Overview | What is identity and where does it come from? How can we convey our identities with others? In this lesson, students map their social locations, reflect on their identity and the dramatic purpose of monologue, and craft speeches that explore defining aspects of their lives.
Materials | Student journals, large sheets of plain paper, handouts, projection equipment (optional)
Warm-up | Prior to class, prepare to introduce students to the concept of “social location.” In a2003 English Journal article, Greg Hamilton explains how to create a “social location map,” which he describes as a “reading/writing tool”:
Mapping a social location for a character or for oneself involves using a web-like diagram to represent the complex and potentially contradictory contexts in which individuals may find themselves. Social location applies to the social categories of one’s identity: race, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and so on. It also applies to social roles (sister, student, and friend) and extends to include one’s experiences and relationships.
Create a map of your own social location to share with students. To do this, consider all of the aspects that inform who you are – race, family, gender, religion, ethnicity, education, social class, attitudes, interests, passions, responsibilities, beliefs, concerns, and so on. Focus on the present, not the past or the future.
On a blank sheet of paper, put yourself in the middle and visually represent these roles and forces in relation to you. (Include as much information as you feel comfortable sharing with students.) For example, you might make the places and roles that are very important in your life larger than their less-important counterparts.
Here is a model (PDF) of one way to go about this, but let yourself have free reign.
