FACILITATOR TIP:

Before you begin, recap and review ground rules as a class. 

Discuss any rules created which worked well, together with any that didn't work - do they need to change? Make amendments if needed. Ensure pupils are clear why ground rules are used and why they are so important.

ASK:

• Who would you say I am? 

(Teacher/facilitator to pose the question about themself (or a person well known to students)) 

or

• If I were a character in a book or film, what characteristics would I have? 

Students should briefly describe what they think defines the teacher’s/facilitator's/character’s identity. 

Using Worksheet 2a: My Identity, plot the things that students’ suggest against the headings shown. You may need to explain some of the terminology used e.g. aspirations, morals, etc. 

When initial ideas are exhausted, focus specifically on the 'nationality/ethnicity/gender' category. Explain that lots of organisations, like governments, use these parts of our identity to classify or group us for different reasons, e.g. organising services that might be needed by certain groups of people more than others. One of these, ethnicity, is an integral part of each of our cultural backgrounds and, therefore, our identity. If there is time, it may be helpful to ask pupils to share an understanding of their own ethnic group and culture to promote a better understanding of diversity.

NB: there is a natural tendency to focus on the ‘whats’ i.e. you are tall, happy, have blonde hair, etc. However, this doesn’t describe the ‘who’ of what we are. Allow pupils to describe the what’s.

ASK:

• But do these things describe who I am and what’s important to me? 

EXPLAIN:

Identity goes much deeper than this. Today we will be focusing on the subject of identity. We’ve briefly looked at how this is formed and the things that influence it. Fundamentally, there are three parts or ‘goals’ to identity formation:

1. Discovering and developing our own personal potentials.

   • These are things that a person can do better than other things. 

ASK:

• How might we discover what those potentials are?

EXPLAIN:

2. Choosing our purpose in life.

1. • This requires thinking deeply and consciously about the things that we feel are important to us as individuals (i.e. our ‘purpose’) and motivate us to want to act.

   • To achieve substantial success in fulfilling this purpose, our objectives need to match with our talents and skills (our authentic self). 

   • To choose a purpose that’s not compatible with our capabilities is usually a recipe for frustration and ultimately failure.

3. Finding opportunities to implement potential and purpose.

• • Once we know what we’re good at, and what motivates or drives our purpose, it’s important to seek out opportunities that enable us to act upon it. 

  • This means being open to trying new things, overcoming any fears we might have and being comfortable with the fact that sometimes, as a result, things might not always fall into place the first time around, just like we saw in the growth mindset film.

Introduce the key takeaways for today's session

FACILITATOR NOTE:

It's important to remember that identity is never 'final' and continues to develop throughout our lives. Understanding and being secure in our own skin increases self-esteem and reduces the risk of depression and anxiety. When people are doing what they feel is right for them, they are happy. When people misrepresent themselves or present themselves in out-of-character ways to impress others, the behaviour is unnatural and psychologically exhausting. It requires greater cognitive resources because the mind is filled with self-doubt, self-consciousness, and negative thoughts. When people look to others in helping them define who they should be, how they should look, and what they should do, they risk acting in ways that impact their health (e.g. eating disorders are due, in part, to concerns about body appearance; alcohol and drug use are related to peer pressure and acceptance, etc.). 

EXPLAIN:

We're going to be looking at the character of Ella and the story of her life. Ella is a bit like all of you. She's at school, she's got her concerns and worries, and she's doing her best to find out her potential and purpose, as well as opportunities to be the person she hopes to become. 

Read through Episode 1. Then, working in your group, capture the critical points using Worksheet 2: Identity that you feel have impacted Ella's identity. 

SHOW:

• Scenario 1:  Visuals of Ella looking dejected while life happens around her vs. Ella celebrating making the football team

EXPLAIN:

The two contrasting pictures provide an opportunity for us to explore Ella’s identity. 

(with reference to the ‘events that changed me’ section of Worksheet 2b: 

1. She seems to be ignored by her parents because of the demands made by her siblings and the extent to which this occupies her parents

2. Being chosen for the school football team shows a stark contrast in her demeanour (although, as we see in the scene, her achievement is ignored)

We then hear what Ella’s thinking as she remembers these events: 

“I LEARNED TO GET ON WITH THINGS AND MAKE MY OWN CHOICES, I STOPPED NEEDING ANYONE ELSE…AND WHEN YOU DON’T NEED PEOPLE, IT BECOMES EASIER TO SEE THEM JUST AS A WAY TO GET WHAT YOU WANT…BUT I GUESS THAT MEANT OTHERS GOT CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE.”

ASK:

• How does this make Ella feel? (e.g. insecure, unloved)

• Are her parents acting badly, or simply preoccupied with other things?

