Putting Together the Puzzle of Identity in Early Childhood Classrooms One Piece at a Time

Key Points

• Teacher Emily Rosen reflects on a familiar classroom scenario to explore the deeper value of inviting student preferences.
• Encouraging young learners to share their favorite books, colors, and interests can help spark deeper self-awareness and foster stronger peer relationships.
• From book bins to classroom surveys, Emily offers practical, easy-to-implement ideas to help educators turn everyday choices into powerful tools for social and emotional learning (SEL).

Envision a class of kindergarteners awaiting the start of an art project, squirming excitedly in their seats as colored paper is being distributed. Picture their teacher, worried that the project may not get finished before dismissal time. The teacher wants to acknowledge students clamoring for favorite colors, but, in the interest of time, moves quickly around the classroom, intoning the familiar mantra, “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.”

I was the teacher in the scenario above. What had seemed trivial then, responding to students’ color preferences, feels quite the opposite now. Since then I’ve learned that providing time and space for young people to express preferences is an important way to support their growth socially-emotionally and academically.

Preferences are a First Step Towards Identity Building

Identity development is a crucial element in developing the social and emotional learning (SEL) competency of self-awareness. We can think of identity development as akin to constructing a large jigsaw puzzle. It’s made up of individual pieces representing all the things that make us who we are.

While color preferences may seem superficial, opening the door to students’ favorites can contribute to the development of classrooms that are safe spaces for students to share other elements of their identities, such as cultural background, family composition, and socio-economic status. Sharing favorites can also be a first step toward building communities of belonging where everyone feels seen and valued, thus offering opportunities to promote the SEL competencies of relationship-building and social awareness.

Personal Identity Development and Academic Interests

The large jigsaw puzzle that is identity includes academic interests that we can learn about by understanding our students’ favorites.

For example, surveys can be taken about students’ favorite animals, places to visit, or foods. The information shared through these surveys can be translated into play scenarios, reading choices, writing topics, areas of research, etc.

Elijah, my first grade student, dreamed of becoming a zoologist. A bin in the classroom library was labeled with his name, and Elijah stuffed this with nonfiction selections, in particular snake books, that he was able to share with his peers. He later researched and wrote a book about this topic when we studied nonfiction writing. These types of experiences contribute to identity development and greater engagement in the classroom.

Personal Identity Development and Social Identity

Social identities are another piece of the jigsaw puzzle that make-up a child’s self-concept. Favorites can give our students the opportunity to understand how they are the same and different from peers and build closer relationships based on their interests.

During center time, young children may choose to work with others who share interests, such as those who love drawing, science experiments, or creative writing. Expressing preferences through favorites allows us to support student identity building and help move students towards creating strong connections to others.

Easy Ways to Get Started

By inviting student preferences through favorites into our classrooms, we can support students’ identity development process. Consider these ideas for fitting favorites into your classroom at the beginning of the year or anytime:

• Class surveys incorporating pictures and words that identify favorite hobbies, sports, books, movies, lunch items, academic subject areas, etc.
• Labeled book bins featuring each student’s favorite selections
• Show-and-tell opportunities to share experiences and interests orally (students can also be given small bags to collect objects that reminds them of important aspects of their identity)
• Opportunities to share favorite songs/ artists that can be played during snack time/center time
• Bulletin boards that incorporate photos of individual students and other keepsakes/ souvenirs that make their preferences and interests visible (tickets to a game, programs from performances, invitations to special events )
• Opportunities to personalize classroom materials (such as notebooks and folders ) and spaces (desks, cubbies, etc.)

Conclusion

Identity building is an important process that can be supported by fitting in student preferences. Let’s provide space and time for our students to figure out and fit their puzzle pieces together in order to learn about who they are and who they are becoming!

The views in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of CASEL.

Emily Rosen is a teacher, tutor, instructional coach, and speaker who is embarking on an M.S.W. to pursue additional learning about the intersection of emotional well-being and learning. She is the founder of EnRoute Education. She believes that social and emotional and academic growth are inextricably linked, and she designs learning opportunities for students, teachers, and school communities with this in mind. Her teaching experience spans PreK-8th grade and her recent roles include instructional specialist, program director, and middle school English teacher. She received a M.S.Ed from Bank Street College of Education and B.A. from Wesleyan University.

Related Posts

• Teaching SEL One Story at a Time: How I Use Picture Books to Build Character
• 5 Meaningful, Standards-Based SEL Activities for the Classroom
• How I Discovered a Treasure Trove of SEL in Nonfiction Picture Books

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