LM2 Critical Essay Assignment: Who Am I? Understanding Identity Formation
Assignment Guidelines: For this assignment you will critically analyze the materials from LM2 while at the same time critically analyzing your own identity formation.
In order to understand yourself, your communities, your viewpoints, your achievements, your place in this world at this moment of your life you need to explore the following:
Where do I come from?
Who do I come from? Where did they come from? (parents, grandparent, great-grandparents, etc.)
What communities (work, religious, school, military…) do I belong to?
What specific events in my life define me thus far?
The essay should be organized as follows:
Open the essay with an introductory paragraph. In this paragraph, provide a good working definition of the term “identity” and cite the source of your definition (you will lose points if you omit this). Provide a brief explanation of who you are and how you identify, the culture(s) and communities you have been raised in and how, if at all, culture has defined who you are up to this point in your life.
Then, using the four questions above expand the narrative of your identity formation using examples from the sources (readings, films, and podcasts) located in the learning module that support or speak to your identity formation. You need to cite four (4) sources and only one source can be a film or podcast, the other three must be readings.
For example: “In the article “Becoming Hispanic: Mexican American and Whiteness,” Neil Foley discusses how Mexican Americans in Texas used the term “Spanish- American” because they were determined to assimilate into white American culture and they believed their Mexican heritage would prevent their assimilation. My parents never taught me to speak Spanish because…”
Edit very carefully for grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors because I will count off!
You should have a conclusion as well, this paragraph should recap the entire essay and discuss what, if anything, you learned about yourself and Mexican American culture and why it’s important to form one’s identity.
Format: 3-4 pages, 12pt font Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1″ margins all around.
Your Critical Essay Assignment is due on Thursday, June 27, 2024 by 11:59pm. You will upload your essay to the assignment link provided in Learning Module 2.
The purpose of this assignment is to:
Develop an understanding of how identity formation is developed.
Develop a better understanding of how history and culture contribute to our identity formation.
To better understand how race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, place, etc. inform one’s identity formation.
Understand how various identities and practices are categorized and defined by you and by others.
Make sense of the positives and negative stereotypes that accompany identity formation.
