JIM CUMMINS, BURCU YAMAN NTELIOGLOU,
GAIL PRASAD AND SASKIA STILLE
6. IDENTITY TEXT PROJECTS
Generating Academic Power in Multilingual Classrooms
INTRODUCTION
The premise of this paper is that students will engage actively with literacy only to
the extent that such engagement is identity-affirming. In this regard, creative writing
and other forms of cultural production assume particular importance as expressions
of identity, projections of identity into new social spheres, and re-creation of
identity as a result of feedback from and dialogue with multiple audiences. This
re-creation of identity through the production of what we have termed identity texts
(Cummins & Early, 2011) assumes particular importance in the case of students
from social groups whose languages, cultures, religions, and institutions have been
devalued, often for generations, in the wider society. Students invest their identities
in the creation of these texts which can be written, spoken, signed, visual, musical,
dramatic, or combinations in multimodal forms. The identity text then holds a
mirror up to students in which their identities are reflected back in a positive light.
When bilingual students from marginalized social backgrounds write in both their
home language (L1) and the school language (L2), the identity text validates their
bilingualism as a personal and academic asset and challenges the widespread societal
prejudice that devalues their linguistic talents.
Similarly, when students share identity texts with multiple audiences (peers,
teachers, parents, grandparents, Internet-connected partner classes, the media, etc.)
they are likely to receive positive feedback and affirmation of self in interaction with
these audiences. Although not always an essential component, technology acts as an
amplifier to enhance the process of identity text production and dissemination.
The power of identity text production to transform identities has been demonstrated
in several projects conducted during the past decade. We sketch four examples to
illustrate the process and outcomes of identity text projects.
Dual-language book creation by newcomer students. The New Country
(Figure 1) is a 20-page English/Urdu book written and web-published by three the
Grade 7 Pakistani-origin students in the Greater Toronto Area. Kanta and Sulmana
had been in Canada since Grade 4 but Madiha had only recently arrived and her
knowledge of English was minimal. Reflections on the process of writing the story
by Kanta and Madiha illustrate the profound impact that identity text creation can
J. B. Cummings & M. L. Blatherwick (Eds.), Creative Dimensions of Teaching and Learning in the
21st Century, 69–76.
© 2017 Sense Publishers. All rights reserved.
J. CUMMINS et al.
Figure 1. The new country
(http://www.multiliteracies.ca/index.php/folio/viewGalleryBook/8/42/0)
have on students’ sense-of-self and academic self-confidence (Cummins & Early,
2011).
Kanta: My first language is Punjabi, my second language is Urdu, and my
third language is English. Madiha had come just about a month before Ms.
Leoni told us to do the story so we were just talking about the difficulties
she faced and the difficulties we had faced since we were immigrants also.
Then we started talking about why not write about the differences between one
country and the other, about all our differences, what was going through me
when I came here, what Sulmana saw when she came here and how it was for
Madiha, so that’s how we came up with the idea to write the story about our
three experiences.
How it helped me was when I came here in Grade 4 the teachers didn’t
know what I was capable of. I was given a pack of crayons and a coloring
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