identity and parts of others' identities. I want the students to be able to relate the term identity to that of community in hopes for them to feel a sense of belonging. Often, I think the idea of identity is perceived as being too taboo for younger age groups but in reality, kids are learning and defining themselves every day. If you introduce these taboo concepts early on they might understand them in a more accepting way. There are several studies out there that show the benefits of introducing identity early on. According to Binder and Kotsopoulos, from the Journal of Research in Childhood Education, “through multimodal forms of expression, young children find validation and empowerment through a redefining of self, which ultimately transforms their relationship to themselves, others, and the world around them.” If students are given the tools to connect their understanding of the world to a meaningful and personal approach, they might more intentionally decide to be curious about the aspects that make up someone’s personality. I think fostering this idea of identity in a safe place encourages students to be more considerate and kinder to others because everyone is different. “A recognition of our own sociocultural identity and our biases make it is easier to understand the multi-faceted cultural identities of others (Ballengee-Morris & Stuhr 2001). Being weird is okay, and hopefully this sort of lesson plan helps students realize that early on.

Enduring Understanding

I want my students to be able to take the information they learned in this lesson with them in life. Learning about why you are the way you are and what makes you you early on can be a huge step to self-love and the acceptance of others. To get my students to think about identity on a deeper level I will guide them with some essential questions as we work on our projects and in discussions. I might even decide to have a word wall with these questions hanging up in the classroom for them to refer to. The first question is where do you see your identity show in your everyday life? 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 (Stets & Burke 2014). The second question is how does your gender, culture, and community influence your identity? 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. The third question is how can you show your identity through art? 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. Students will be able to relate and explore their identity through art making and understand how art and identity can be connected. The fourth question is how do you connect your artwork to your identity? 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. And lastly, the fifth question is what experiences have you had in life that relate to who you are and your identity? 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. Hopefully with the guidance of these questions my students will be able to take the information learned beyond the classroom.

Studio Structure and Accommodations

This lesson plan is designed for a Teaching Artistic Behaviors (TAB) classroom. A TAB classroom is designed with choice-based learning/teaching in mind. TAB is a pedagogy that is focused on supporting divergent thinking and teaching for creativity. TAB classrooms are highly structured environments where students scaffold their own learning, sometimes going deeply into specific subjects or media. They work at their own pace, following their own lines of inquiry, and develop skills as they need them. For this lesson I will be using a partial TAB method where I make some of the artistic choices like the theme of the project and the due date. The students will decide everything else within reason and approval by me. Before this lesson students will have had smaller lessons that give them the knowledge on how to use each of the learning centers that have different mediums. For example, students will all know the information needed to paint with acrylic paint as well as the cleanup and safety information. There will be seven different centers for the students to choose from: Collage, painting, drawing, sculpture, textiles, printmaking, and photography. This is a unit lesson plan so besides the information on mediums the students won't have had previous knowledge of most of the content covered in this lesson. Students might have been exposed to the idea of identity in other classes but I will be treating the lesson as if they have not heard of that concept before

Since it is hard to tell what a student will be doing with the TAB method, here are some examples of modifications that I might use for students with Disabilities. Ann is non-verbal. Since there are several parts that involve a group/class discussion, it is up to the student how much they want to participate and can just listen instead of discussing ideas if they choose. However, since Ann can’t participate verbally, she will be given an emotion chart and communication board to assist her in describing the emotions she is referring to. I chose to do this for the class/small group discussion so that if she wants to, she can still share what she’s thinking in regard to identity but is still in a safe environment to where she doesn’t have to share if she doesn’t want to. This is altering the quantity of the work being done for her disability. Brandon’s brain works very fast, and he enjoys reading. He often can form conclusions and connections about concepts and themes faster than his peers and then gets bored. I give Brandon the choice to skip the class discussion and do some reading about identity instead. Then if he wants, he can spend more time with the digital research on identity and artists because the class is still doing their discussion. I also give him the opportunity to start sketching out ideas in a separate area to not distract the other students. I give Brandon these options to help him feel empowered that he is different and give him more control over the situation. This is altering the time spent on the activities for his project. Tayler is in a wheelchair and has limited movement in her arms and hands. She wants to convey her emotion through painting. Instead of focusing on small details she comes up with the idea to do several abstract paintings that focus on conveying identity through color. Although she is creating more paintings than others, she isn’t including as much detail. This allows her to spend the same amount of time as the other students on the project. This alters the quantity of the work. Rachael has a cognitive disability and can’t tell me what she would like to practice. I notice that she smiles when I say plaster as I name off some of her options. I pair her with some other girls who want to practice plaster and they work together to practice this media. This affects the output of her project. Tyler has a stutter and doesn’t feel comfortable creating a video, I let him type his response and include pictures to post instead. All of these scenarios could happen with my lesson plan. With TAB there’s no way of knowing what a student might want to do but can’t because of an obstacle. My job is to think of creative hurdles to these obstacles so that each student has the opportunity to be an artist.

