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Identity Text

Master’s in Education, University of People.

EDUC 5710 – Understanding Barriers to Learning

Instructor – Dr., Florence Nyemba

Due Date – May 26, 2021

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The term identity text first emerged in context of collaborative research by teachers to capture

essential feature of work produced by students. When students were encouraged to use their

multilingual skills as cognitive tools to create art and literature to generate insight about social and

personal realities, the concept of literacy was broadened beyond text book reading and writing

skills in dominant language towards deeper understanding of content. Identity texts are the

exact/original work of students. It is expression of student’s physical feelings like sadness,

happiness and gratitude which can be done through spoken, written, drama or even music.

(Cummins et al., n.d. P.557).

Advantages of using identity texts:

 Identity text helps to build students confidence and faith in themselves and engage more in

English language and literacy activities. Mostly when students express themselves through

identity text, the response is positive and encouraging from teachers and parents, it leads to

self affirmation of self during these interactions (Cummins et al., n.d, P.6).

 Identity text arouses students thinking capacity to access and express prior knowledge. It

helps them to think critically and relate and understand the content better. It improves

students creativity in terms of instructional emphasis and language interaction.

In most cases, the languages in which ELL students has prior experience is acknowledged

as an important resource for learning, and instruction aims for transfer of knowledge and

skills across languages: and instruction communicates respect for students’ language and

culture, which aims explicitly to enable students to engage with literacy and invest their

identities in the learning process (Cummins et al., n.d, P.10).

 Identity text helps in welcoming students language in school, which helps in making them

feel comfortable and facilitates the flow of ideas, knowledge, and feeling from one domain

to another. These act assist in boasting their self-confidence to express, write and interact
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using English language (Cummins et al., n.d, P.10).

Challenges of identity texts:

 As the classroom environment is diverse, it takes times for students to accept and

appreciate others cultural orientation and personal identity. Limited acceptance of language

by other students from various different backgrounds, leads to exclusion and therefore

frustration (Cummin et al., n.d, P.4).

 It may happen at times that a student expresses himself through identity text, and maybe

mocked by his or her peers, as they might not understand what he is trying to explain. This

leads to a feeling of disappointment and embarrassment.

 Identity text discourages active learning and favors passive learning which limits a

student’s growth. It also lacks scientific credibility of approaches that rely on knowledge

and skills transmission from teachers to students (Cummins et al., n.d, P.5).

 Assumptions about using prior language like, ‘If they are allowed to use their prior

language, they won’t be able to learn the target language.’ for students hinders them to use

identity text successfully. (Cohen, 2014)

If I was given the opportunity of writing using identity text, it would have been different in the

early stages of education, as I would express purely what I felt and understood. As you grow up

you understand and learn more which helps you to enhance your thoughts and writing process.

Writing my own identity text would help me connect better with the subject matter, Prior

knowledge refers to the totality of the experiences that have shaped the learners’ identity and

cognitive functioning (Cummins, J, et al. n.d. P.4). As learners stay longer in a school

environment, they monitor their progress by comparing their current state to their prior knowledge

(Schunk, D. H. 2012, P.281 Para 1)

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References

Cohen, S. 2014. Identity Text.

https://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/education/pdfs/languagematters/Cohen%20-

%20.Identity%20Texts.pdf

Cummins, J, et al. (n.d.). ELL Students speak for themselves: identity texts and literacy

engagement in multilingual classrooms.

http://www.curriculum.org/secretariat/files/ELLidentityTexts.pdf

Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6th ed.). Boston, MA:

Pearson. (P.281).

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Identity Text