What is the relationship between identity, culture, and ancestry?
What cultural identities are most important to me and how were they constructed?
What questions do I still have about my cultural identities and cultural ancestry? What tools can I use to access more information about them?
OBJECTIVES
Students will be able to define and explain the relationship between identity, culture, and ancestry.
Students will consider the difference between inherited identities, co-constructed identities, and self-developed identities.
SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING SUPPORT
Though there are no typical content warnings or triggering materials in this lesson, conversations about identity and ancestry can be difficult for some students. This lesson is crafted so that students can engage at the emotional level that is most comfortable and share only the identities and interests they’re most comfortable bringing up in class while providing them with a tool that they can use to continue reflection on their own. Be intentional when framing the lesson so that students know there is space for vulnerability, but it is not a requirement.
Students will be able to understand and define cultural ancestry as a concept. Students will be able to affirm themselves as individuals with connection to a wide range of ancestral stories and cultural inheritance.
