Assemblies Online Secondary

Play one of the following songs as students and staff enter the hall. If possible display the words 'Who Am I?' on the screen as they enter.

Doctor Who theme tune
Who Am I? by Will Young (2006)
Who Do You Think You Are? by the Spice Girls (1997)

If you are confident that students will participate in a game, you could play a game of Guess the Celebrity. Choose a famous person (say, David Tennant - the actor who plays the Doctor in Doctor Who) and ask students to ask yes or no questions to identify him. Get a small group of volunteers - four is probably about right - to join you at the front. The first volunteer keeps asking questions until they get the answer 'no', whereupon it becomes the next person's turn. Keep going until the students have guessed your mystery celebrity, and give hints as necessary if they are struggling.

Make the point that in the game, it was hard to know who the mystery celebrity was until you had got some more information. Explain that in the rest of the assembly you are going to be looking more closely at how we answer the question 'Who am I?'

Use the PowerPoint presentation and ask students to identify famous people from a set of clues. After showing each clue, invite students to put their hands up to guess the identity. If nobody offers an answer, you can simply move on to the next clue - so unresponsive groups will not derail the activity. Decide whether to use one, two, or three of the following, but however many you decide to do, finish with David Tennant.

[the following are each on PowerPoint slides]
Who Am I? #1
Clue 1: I am a footballer
Clue 2: I play in the English Premiership
Clue 3: I was seriously injured during the 2006 World Cup Finals
Answer: Michael Owen

Who Am I? #2
Clue 1: I was born in Wales
Clue 2: I am a singer
Clue 3: My single Crazy Chick got to number 2 in the charts
Answer: Charlotte Church

Who Am I? #3
Clue 1: I was born in Scotland
Clue 2: I am an actor
Clue 3: I play the starring role in Doctor Who
Answer: David Tennant

Make the point that it's hard to know who somebody is until we've got all the information. Explain that you are going to be looking more closely at the question 'Who am I?' in the rest of the assembly.

Please note, this game may not be appropriate if there are students in wheelchairs or who are otherwise unable to remain standing for any length of time. If this may be the case, consider either using one of the other starting activities, or adapting the game so that people raise one hand rather than stand up.

Play a human simulation of the board game Guess Who. In the board game, each player has a selection of cartoon faces. One player chooses one of them and the other has to discover which one by asking questions such as 'is the person male or female?', 'Does she have glasses' and so on. With each question, all the eliminated faces are turned over, leaving a smaller pool of possible correct answers. To play the human version, get a volunteer and ask everybody else in the hall to stand up. You have a choice of letting your volunteer secretly choose somebody in the hall for you to identify, or you can do the choosing and let your volunteer do the guessing. Either way, everybody else in the hall remains standing until a question rules them out of contention. For example, if you ask 'Is the person wearing glasses?' and are told 'yes', everybody who is not wearing glasses sits down. Eventually, the guesser will arrive at a point where only one person remains.

Make the point that it's hard to know who somebody is until we've got all the information. Explain that you are going to be looking more closely at the question 'Who am I?' in the rest of the assembly.

You can find this episode on the DVD Doctor Who Series 2 Volume 1 (BBC DVD 2006, certificate PG).

Start time: 0.39.30 (in chapter 8 of the DVD)
End time: 0.41.43
Clip length: Two minutes and 13 seconds

The clip starts with the TARDIS door opening to reveal the Doctor (David Tennant), resplendent in pyjamas and a dressing gown. The first line is the Doctor saying 'Did you miss me?' Stop the clip after the Doctor says 'And how am I going to react when I see this?' For a much shorter version, start at 0.41.04, with the alien saying 'If I might interrupt…'

If you are unable to use the clip, say the following as an alternative:

From time to time in Doctor Who, after the Doctor has suffered a particularly close encounter with death, or when the actor gets fed up with playing the role, the Doctor regenerates. This means that he gets a completely new body and a new personality. In the Christmas Day 2005 episode of Doctor Who, David Tennant took over the role of the Doctor from Christopher Eccleston, and in one scene, the new Doctor emerges from the TARDIS and comments on the fact that he just doesn't know who he is - is he rude? Is he ginger? Is he funny? He just doesn't know.