• What impact might these two scenes have on the choices Ella makes? Look specifically at her comment ‘IT BECOMES EASIER TO SEE…'

SHOW:

• Scenario 2:  Contrasting pictures of character perspectives on the same event where Ella posts negative comments of Kwan: Kwan looking unhappy vs Ella looking happy

ASK:

• What’s happening here?

The scenes depict the different perspectives of Kwan and Ella after Ella posts a video in which she negatively describes her friends. 

Bring out the contrasting moods of Kwan and Ella.

• Both characters are reacting to the same event, so why is their expression different?

Sometimes, we can view the same event very differently depending on our perspective. Ella is thinking about her online audience and perhaps not considering how her video makes her 'real-life' friends feel. Ella could be said to be developing her personal persona, but it is only one facet of her identity (i.e. the online appearance of her persona) and at what expense? In contrast, Kwan appears unhappy, perhaps feeling betrayed by a so-called trusted friend who seems to be attacking his identity, and in a very public way. This scene also offers the opportunity to talk about social media use more broadly (picked up in detail during Session 8).  

• What might this tell us about identity?

It’s complex, multifaceted and situations can have very different effects on how we see ourselves. It also shows that our identities can be shaped deliberately (i.e. Ella is quite clearly cultivating a particular identity, perhaps at the expense of others) or by circumstance (i.e. Kwan is reacting to feeling that his identity has been attacked). We often respond based upon our own psychological needs at that particular time, a theme that is further developed in Session 3.

SHOW:

• Scenario 3:  Visuals of conversation between Kwan and Ella

EXPLAIN:

Here we see Ella’s conversation with Kwan. Kwan enquires if she’s ok but initially her response is insensitive. Kwan opens up about his own feelings of being ignored, while Ella is so popular. She admits that none of it is really her, pointing out that followers on social media are not real friends before admitting: 

“I’M NOT SURE I KNOW WHAT REAL FRIENDS REALLY ARE” 

Kwan perseveres, saying that he thought he had been one of her friends, prompting a discussion about why they’re no longer so close. Kwan continues to open up, confessing that this was because of her brother, Marcus, who gave him a really hard time. She brushes this off as just banter and that Kwan simply needed to front up. Ella’s phone rings and she immediately dashes off, telling Kwan she misses their friendship.

In the next scene, Ella is reflecting on the impact some of her words and actions have had on others. 

“AND I JUST DIDN’T SEE WHAT I WAS DOING TO THOSE AROUND ME”

This comment begins to articulate that we don’t always think about the impact we have on others, but that we should perhaps be more mindful. This sets up the question at the end as to whether Ella is a ‘bad person’ or merely acting badly in that instance. 

In the following scene, we see Ella making fun of Samira and Kwan, mocking their fashion sense and posting it on her social media channel to generate likes/praise/acceptance. This raises a question about how we use social media and how we often derive a sense of worth from people we don't know by belittling those we do. Kwan is mortified as he reads it, exposing a need for the support of his friends, his circle of trust. 

Remind students that the scene opens with Ella remembering past events that led her to the moment where she is stood contemplating her next choice. 

What can they take from this?

ASK:

Based upon what you’ve seen and read:

• Do you feel that Ella is a bad person?

If we react in the wrong way and do the wrong thing, are we doing the same thing to others and therefore equally ‘bad’?

Perhaps inadvertently, but certainly thoughtlessly Ella insults Kwan, saying she always saw him as a little brother. Kwan appears rejected and belittled.

• How should we act? As we want others to act towards us?

What could Ella have done if she was feeling like that? (this needs to relate to later session and “If I just told Mum” activity, which brings in research around the importance of having a trusted adult - this also links to later activities around ‘circle of trust’). 

• Why do those we like/love sometimes treat us in this way? (e.g. Ella’s Mum and Dad in the case of Ella, and Ella in the case of Kwan)

• Are they bad people, or good people acting thoughtlessly?

We’ll explore this idea in more detail later in the programme, but for now, let’s think about what we now understand about identity, why it’s important and how it’s formed.

EXPLAIN:

Today we’ve learned that:

1. We all have an identity.

2. The ‘goal’ of identity is about discovering and developing our own personal potentials, choosing our purpose and finding opportunities to match the two.

This is really nothing more than a process of trial-and-error. It requires exposure to a wide array of activities, some of which we become able to do relatively well. We recognise this through the feedback we receive from others and our own positive feelings about those activities and towards ourselves. These activities 'feel right' to us, and our feelings provide valuable clues. We are intrinsically motivated to do these activities. However, the development of skills and talent requires time, effort, and a willingness to tolerate frustration when encountering obstacles, sometimes referred to as a growth mindset.

3. Our identity ultimately drives our actions. ‘Who we are’ is therefore critical to the choices we make and the future we build, so we owe it to ourselves to think really carefully about the identity we want to develop, the person whom we want to be.

Next time we’ll look at how this sense of identity can be influenced by others.