Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mrs. Kennedy, and I'm really pleased that you've decided to join me for today's lesson.

I'll be guiding you through the lesson, helping you along the way.

Today's lesson comes from the unit "What are our identities and our communities?" And our lesson today is called "What does identity mean?" By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to explain what identity means and why people have different identities.

Let's take a look at our keywords for today.

Our first keyword is identity.

This is who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that makes them different from others.

Next we have characteristic.

This is a feature or quality belonging typically to a person in order to identify them.

Next we have nature.

These are the things you are born with, your biological background, traits, and abilities, which come from your genes.

And finally, we have nurture.

This is the environment and experiences that shape you after you are born.

So in the first part of today's lesson, we are going to look at how can we understand the term identity.

Now, we've already heard from our keywords, but identity is what makes you, you.

It's all the qualities you have that make you unique and different from others.

Identity impacts everyone around the world.

We all have an identity and we can represent it in lots of different ways.

Here in the UK we currently use passports as one of our main forms of identification.

And on our passports we find personal information such as our name, date of birth, gender, and place of birth.

Previously, UK citizens had ID cards too.

These were used during both World Wars, but we no longer use them here in the UK.

So let's have a quick check.

What do we use as our main form of identification in the UK? Is it A, ID cards; B, a bus pass; or C, a passport? Have a think.

So the correct answer here is passport.

Well done if you got that one right.

Lots of people will recognise a fingerprint as a symbol of identity.

One way it is used is by the police to identify different people who may have been involved in a crime.

The reason the police do that is because everybody's fingerprint is unique.

No two fingerprints are the same.

So Jacob asks us, "What makes up our identity?" And Laura says, "Someone's identity is made up of who a person is, or the qualities of a person or group that makes them different from others." There are lots of characteristics which form our identity, so we've got some on the slide here but there are many others.

So for example, your identity, some of the characteristics that sit behind your identity might be your hair colour or your eye colour.

It might be a particular team that you support.

It might be your age.

You might think about your identity as part of your family, or the clubs and hobbies that you have.

Or your identity might be attached to your religion or any beliefs that you may have.

These are just some examples.

So have a think about some of the characteristics which form your identity.

Laura asks, "What makes up your identity, Jacob?" And Jacob says, "Well, my name is Jacob.

I'm 12 years old and I like drawing and rugby.

I have short black hair and brown eyes.

I live in Leeds.

My parents and my sister were born in Africa.

I am a Christian and enjoy going to church every week.

I also like meeting up with my friends to watch and support my local rugby team, Leeds Rhinos." So you can see there that Jacob has described lots of the different characteristics that make up his identity, lots of the characteristic categories that we looked at in the last slide.

True or false? Everyone has the same identity.

Do you think that one's true or false? So that's false, let's take a look at why.

Identity is about who you are as a person, so no one can have exactly the same identity as someone else, not even if they were identical twins.

They will still have lots of different characteristics that makes their identity unique.

So we've got a task for you here.

I would like you to go away and complete a spider diagram all about your identity by answering the questions and including as many other parts of your identity as you can.

So some of the questions we've suggested you might want to start with are, where do I live? What's my first language? And what hobbies do I have? But you see we've got lots of question marks there too, so I don't want you just to answer those questions.

Have a go at those questions first, but then include as many others that talk about all of the different characteristics that make up your identity.

Pause the video now and have a go at that.

So I asked you to go away and complete a spider diagram all about your identity, and I gave you some questions to get you started but then I asked you to expand on those questions and tell me all about the different things that make you, you.

So your spider diagram may have ended up looking something a little like this.

So this has "my identity" in the middle and this person, they come from Leicester.

They've got dual nationality, they're a British Indian.

They're 12 years old.

They're a Girl Guide.

They like walking, cycling, and reading.

They're a female, and their religious belief is Hindu.

So there's lots of different characteristics there that make up their identity.

I wonder what you put on your spider diagram.

In the next part of our lesson, we're going to look at, how do we get our personal identity? So our personal identity can be impacted by two different things.

I wonder if you've got any idea what those two different things might be.

You might have had a clue in the keywords at the beginning of this lesson.

So the first thing is nature.

Nature is the things you are born with.

They're your biological backgrounds, traits, and abilities, and they come from your genes.

So they're things like your hair colour, your eye colour, perhaps how tall you are.

You inherit them and they're in your genes.

The other thing that can impact your identity is nurture, and this is about the environment and experiences that shape you after you are born.

