Adolescent girls can use literacy to read the world around them as a text and therefore help them to form their own ide

1. Adolescent girls can use literacy to read the world around them as a text and therefore help them to form their own identities enough to ultimately find authority in telling their own stories.

9. When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.Maya Angelou, poet and author

10. If you respect yourself, it’s easier to respect other people.John Singleton, screenwriter and director

11. Choose to be with those who believe in you and encourage you to grow. Stay away from anyone who tears you down or always brings you the latest bad news.---Susan L. Taylor, editor-in-chief, Essence Magazine

12. Iwould unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.--Fredrick Douglas (1818-1895), abolitionist and orator

13. You owe it to others as well as to yourself to be very careful about letting others make up your mind for you.Malcolm X

14. My dad taught me that being “good” doesn’t make you weak—in fact, it means you are stronger.Sinbad comedian and actor

16. Influence is a powerful thing. Be careful whom you allow to influence you. T.D. Jakes, speaker, minister and author

17. No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies you the right to grow.Alice Walker, poet and author

18. Get to know people whose lives are different from yours. Find what you have in common with them.Kofi Annan, United Nations secretary general

19. I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red. Malcolm X (1925-1965), founder, Organization for Afro-American Unity

20. Wonder and Inquiry Station

21. Windows and Mirrors

22. Become the Character

23. Teacher’s Corner

24. Knowing yourself is one of the most challenging and important tasks of your life. If you know who you are and what you want, you will have a better chance of figuring out how to achieve your own success, happiness and personal fulfillment.

25. Write your name in the center of the chart, adding as many words as you can that describe your own passions, values, strengths, skills, roles and occupations you are considering, and so forth. Fill in this chart. Do not worry if some of your answers seem incompatible with others. Try to stay true to yourself.

26. Knowing Yourself Isn't Always Easy • Describing Yourself To Yourself • What stands out for you in your life over the past few years?What kinds of things have been important?What stays with you? • Describe what your life is like right now.What do you care about? • How would you describe yourself to yourself? • Is the way you see yourself now different from the way you saw yourself in the past?What led to the changes?Have there been any turning points? • How do you see yourself changing in the future? • What does being a woman mean to you?Do you think that there are any important differences between men and women? • Looking back, what relationships have been really important to you? • Have the relationships changed?How do you account for the change? • Who helped you shape shaped yourself into the person you have become? • How would you describe your mother? Father? Primary care giver?Has your view of them been changing?

27. Defining Success What does success mean to you? What would you have to be doing to feel that you are a successful person? The wealthy man is the man who is much, not the one who has much.-Karl Marx Winning isn't everything--it's the only thing.-Vince Lombardi Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. -Robert F. Kennedy If at first you can't succeed try, try again. Then give up--there's no use being a fool about it. -W.C Fields I'm opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.-Mark Twain For the definitions of success below Indicate whether you strongly agree, agree, are not sure, disagree, or strongly disagree with the definition.

28. Success can make you one of two ways. it can make you a prima donna, or it can smooth out the edges, take away the insecurities, let the nice things come out.-Barbara Walters Six essential qualities that are key to success: sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity. -Dr. William Menninger The people who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. -Lloyd Jones

29. Write up your own definition of success Your definition__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________

30. "A woman's place is in the House, and the Senate." -T-Shirt Slogan "For most of history, Anonymous was a woman." --Virginia Woolf "Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths." --Lois Wyse, American Advertising Executive

31. BLIND SPOTS There is a small area in your eye called a blind spot, from which you are unable to see.  Technically, the blilnd spot is the point at which the optic nerve joins the retina of the eye.  However, people hav other kinds of blind spots as well.  These blind spots are weaknesses or faults that people are unable to recognize in themselves or others.  For example, someone might be blind to his or her own prejudice, ignorance or weakness may fail to recognize such flaws in someone else.  Which of the characters in the stories we have read  had a blind spot or were unable to "see" accurately?  What were they failing to see?  Discuss why they were not able to see?  What happened because of the blind spots?  Find examples in the texts to back up your point of view.  Document your groups discussion.   

32. "In a package of minutes there is this We. How beautiful." Gwendolyn Brooks "In a package of minutes there is this We.  How beautiful"  Gwendolyn Brooks "In a package of minutes

33. "We are made strong by what we overcome."  • John Burroughs

34. "Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it." – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

35. Saying Yes by Diana Chang "Are you Chinese?" "Yes." "Really Chinese?" "No. . . not quite." "Really American?" "Well, actually, you see. . ." But I would rather say yes Not neither-nor, not maybe, but both, and not only The homes I've had, the ways I am I'd rather say it twice, yes

36. It is the rare high school curriculum where serious discussions occur concerning the choices that girls and young women can now make and the impact those choices will have on their life goals, family roles, dating partners or use of their time.

37. Many young women report deep feelings of insecurity, frustration and disappointment surrounding the issues of sexuality, acceptance and self identity

38. Life changing events result in immense trauma and thus a substantial decrease in the quality of mother-daughter attachment and appropriate attachment to fathers, friends and school bonds. If these events are not handled with the appropriate degree of emotional sensitivity especially by a mother or mother substitute, a girl will grow up missing a major piece of her identity.

41. The majority of girls and young women report tension between what they want to accomplish and how they intend to get there.

42. Girls and women function in societies that more than ever shape their image of who they ought to become by television and media that overwhelmingly sends women messages that they are sexual objects, ornaments, and background players in life’s most important scenes.

43. Reality:  A Matter of Perception As a group, discuss reality through the eyes of Maleeka or NhamoWrite down words and phrases that represent their point of view. Create a poem from your words and phrases

44. COMING TO TERMS Have you ever faced a problem that seemed to have no solution? Not all problems have answers.  Sometimes a person can only accept the situation and come to terms with it.  "Coming to terms" means arriving at an understanding or an acceptance of the way things are.  Share a time when you had to face problems either with in yourself or outside of yourself.  What was the problem and how did you come to terms with it?  Now, look inside the stories we read and pick a character that had to "come to terms" with something.  Write a letter to that character helping them deal with their problem. (this activity could either lead to creating a poem on coming to terms or move into finding details in the story or discussions etc...)