The beginning of each school year gives us a chance to build new relationships. A learner profile conveys who our students are. We’ve already explored identity activities like This I Believe; how might we discover other aspects of students’ lives?
Here are a few ways to get to know your learners. Be sure to offer students the choice to participate at a level that feels safe for them. No one should be forced to include details about their families, identities, or experiences that they don’t want to share. As the year moves along, and the community strengthens, circle back and see what students might want to share, or how things might have changed.
- Identity charts
- Identity Wheel Activity (click here for pdf version)
- Geography of Self website
- All About Me Gazette
- Thinglink – blog link
- Digital identity exercises blog post
- “I Am From” poem creator
Food for thought
The book is rich with examples! But it’s also nice to see them in full color and web format, so here are a few we love:
- Identity Project: Who am I now? Lindsey Halman, Essex Middle School
- Personal Learning Plan Community Page, Team Summit, Montpelier Main Street Middle School, Vermont
- How Can Students Teach Educators about Social Identity? Audrey Homan, Tarrant Institute, 2018
- Who Are We as West Rutland? Emily Hoyler, Tarrant Institute, 2018
- I Is for Identity, Rachel Mark, Tarrant Institute, 2015
Now tell us
- How do your learners show you who they are?
Take this quiz about learner profiles!
Let’s go
Next, we review a few engaging pedagogies that help our students explore flexible pathways.