For example, the way you've been brought up, the experiences that you've had and what you've learned along the way.

So your identity is shaped both by nature but also by nurture.

So which two things make up our identities? Is it A, nature and interests; B, nature and nurture; or C, intelligence and nurture? Which of those two make up our identities? So the correct answer here is B, nature and nurture, and well done if you got that one correct.

So, as we've said, nature refers to the characteristics we inherit from our biological parents through our genes, so they're things like our eye colour or our height.

So we can see there in the picture that Jacob is quite a lot taller than Jun, and that he's inherited through nature, through his genes from his biological parents.

These are things that we are born with and we can't easily change them.

Nature can also influence certain health conditions.

True or false, nature can influence what we look like? So I wonder if you've got that one right, that one was true.

Let's take a look at why.

So nature can influence what we look like, such as determining our eye colour and height.

It is the things we inherit through our genes.

So the other thing we looked at is nurture, and this is about how our surroundings and experiences shape who we are and shape our identity.

It can include things like family, friends, school and culture, the way we're raised, the lessons we learn, and the experiences we have all the way through our lives.

The people around us influence our behaviour, our beliefs, and our habits, and that helps to shape our identity over time and helps our identity to evolve over time.

So Andeep says to us, "I am a Sikh because of my beliefs and experiences, and that is part of nurture." Sofia tells us, "I have blonde hair and blue eyes because I've inherited them from my parents, and this is part of nature." So Sofia's example is nature because it is something she's inherited through her genes from her biological parents, whereas Andeep is talking about something that's developed because of how he's been raised and the experiences that he's had, which is nurture.

Have a look at these statements, and which of them is not a true statement about nurture? Is it A, it is about how our experiences shape who we are; B, it cannot be changed or influenced; C, it includes the way we were raised; or D, it helps to shape our identity over time? So which one of those statements is not a true statement about nurture? Have a think and see if you can pick it out.

So the correct answer here is B.

So that says nurture cannot be changed or influenced, and that is not a true statement.

We know that nurture can be changed or influenced.

Well done if you got that one right.

So I've got a practise task for you, and there's two parts to it.

The first thing I would like you to do is organise these different characteristics into whether you think they are a result of nature or nurture.

So have a look at the characteristics listed in that table and you decide whether they're characteristics related to nature or nurture.

Once you've done that, the next part of the task is using these characteristics I'd like you to write me one paragraph explaining your own identity.

When you are writing your paragraph, please make sure you include the words nature and nurture.

So pause the video now and have a go at that for me.

How did you get on? So the first thing we asked you to do was organise the different characteristics into whether you think they're a result of nature or nurture, and your answers should have looked like this.

So in our nature column, you should have had hair and eye colour, age, height, and nationality.

And then in your nurture column, you should have had geography, religion and beliefs, language and hobbies.

I wonder if you got them all in the right place.

And then the next part of your task was to write me a paragraph that used all of those characteristics to explain your own identity, and we asked you to make sure you included the words nature and nurture when you were writing your paragraph.

So I've got an example here for you to have a look at, but your paragraph might look quite different and please don't worry if that's the case because your paragraph is all about you, and we already know from earlier in the lesson that no two identities are the same, so you are unique, so your paragraph may look different to mine but here's an example of what you could have written.

So we've said, "My identity is made up of many different characteristics that come from both nature and nurture.

For example, I've got brown hair and green eyes, and they come from nature, meaning I was born with the because of my genes.

I follow the religion of Islam and enjoy dancing and hiking.

These are shaped by nurture because they are all things I've learned or chosen based on my experiences.

All of these characteristics together make me who I am and form my identity." So I wonder what characteristics you put in your paragraph.

In the final part of today's lesson, we are going to look at, what are different types of identity? So sometimes we might associate with more than one thing and this can have an impact on our identity.

So let's have a look at an example together.

So I'd like you to imagine a young person who is a big supporter of Manchester United Football Club.

When they go to a match at Manchester United, they adopt a group identity of that club.

Being a supporter of Manchester United is a characteristic that they have in common with lots of other people there, so they've got that as a group identity.

However, when they're watching, say, the World Cup, they might choose to support the country they were born in or maybe the country they grew up in.

And that is called a national identity.

It connects us to our country through shared traditions and values, and that can also shape our personal identity.

So when you think about your identities, you might have lots of different group identities, but you might also have a national identity.