[PowerPoint slide 1]
Who am I? On one level it's a relatively simple question to answer - I'm [change the following to fit your own name and personal circumstances] Mr Smith. To my wife I'm 'Steve', to my mother I'm 'Stephen'; to my children I'm 'Daddy'. There are lots of different ways that people identify me, but those are all just names, they don't really get to the heart of who I am. We're going to watch a clip now from the Christmas 2005 episode of Doctor Who. From time to time in Doctor Who, after the Doctor has suffered a particularly close encounter with death, or when the actor gets fed up with playing the role, the Doctor regenerates. This means that he gets a completely new body and a new personality. This scene takes place shortly after his most recent regeneration, and the Doctor is faced with the question 'Who are you?'

[Play the clip from Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion:

Start time: 0.39.30 (in chapter 8 of the DVD)
End time: 0.41.43
Clip length: Two minutes and 13 seconds

The clip starts with the TARDIS door opening to reveal the Doctor (David Tennant), resplendent in pyjamas and a dressing gown. The first line is the Doctor saying 'Did you miss me?' Stop the clip after the Doctor says 'And how am I going to react when I see this?' For a much shorter version, start at 0.41.04, with the alien saying 'If I might interrupt…'

If you are unable to use the clip, say the following as an alternative:

From time to time in Doctor Who, after the Doctor has suffered a particularly close encounter with death, or when the actor gets fed up with playing the role, the Doctor regenerates. This means that he gets a completely new body and a new personality. In the Christmas Day 2005 episode of Doctor Who, David Tennant took over the role of the Doctor from Christopher Eccleston, and in one scene, the new Doctor emerges from the TARDIS and comments on the fact that he just doesn't know who he is - is he rude? Is he ginger? Is he funny? He just doesn't know.]

[PowerPoint Slide 2]
None of us are ever likely to go through as dramatic a change as the Doctor - we don't completely change our body and personality overnight, and we aren't aliens from another planet - well, apart perhaps from [add name of colleague here if this is in any way appropriate, or just leave the joke out]. But all of us still face the same problem that the Doctor faced - working out just who we really are. Some people never worry about questions like that. Maybe you don't ever wonder who you are, how you would define yourself - and if not, that's just fine. But maybe you sometimes lie awake wondering what kind of a person am I? Amid all the different labels that other people put on me, just who is the real me? [click to reveal each of the illustrations on PowerPoint Slide 2 as you go through the following list of qualities] Am I funny? Am I serious? Am I brave? Am I a coward? Am I a good friend? Am I sexy? Am I clever?

We may or may not know the answers to these questions, but the Book of Psalms in the Bible suggests that God does. Psalm 139 reads like this:

[PowerPoint Slide 3]
    O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
    You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
    You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
    Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

Christians believe that God knows us completely: all our good points as well as all of our weaknesses and failings. He knows the things that we are proud of, and the things that we are embarrassed about - and he loves us completely, just as we are. [PowerPoint slide 4] We may still be working towards an answer to the question 'Who Am I?', but if the Bible is right, then God already knows who we are - we are people that God made, and we are people who God loves.

A Christian might go further. Christians also believe that humans are made in God's image. This doesn't mean that we look like God - long white beard, flowing robes - but it means that we have some common characteristics with God. We have a sense of right and wrong; we have free will and can make our own choices; and we are made for relationships. Most of all, Christians believe that we get the best understanding of who we are when we answer that question in terms of our relationship with God.

[PowerPoint slide 1]
Who am I? On one level it's a relatively simple question to answer - I'm [change the following to fit your own name and personal circumstances] Mr Smith. To my wife I'm 'Steve', to my mother I'm 'Stephen'; to my children I'm 'Daddy'. There are lots of different ways that people identify me, but those are all just names, they don't really get to the heart of who I am. We're going to watch a clip now from the Christmas 2005 episode of Doctor Who. From time to time in Doctor Who, after the Doctor has suffered a particularly close encounter with death, or when the actor gets fed up with playing the role, the Doctor regenerates. This means that he gets a completely new body and a new personality. This scene takes place shortly after his most recent regeneration, and the Doctor is faced with the question 'Who are you?'

[Play the clip from Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion:

Start time: 0.39.30 (in chapter 8 of the DVD)
End time: 0.41.43
Clip length: Two minutes and 13 seconds

The clip starts with the TARDIS door opening to reveal the Doctor (David Tennant), resplendent in pyjamas and a dressing gown. The first line is the Doctor saying 'Did you miss me?' Stop the clip after the Doctor says 'And how am I going to react when I see this?' For a much shorter version, start at 0.41.04, with the alien saying 'If I might interrupt…'

If you are unable to use the clip, say the following as an alternative:

From time to time in Doctor Who, after the Doctor has suffered a particularly close encounter with death, or when the actor gets fed up with playing the role, the Doctor regenerates. This means that he gets a completely new body and a new personality. In the Christmas Day 2005 episode of Doctor Who, David Tennant took over the role of the Doctor from Christopher Eccleston, and in one scene, the new Doctor emerges from the TARDIS and comments on the fact that he just doesn't know who he is - is he rude? Is he ginger? Is he funny? He just doesn't know.]

