An Identity Lesson With a Mission!

I recently developed an Avatar Lesson. The inspiration for this lesson was trying to come up with a lesson that could turn into a collaborative project with each student's work on a square.  I wanted students to show their identity in a visually interesting way.  The visual in my head reminded me of a friends list on Facebook, where each student was represented by a profile picture or avatar.  I looked online at avatars and was inspired by the graphic cartoon-like avatars that some people create.


I particularly like the avatars where there were no facial features.  Each identity was described by the hair, clothes, and accessories.  What if students did the same thing?  Each of those things is a choice we make based on our identity; what we prefer and what we want others to know about us.  Many of these choices come from our culture and the groups we belong to.  The lesson could get really interesting if students had to trace their choices to something in their culture.  This would be a fun extension!  

What I've come up with, however, is a lesson packet that will have students learn about the concept of "Identity" through a presentation.  There is a formative assessment where students will write a few things about their identity.  The teacher can assess that they understood the presentation and class discussion about identity.  The teacher can also assess that they have a few ideas for their avatar drawing. 

Next students will write a mission statement.  The mission statement can be about school or life. There is also a "work" mission statement writing sheet in case you or colleagues want to try this.  

They will write their name at the top of the page with BOLD letters.  I've included a guide to help them out with that.

Then they will draw their avatar using the Avatar Gal and Avatar Guy drawing sheets.  

If you like the idea of making the avatar on a square and displaying a grade level or school's avatar's together, you could use a square paper instead of the sheet I provided, or you could make the sheet included in the lesson the practice drawing and have the final drawing on a square paper that gets displayed with the others. 

You can take a look at the Avatar Lesson lesson here.

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