D. Scott Stewart
Essential Questions – “Does our self-identity match our projected persona?”
As somewhat rational, but primarily emotional beings, youths and adolescents have an inherent need to belong. Peers have a significant influence over the formation of identity at this stage of development. The goal of this section is to examine how individuals tailor self-identity to the group we wish to associate with, what impacts or modifications these outside influences on our belief systems we are comfortable with allowing, and how the reconciliation of the two influences an evolving identity.
Identity in youth and adolescents can be a fragile thing. It is continually evolving at the conscious and subconscious level with little-to-no awareness of when or how their concept of who they are changes. Our students regularly struggle to balance an unsure definition of self against an unsteady bombardment of external influences on how they should behave in often dichotomous or sometimes outright conflicting social environments. Musical choices often reflect this tumultuous time.
Expanded playlist
In this exercise students consider what music they listen to specifically because the musical choices are directly influenced by external factors. This does not preclude that a student cannot ultimately enjoy and connect with the music on an intrinsic level, but that the primary reason for adding the selections into their identity is due to peers. As part of ongoing one-on-one meetings, students should be able to explain how this music helps them connect to the peer group. While students are encouraged to share and discuss a selection of these songs with the class as they are meant as a reflection of their projected identity, they should not be required to indicate to the class which songs are not reflective of their self-identity.
Guiding questions:
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Do your personal choices in music match what you listen to amongst your peers?
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Are there songs/genres that you believe necessary to include in order to belong to a peer group?
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Are there “guilty pleasure” songs you do not share with others because of the need to project a particular identity?
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Do you have different/multiple peer groups based on musical taste?
Literary tie-in: Monster
In the seminar, we examined the mid-grade novel Monster, by Walter Dean Meyers. The novel is written in a first-person perspective of the main character, a young African American teenager Steve Harmon, with significant portions of the novel presented as a screenplay written by Harmon himself as he is processing the events of his trial for murder. The purpose of this exercise is to have the students work together in small groups to create a soundtrack for the novel that reflect all three elements of identity: personal, projected, and perceived.
Guiding Questions:
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Steve Harmon is the only character from whom we experience an internal viewpoint. What songs create a playlist that reflects his self-identity, his projected identity, and the perceived identity? Is there any overlap?
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Can we create a playlist for any other characters that provide insight into their self-identity?
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Can we include music on the soundtrack representing the projected and perceived identities of other characters in the novel?