[PowerPoint Slide 2]
None of us are ever likely to go through as dramatic a change as the Doctor - we don't completely change our body and personality overnight, and we aren't aliens from another planet - well, apart perhaps from [add name of colleague here if this is in any way appropriate, or just leave the joke out]. But all of us still face the same problem that the Doctor faced - working out just who we really are. Some people never worry about questions like that. Maybe you don't ever wonder who you are, how you would define yourself - and if not, that's just fine. But maybe you sometimes lie awake wondering what kind of a person am I? Amid all the different labels that other people put on me, just who is the real me? [click to reveal each of the illustrations on PowerPoint Slide 2 as you go through the following list of qualities] Am I funny? Am I serious? Am I brave? Am I a coward? Am I a good friend? Am I sexy? Am I clever?

We may or may not know the answers to these questions, but the Book of Psalms in the Bible suggests that God does. Psalm 139 reads like this:

[PowerPoint Slide 3]
    O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
    You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
    You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
    Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.

[PowerPoint Slide 4]
We would all like somebody to know us completely, like the Bible claims God knows us. Best of all is to know ourselves, and to be comfortable with what we see, with who we discover that we are. It's easy to make ourselves feel small or unimportant because we don't think that we are as good, or as clever, or as special as other people, but actually we are all unique. Nobody will ever have the same answer as you to the question 'Who Am I?', and your answer is every bit as valid and important as anybody else's.

Who Am I? [PowerPoint Slide 1]

• Who Am I? - different names that people call me
• Just names, not the real me

Introduce film clip

• The Doctor has recently regenerated - a complete change of body and personality. He responds to the question 'Who are you?'

Play clip from Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion
[PowerPoint Slide 2]

• None of us will have such a dramatic change, but all have to work out who we are
• Who is the real me? Am I funny, serious, brave, etc [click through illustrations on slide 2 while running through list]

[PowerPoint slide 3]
Read Psalm 139:1-4
[PowerPoint slide 4]

• Christians believe God knows us completely
• Christians believe God loves us completely
• We may not know who we are, but God knows, and loves us for the people we are
• Humans made in God's image - sense of right and wrong, free will, made for relationships
• Christians believe the best understanding of who we are is when we see ourselves in terms of our relationship with God

Who Am I? [PowerPoint Slide 1]

• Who Am I? - different names that people call me
• Just names, not the real me

Introduce film clip

• The Doctor has recently regenerated - a complete change of body and personality. He responds to the question 'Who are you?'

Play clip from Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion
[PowerPoint Slide 2]

• None of us will have such a dramatic change, but all have to work out who we are
• Who is the real me? Am I funny, serious, brave, etc [click through illustrations on slide 2 while running through list]

[PowerPoint slide 3]
Read Psalm 139:1-4
[PowerPoint slide 4]

• Would all like someone to know us completely
• Best is to know ourselves, and be comfortable with ourselves
• Easy to feel bad because we think others are better
• Everyone is unique, and everybody's differences are as valid and important as anyone else's

Give the opportunity for a pupil to talk about their purpose in life, perhaps include how a pupil's religious faith has shaped their aim and goals in life.

Dear God, thank you for the way that you made each one of us, the way that you know each one of us, and the way that you love each one of us. Help us to know ourselves better, and to value and accept people who are different from ourselves. Amen

How would you answer the question 'Who are you?' What do you think are the best things about you? Would your friends say the same about you, or something different? When you next meet someone who is annoying, or difficult, or who you just find it hard to like, try to work out what their best quality is.

Be Thou My Vision (42, Songs of Fellowship Combined Version, Kingsway 2003)
Woven Together (1635, Songs of Fellowship Combined Version, Kingsway 2003)
Be My Everything by Tim Hughes (available on the Soul Survivor CD Live 2005: We Must Go. Chords and words available at http://www.passionforyourname.com/1105newsong.htm )

In class time, ask students to design a personal identity questionnaire. The questionnaire should include questions about personality, interests, opinions and beliefs. If the class can agree on a single questionnaire, they could make a project of asking other students in the school to complete it and analyse the results.