LB 4.5 Identity Texts

Using Identity Texts for Assessment and Evaluative Purposes

Math Identity Texts

In “Our ages: A book about subtraction” students compared their ages to one of their family members and used number lines to find the difference between the two ages. Some students thought of how long it would take to reach their family members' age. This allowed students to include their family members and identity into a math themed identity text. The level of engagement allow students to see relate math to their lives as they explored strategies to operate with numbers.

I also appreciated the junior version of a math identity text, "Life after school day". Students listed how they managed their time after school. Students worked on calculating the elapsed time that makes up their afternoons. In do so they shared their interests, hobbies, routines and home life. Some students were able to reflect and think of how they could be using their time more productively once they examined the work they completed.

"At the same moment around the world" Identity Texts

Heavily inspired by the mentor text "At the same moment around the world", students created an identity text that encompasses the world. Students created a text that connected their identity and home life to the time of time in another part of the world. Students also included what their friends and families were doing in their home country during specific periods of time during the day. This text emphasizes how students can think about multiple events happening at the same time in different parts of the world. This identity text also challenged students to be creative and think from the perspective of people close to them.

Living portraits: Exploring Art through identity and narratives

Identify portraits is a highly structured, engaging and authentic learning project. Students are tasked with completing four sentence stems, "I am...", "I like...", "I remember...", and "I believe..." which places their perspective and identify in the focus on the assignment. Students then create a collage of themselves and write out their sentences repeated around their collage to create a boarder. Once they are completed they have the opportunity to present and share who they are with one another.

Identity text reflection

All the texts blend curriculum and student identity well together. Once the projects are complete students are able to learn more about each others culture, families, background and live experiences in both Canada and home countries. We do see L1 embedded in the tasks when students discuss their families, home lives and perspectives blended with their English language acquisition being developed while they plan, create and present their identity texts. These texts also give teachers a window into their students previous and current home lives which can be used to add onto student profiles to plan the necessary next steps for each student in their ELL/ ELD programming.

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