Scrambled Identity Share
o I will pose the “Big Question” of the day by writing it on the board: “Can identities conflict with one another? How? How does identity help us understand the source of conflict?” Spotlight the key words: Identity and Conflict. Take 42 seconds of silence to reflect on this question before beginning the activity.
o Students will get out their journal reflection from the night before and stand up. Then, I will announce, “When I say go, quickly and quietly as possible find someone with the same birth month as you!” I will give ~1 minute for students to find a partner, if students are left over I will connect them so that everyone has a partner.
o I will then explain the activity:
o First discussion question will be “Describe a time that you were especially proud of one of your identities.”
o After ~3 minutes, I will ask if a group would like to share back something they found in common or something they learned or were surprised by. Ideally, I would like one of each, but in order to have more rotations, I wouldn’t want to spend more than 2 minutes on the share backs.
o We will then scramble again and repeat the activity. I would like to rotate 4-5 times, depending on time. The following criteria and questions will structure the rotations:
o I will pose the “Big Question” of the day by writing it on the board: “Can identities conflict with one another? How? How does identity help us understand the source of conflict?” Spotlight the key words: Identity and Conflict. Take 42 seconds of silence to reflect on this question before beginning the activity.
o Students will get out their journal reflection from the night before and stand up. Then, I will announce, “When I say go, quickly and quietly as possible find someone with the same birth month as you!” I will give ~1 minute for students to find a partner, if students are left over I will connect them so that everyone has a partner.
o I will then explain the activity:
- “With your partner you will be sharing experiences related to the identities that you reflected on last night. If you’re comfortable with it, you can share your entire identity web and see the kinds of things you have in common, or the different sorts of things you chose to include. For each rotation I will provide a prompt for the kind of experiences to share, but this is just a guideline. No one should feel any pressure to share something they’re not comfortable with.”
- At this point we will review the class norms that we set yesterday for treating people with respect.
- “This is a safe space: we don’t judge people for their responses here. If anyone begins feeling overwhelmed, you can feel free to step outside for a minute or two, or if you’d like to pair with me for a rotation to share something you’re nervous about, that’s perfectly fine too.”
- Follow up with a note that I don’t expect this to become stressful to anybody, encourage everybody to have fun with this and not be afraid to “get squishy,” step outside your comfort zone a little bit. “A mentor of mine used to say you should ‘get squishy’ at least three times every day, because there’s a lot you can learn outside of your comfort zone.”
- You cannot pair with the same partner more than once!
o First discussion question will be “Describe a time that you were especially proud of one of your identities.”
o After ~3 minutes, I will ask if a group would like to share back something they found in common or something they learned or were surprised by. Ideally, I would like one of each, but in order to have more rotations, I wouldn’t want to spend more than 2 minutes on the share backs.
o We will then scramble again and repeat the activity. I would like to rotate 4-5 times, depending on time. The following criteria and questions will structure the rotations:
o As questions become more personal and potentially difficult to discuss, I will remind students of the norms of respectful conversation, and that they do not have to share things that might be painful to talk about.
Class Discussion Guide
o We will begin by examining the first conflict between Junior and Roger in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. To start, student volunteers will read selections from this scene aloud to refresh the class’s memory.
o Then, we will create identity webs on the board to reference during the discussion. Students will guide the attribution of identifiers, but the final products should look something like this:
o Students will drive the discussion of this conflict. I will encourage students to refer to the text and to connect to personal experiences. If discussion stalls or drifts off course, I may interject with the following questions:
- How does the conflict begin?
- What identities (in both characters) are affected by the conflict? Why are these identities opposed?
- Do the characters have things in common? Do these commonalities affect the conflict?
- How does the setting affect the course of the conflict? How would this interaction have been different if it had taken place on the rez rather than at Reardon?
- What do the characters’ different reactions say about their identities?
o Depending on time, we I’ll ask the students for another example of an interpersonal conflict from the story, and we will examine it following the above model.
o From there, we will transition from interpersonal to intrapersonal conflict. I will ask out for a definition of intrapersonal conflict and for possible examples.
o We will then turn to the passage where Junior describes feeling like a “part-time Indian.” Student volunteers will read aloud selections from that scene to refresh.
o We will follow the above model to discuss this internal conflict. Guiding questions can include:
- Looking at the identity web, which identities are clashing to create this internal conflict?
- Why are these identities in conflict? What outside forces contribute to this conflict?
- Does setting affect this conflict? Where might Junior feel especially torn about this conflict? Where might Junior feel less affected by it?
- Can anyone relate to this conflict?
o We will then return to the “Big Question” of the day: “Can identities conflict with one another? How? How does identity help us understand the source of conflict?” Students will write a brief response on a notecard as an exit ticket.