So true or false, we can have a group identity and a national identity both at the same time? Do you think that statement is true or do you think it's false? Have a think.

That one is true.

So yes, we can absolutely have both a group identity and a national identity because they reflect different parts of who we are.

Group identity comes from smaller groups, perhaps a team that you belong to, while your national identity connects us to a country or possibly multiple countries through shared traditions and values.

But both of those things can exist together naturally.

People usually have multiple identities.

And the reason that people can have multiple identities is because we belong to lots of different groups all at the same time.

So let's take a look at another example of what a multiple identity might look like.

So for example, someone might be a student at a school, they might be a sibling, so a brother or sister, and they might also be part of a sports team.

Alongside all of those things that make up their identity, they also might have family members with lots of different nationalities, and that will play into their identity as well.

Each role or group gives them a different identity, but they all come together to make up who they are, and that's what we mean when we talk about multiple identities.

So have a look at this question.

Why do you think people have multiple identities? Have a read at the four options there and decide which one you think is correct.

So is it A, they can all belong to the same group at all times? Is it B, they can only belong to different groups at different times? C, they can belong to different groups at the same time? Or D, they can belong to the same group but at different times? So those options are quite similar, you might want to have another readthrough before you decide which one you want to select.

So we asked, why can people have multiple identities? And the correct answer here is C, they can belong to different groups at the same time and that gives them a multiple identity.

Well done if you got that one correct.

So for your final task of today's lesson I would like you to read this passage about Jude Bellingham and highlight the words that show his identity.

And then, once you've done that, I'd like you to create a mind map which outlines Jude Bellingham's different identities.

So the first thing we're gonna do is have a read of this passage and then you are gonna highlight or underline the words that show all the different characteristics that form part of Jude Bellingham's identity.

So let me read that for you.

"Jude Bellingham was born in 2003 in Stourbridge, in the Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands.

He is English and his paternal grandparents are Irish.

His maternal grandparents are from Guyana, and he plays professional football for Birmingham City.

He then moved to Germany to play for Borussia Dortmund and he now plays for Real Madrid in Spain.

He's also a member of the England National Men's Football Team.

He likes watching old films and gaming." So have another readthrough of that passage on your own and highlight the words that show Jude Bellingham's identity.

And then, once you've done that, create me a mind map which outlines Jude Bellingham's different identities, so thinking about what we've just been exploring about multiple identities.

Pause the video now to have a go at that.

So the first thing I asked you to do was read the passage about Jude Bellingham and highlight all the words that show his identity.

So hopefully you have highlighted the same things that I have.

So the first thing you might have highlighted is showing us where Jude Bellingham is from.

So he's from Stourbridge in the Borough of Dudley, which is in West Midlands, so hopefully you highlighted all three of those.

You then might have highlighted the fact that he's English but his paternal grandparents are Irish, whereas his maternal grandparents are from Guyana.

So there's lots of different nationalities that play into his identity.

The next bit looks about what he does as a job.

So you might have highlighted the fact that he played professional football and you then might have gone on to highlight all of the different places that he has played professional football at throughout his career.

And then finally, you might have highlighted some of his hobbies, so watching old films and gaming.

I wonder if you managed to highlight all of those things.

And then the final thing I asked you to do was create me a mind map which outlines Jude Bellingham's different identities.

Now your answer might have looked a bit like this but don't worry if you've got things in slightly different places or labelled them slightly differently.

But the things that I've picked out here that form the main part of Jude Bellingham's identity from what we've heard are around his hobbies, so he likes films and gaming.

I talked about his gender and his age, so he's male, he was born in 2003.

I looked at the fact that his career is as a footballer and that has taken to Birmingham, Germany, Spain, and England.

And I also looked at his nationality, so he's British.

But through his grandparents he has connections to Ireland and Guyana.

I wonder if you've got all of those things and if you picked up any more.

So that brings us to the end of today's lesson, thank you so much for joining me.

Let's have a look at what we've talked about today.

So we've explored the fact that we all have different identities from one another.

Each of us is unique.

Our identities are made up of who we are as a person or the qualities that make us different from others.

We all have characteristics which make people unique and help others to identify us.

We get our identities from both nature, which is based on your biological background, and nurture, the environment and experiences that shape you after you are born.

And finally, we looked at the fact that people can belong to lots of different groups at the same time and therefore they can have multiple identities.

Thank you so much for joining me in today's lesson, I hope I see you in another lesson soon.