Mind Map
Students think expansively, generating concepts and experiences most salient for them in relation to a particular topic, then seek connections and disconnections.
Draw Your Path
Have students use a visual medium to tell and share stories about themselves; practice close listening; find commonalities and differences with peers.
Reflection Cards (from Harvard)
Students generate conversation around any given topic through choosing an image.
Photos I Didn’t Take
Students identify and discuss important learning moments in and outside of the classroom.
Generative Knowledge Interviews (from Melissa Peet)
Students learn and practice generative knowledge interviewing, identify their own strengths, capacities and values and those of their peers.
Big Questions
Students plan a research or capstone project in a timed, interactive experience through which they generate and gather feedback on three potential research directions.
Head, Heart, Hustle (a Work on Purpose activity from the Echoing Green Foundation)
Students reflect on and make connections between what they care about and what they know well.
Visible and Less Visible Identities
Students discover commonalities and differences with peers, discuss the concept that “identity” is not always apparent, and consider the idea that “the self” evolves over time and feels different in varying contexts.
She Just Wants – from Beverly Rollwagen
Students experiment with writing about themselves in the third person.
Your Life in 3-Word Sentences
Students write their life story (or the story of the past ten years) in three word sentences, filling one to two pages.
Representing Resilience
Students talk with peers about a moment of resilience or resourcefulness represented in a personal photo.
What song or object represents your research?
Reflect on your academic research in a non-academic way.
A Pivotal Moment in Your Research
Write about a moment of puzzlement, challenge, transformation, joy, or learning in your research.
Structuring Your Narrative
Synthesize portions of what you have written, and write a new narrative, incorporating feedback from peers.
Things You Didn’t Put On Your Resume
Think and talk holistically about identity through reflection on meaningful non-professional, non-academic moments.
The Wrong Story (from Marybeth Gasman)
Empower students to tell new kinds of stories about themselves.
Maps of Identity in Context – An Extension of “Visible and Less Visible Identities”
Students consider the ways in which their feelings about their identity change in different contexts.
Generative Knowledge Interviews for Scientists
Students learn and practice generative knowledge interviewing; identify their own strengths, capacities and values and those of their peers; begin to tell a story about themselves as scientists.
The Intersection of Identity and Research
Students reflect on and articulate their intersectional social identities and the ways in which these do (or do not) inform their research interests.
Story Circle (from StoryCenter)
Students sit in a circle, and tell the story that will be the basis for their digital stories.
Write A Letter to Faculty
Students reflect on the academic and co-curricular work that has been most meaningful to them.