Self Identity

Objective: to help students explore their identities and to
celebrate the diversity in your class. This activity is especially
helpful in racially homogenous classes because it reinforces the
many dimensions of diversity.
Grade level: All
Materials: brown paper bags, markers
Time required: 10 min. for viewing, 50 min. for sharing

1. Who are you? Ask students to bring in a brown paper bag. Instruct them to decorate the outside of the bag with pictures and materials that illustrate who they are. Use a combination of these prompts to get your students thinking: What is your family's heritage? What is your gender? What is your religion? What languages do you speak? How old are you? What are your hobbies? To which groups do you belong? What are your interests? What values are important to you? Ask students to put something inside the bag that represents who they are that is not obvious from looking at them.

2. Display and Present - When the students return the bags, exhibit them in the classroom. Ask students to walk around and see if they can match the bags with their classmates. Then have each student present their identity bags to the class.

3. What did we learn? Conclude the activity by noting how different each of the identity bags were. Ask students, In what ways are we unique? In what ways are we alike? Try to emphasize that there is more to diversity than meets the eye.*

*We all have families; we all have a cultural heritage; we all have different interests