Intersectionality Lesson - Start of Year - Identity & Diversity

My students loved this lesson, and I hope your students do too! We do this during the first week of school before talking about our syllabus and class culture. It’s a great way to learn a lot about your students at the start of the year while building a class culture that is affirming of all aspects of their identities.

The structure of this Intersectionality Lesson:

1. Informative slide about the social and personal aspects of identity.
2. Informative slide and video about intersectionality with three comprehension/connection questions.
3. Review quiz on quizizz (do this “live” if you are doing a synchronous lesson! It’s really fun since it’s made to be like a competition.
4. The short story “Little Things are Big” by Jesús Colón with Youtube audio for listen aloud. This includes comprehension and connection questions for discussion.
5. Students create an identity chart including the personal and social aspects of their identity. They also explain their intersectionality. I included a grading slide, but feel free to change it according to your school grading expectations.

Note - I created this for distance learning. I still presented the slides, but students were also provided an electronic copy. I instructed students to make their own copy of the slides in order to edit them and turn them in using Google Classroom. This works for students who are absent or need to review the information again. If you are in person, you can use the same approach to reduce paper usage and germ sharing! You could also print out the slides for students who prefer to work on paper.