What Shapes Your Identity?

Lesson 2
Overview
This lesson is part of the following unit:
Identity & Community: An Introduction to 6th Grade Social Studies
The previous lesson introduced students to the term identity and encouraged them to
think about the factors that shape their own identity. This lesson includes activities to
deepen and broaden students ideas about identities. First, students share their identity
charts as a way to reflect on their own identities and to get to know their classmates.
Next, students will write biopoems. This poetic format emphasizes how personal
experiences shape identities. When students consider how experiences have influenced
their own identities, it lays the groundwork for them to connect the customs (e.g., how
people ate, dressed, and played) and dramatic events (e.g., war and famine) that occur
throughout world history to the individuals who lived through these experiences. This
step helps bring distant history down to a human scale.

Learning Goals
1. Students will review and deepen their understanding of identity.
2. Students will be able to identify how their experiences have shaped their
identities.