My Reading Identity: Who am I as a reader?

This lesson was about making a visual representation of our reading selves.  We drew, we laughed, we learned about each other as readers, and started building a reading community.  We did this on a remote day.  *This was developed in conjunction with my brilliant colleagues.*

silly drawing of my reading identity with triangle face and heart eyes


Standards: 

AASL: Inquire/Share I.C.1 . Interacting with content presented by others.

I decided we needed a theme to tie a disjointed year together and settled on the question: 

Who am I as a reader?


I spent much of my summer thinking about "identity" but needed a concrete landing place for those big, abstract thoughts.  I wondered what would happen if we thought about "identity" through a reading lens.

Book Reading Makes You Feel Good by Todd Parr
We read Reading Makes You Feel Good


Do you prefer reading inside or outside?
We practiced looking at two options and showing our choice
for where we like to read by holding up that number of fingers.


I'd rather read in the morning or at night
Next, we moved on to our directed draw.

I'd rather read a paper book or a digital book

I'd rather read with my eyes or with my ears

I'd rather read by myself or with someone


When we were done drawing, we had a big reveal.  Students were tasked with looking for someone with a similar piece of reading identity.  



  • "I noticed that both ____ and I have the same hair."
  • "I noticed that ___ and I have almost the same drawing." 

My takeaways

This activity offered us a light, entertaining way to begin conversations about "identity."  This gave us a concrete way to "see" all the ways we read.  Only on a rare occasion did we find two drawings that were exactly alike.

I wish I could share the collection of drawings we made, but being that we did this virtually, I was legally unable to record this.  

This activity that my colleagues and I created early in the year was my inspiration for our thinking for the rest of the year.  

Resources/Related Posts

My Reading Identity (Activity slides)
 


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