Interdisciplinary Learning

Since my lesson plan is TAB I think the best way to have an interdisciplinary approach is to focus on each student's interests in their core subjects and run with that. I think this approach will lean even more into the student-centered classroom and allow students to expand on their interests from other classes through a new lens. The main goal for TAB learning is for students to learn in a way that interests them the most and incorporating outside interests is what it's all about (Douglas & Jaquith 2018). If these interests can fit in well with something they are learning in another class, then I think it's important to be intentional about that. “Visual Thinking Strategies are an inquiry-based teaching method that improves a student's ability to describe, analyze, and interpret imagery and information through observing and discussing visual art” (Grand Valley State University). This fits right along with TAB which is a teaching method that encourages students to ask questions that are meaningful to them and explore ideas that relate to them. VTS supports the development of critical thinking skills and encourages participation in collaborative discussions which allows for an artistic community to be present in the classroom. Ideally, my classroom would sort of have an Atelier model where students are free to collaborate and learn from others.

Hook Through Brainstorming

My hope is that the students will be excited to talk about themselves. Every kid loves show an tell so we will start off the unit with something similar. Students will be able to bring in objects that represent them and that will begin the discussion on identity. I also am hoping that they will enjoy the mind map brainstorming assignment. Since its different from a normal mind map I think the kids will be a lot more interested in putting thought into it. I want to give them tools for brainstorming in the future and as you know mind maps really help me out so I think they will help some of my students as well. I want my students to be interested in learning about themselves but also about their friends so most of the activities will be pretty loose with talking.

Assessment

Since all instruction is TAB Based throughout the week I will complete observation assessments where I can see if the students are roughly completing the goals and objectives. I will be writing this down in my laptop. All of the worksheets will also count as formal assignments. The students will be pre-assessed with a discussion about identity and a look at what objects they brought to express themselves. This should give me an idea of what they already know about the topic and gauge their interest. Students will continuously be assessed by the worksheets they fill out, their proposal, and general performance reflections made by me. The students will have some final assessments with their completion of a 5 day project, the critique video and reflection worksheet, a self-assessment rubric, a teacher rubric, and the digital portfolio they make. All of this will show me if they are truly understanding the concepts and give me solid examples of whether this lesson works in the first place. Since I have never taught it, it will be important to me to see if there are any plot holes or things I didn’t think about.

References

Ballengee-Morris, C., & Stuhr, P. L. (2001). Multicultural art and visual cultural education in a

changing world. Art Education (Reston), 54(4), 613. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2001.1165345

Beattie, D. K. (2006). The rich task: A unit of instruction and A unit of assessment. Art

Education (Reston), 59(6), 12-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2006.11651614

Binder, M., & Kotsopoulos, S. (2011). Multimodal literacy narratives: Weaving the threads of

young children's identity through the arts. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(4), 339-363. https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2011.606762

CDE. (n.d.). Visual Arts - Colorado academic standards - adopted 2022. CDE.

https://www.cde.state.co.us/coarts/cas-va-standards-p12-2022

Grand Valley State University. (n.d.). Grand Valley State University. Visual Thinking Strategies

- Art Gallery - Grand Valley State University. https://www.gvsu.edu/artgallery/visual-thinking-strategies-152.htm

Douglas, K. M., & Jaquith, D. B. (2018). Engaging learners through artmaking: Choice-based art

education in the classroom (TAB). Teachers College Press.

Stets, J. E., & Burke, P. J. (2014). Self-Esteem and Identities. Sociological Perspectives, 57(4),

409–433. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121414536141