Decatur Middle School

Identity &
Community
UNIT PLANS & FIELD TRIP
 Education is the most
powerful weapon which you
can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
 Why Teach Community &
Identity?
In middle school, identity and a sense of community are already at the
front of students' minds because they are going through a transition of
learning who they are and what they might contribute to the school
and surrounding community. This unit will introduce themes like
identity, membership, and belonging as well as how we help members
in our community!
 What is
Identity?

What does the

unit include? Define a
Community
There are three main
components in this unit!
Belonging in a
Community
 Learning Goals for this Unit

Students will
Students will be able to Students will be able to
recognize the
identify various factors identify how their
relationship between
that shape their experiences have
the individual and
identity. shaped their identities.
society.

Students will be able to Students will identify Students will

identify various factors what makes their understand the terms
that shape their classroom a belonging and
identity. community. conformity.
Standards of Unit
Students will use a wide variety of idea creation
techniques.
Students will make and express meaningful connections.
Students will solve different kinds of non familiar
Share only comments that are relevant or when teacher specifically
problems in both conventional and innovative ways.
asks everyone to use the chat box for an activity. Think before you send
as the tone may be misinterpreted by your classmates.

Standards from the Decatur Public Schools Scope and Sequence

What is Identity?
In the lessons on identity, students will be
exploring what identity means and who they
are as a person (how morals, values, ideas, and
actions play a role in who they are), how they
might hide or reveal different aspects of their
identities to different people, and how others
define their identity.
Define a Community
In this second part of the unit, students will be
looking at the community they live and exploring
what it means to be a part of a community.
Students will learn that a community consists of
different people with different identities than them
and identifying the characteristics of a community.
 Belonging in a
Community
In this final part of the unit, students will define
what it means to belong in a community. They
will look at the range of things that they can do
to help their community and surrounding
communities.
Field Trip Integration
Hands on experience of helping our community.

I wanted this field trip to be relevant to something that the students

have seen before but may not have understood how or where it came
from. More on this next....
Pack Shack Field Trip
Students in my district receive weekly produce boxes from the school.
However, when asking the students, they do not know where the food
comes from or who directs the whole program. In our community, there
is a company called Pack Shack that allows groups of people to come in
and pack boxes that are very similar to the ones that our students
receive every week. Through this experience, students will be able to
recognize that the work they are doing will have a direct impact on their
community because they have seen the benefits of the program in their
own homes.
Continuing the
Conversation
After the field trip, students will write a journal
entry talking about how the experience gave
them insight into what it is like to help their
community. Students' last project will be a
community help project. They will need to
come up with something that they can do or
plan to do to help the people in their
community. This can be a solo project, a group
project, or something that we continue to do
as a school to better the community around us.