Lesson 5 — My Identity, a Changing Story

Summary

Learners reflect on how their identity has changed over time — in interests, abilities, values, and relationships — and name what changed it and what has stayed. They build a “me then / me now” comparison and discover that identity is a changing story, not a fixed label set in childhood.

Objectives

• Reflect on how their identity has changed over time. (D01.S2.07.01)

Connection

Think of yourself at six, at nine, at eleven. The games you loved, the fears you had, the person you wanted to be — some of it is gone, some of it grew, and some of it is still here, quietly, at the center. You are not the same person who started school; you are the same person, grown. A river is still a river even though the water in it is always new. Your identity is like that: continuous and changing, wherever you live and whatever your family looks like.

Materials

• Then/now poster
• Then/now page
• Pencils and crayons

Preparation

• Print or draw the then/now poster (two panels joined by an arrow).
• Copy a then/now page for each learner.
• Arrange a circle for sharing.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). The idea to land: identity changes over time and is still continuous — the person I was and the person I am are one story, not two strangers. This is developmentally real (Erikson describes identity as a lifelong process, not a finished fact) and it is the opposite of “you were always like this.” Frame change as normal and good, never as a betrayal of an earlier self. Let learners choose small, safe examples; identity work can brush against sensitive material (family change, migration, loss), so keep it low-stakes and voluntary. The four parts — interests, abilities, values, relationships — are a scaffold, not a cage; learners may name other parts (place, language, faith, body). Model the then/now comparison as a worked example (Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006). Distinguish evidence from values: that identity changes is observable; that change should be welcomed and never used to rank people is a value this curriculum holds — name it as one. See docs/facilitation.md and docs/art-style.md.

Procedure

1. Gather (5 min). You have spent four days on feelings. Now you turn to the self those feelings live in. Try to recall one thing about yourself at age seven that is different now. (Pause.) Today you map that change.
2. Meet the two panels (10 min). Look at the poster: “me then” on one side, “me now” on the other, joined by an arrow. Worked example: Then, I was scared of the dark and loved only one game. Now, I read late and play three sports — and I still keep my promises. Four parts to compare: interests, abilities, values, relationships.
3. Map your own change (15 min). On your page, write or draw “me then” in one column and “me now” in the other, for each of the four parts — plus any part that matters to you. For each change, add one word about what changed it: a person, a place, an experience, the simple fact of growing.
4. What stayed (10 min). Now find the continuity — one thing that has stayed the same across all the change (a value, a love, a habit). Write it under both columns. Change and staying are both true.
5. Share and close (10 min). Share one then/now pair with a partner. Close by remembering: you are not the person you were — and that is the point of growing, not a problem with it.

Differentiation

• Support: Provide a partly filled then/now page and a word bank (interests, abilities, values, relationships, changed, stayed).
• Extension: Write a one-paragraph “story so far” connecting one change to what caused it and naming what has stayed.

Assessment

• Formative (observation): Can the learner name at least one way their identity has changed and one thing that stayed, across the four parts?
• Portfolio (artifact): The then/now page, kept for the unit’s “my changing identity” reflection.

Home connection

Ask an older family member how they have changed since they were your age — and what stayed the same. Notice that grown-ups are still changing too.

Resources

• On identity as a lifelong, developing process: Erikson, Childhood and Society (1950) — cited here for the framing that identity forms and reforms across the life, not as a fixed trait.
• On the self as many changing parts, for classroom framing: CASEL’s self-awareness competency, https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/
• On modeling a new skill before independent practice: Kirschner, Sweller & Clark (2006), https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4102_1