ABSTRACT
Groups, and Institution). INTASC Standards: 4 (Instructional Strategy), 9 (Refl ection and Professional Development) Topics: fi rst day, issues-centered approach, cultural context, perspective consciousness, identity,
students’ lives and experiences, identity, history
Th is chapter describes a fi rst day activity, called “What’s in a Name?” that aims to combine getting to know one another with introducing some key concepts. Th e activity was inspired by two articles by the same title. Th e fi rst is high school English teacher Diane Shearer’s 1998 article in Teaching Tolerance. In this article, Shearer describes how she turned a student roster routine into a writing lesson for her twelft h graders who learned and wrote about the history, linguistic norms, and cultural patterns infl uencing their given, sur and nicknames. Th e second inspiration is journalist Karen Lincoln Michel’s “What’s in a Name ?” in American Indian. Michel described the Ho-Chunk naming ceremony, and her own Ho-Chunk name, Wakanchunk Mahnee (Holy Walker) given by her grandfather. It is this name that Michel describes as defi ning her identity as a human being, and shaping of her professional life.
