In this lesson students will read to uncover hidden truths about the many contributions of enslaved Africans to the development of the United States. They will express their understanding by writing a text-based claim supported by evidence to show how African Americans paved the way for other marginalized communities to fight oppression, so the principles of American democracy apply to all people in America.

The pandemic has highlighted major inequalities that existed before, in the "normal.” In the news, there is talk of a return to "normal", but for many in marginalized communities"normal" was not justice. This project outlines three areas of local and global opportunity in our community: education, racial equity, and climate change.Through investigation, students will examine multiple perspectives, ask critical questions, analyze information, and act on what they learn. Their project is not only about the end product, but also the process.

How does media coverage of migration shape how Americans’ views of migration by youth? Why are so many young people trying to migrate to the United States? What are their journeys like? What happens when they get to the U.S.-Mexico Border? What role does U.S. policy play in this situation? These are the major questions that students will explore in this 4-day mini-unit, which results in media literacy and creative assessments.

This unit focuses on underreported stories of migration and the local history of everyday people of the City of Newark. From the global stories of women migrants on the move to the wards of the City of Newark, we will examine the experiences of the people who live and inhabit these places and spaces, and who also make history.

Far too often we solely focus on major reported stories related to migration from the point of view of the elite, those in power, or the victors who wrote down their version of history for posterity. This unit seeks to reclaim history for those who resisted, suffered, lost yet triumphed. Anchored by Pulitzer Center migration resources, this unit explores the intersection of the history of the City of Newark (aka Brick City) and global migration using a variety of historical documents, texts, and visuals in which everyday people and the disenfranchised occupy an important space of representation.

The purpose of this unit is for students to investigate migration and immigration policies across the globe using current events articles from the Pulitzer Center. Students in this unit will read, comprehend, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate these articles. From these articles students will discover issues and trends of migration and immigration from an international perspective, and will compare and contrast the policies they learn about. It is important for students in the 21st century to view reality from outside of their individual context.

As part of this nine to ten-lesson unit, students utilize news stories supported by the Pulitzer Center from Time for Kids and Mission Local to familiarize themselves with the concept of an underreported migration story. They will then research stories, summarize and share the gist of what they read to their small groups and to the entire class. As part of their conversations, students will note key details and themes from the stories they explored about migration and consider why these stories could be considered “underreported.”

The story of migration is a shared human experience. Utilizing sources such as “Women on the Move” from National Geographic and The Everyday Projects, students will address the following questions:

Using scales of analysis, what are the common themes that are seen in migration stories?
What are the reasons that cause one to migrate?
In what ways does physical geography intersect with migration?
Based on your analysis of various sources in the media, how is migration perceived by general audiences?
Developing social and emotional learning, how do individual and under-reported stories inspire your own activism in regards to migration?
As they engage with these questions, students will be asked to utilize a variety of skills. They will compare and contrast various migration stories on different scales of analysis, analyze sources critically for author’s purpose and target audience, develop critical thinking skills to analyze complex questions that arise from migration crises, and develop persuasive writing skills that inspire letters advocating for an action to address challenges faced by people who are migrating.

In this unit, students will analyze how climate change affects migration around the world and the policies that could be effective in addressing the issue. To start, students will investigate what motivates people to move in general. Then students will read “The Great Climate Migration” by Abrahm Lustgarten and Meridith Kohut, where they will be introduced to how climate change may affect migration in the future. Students will then investigate how climate change is impacting migration by reading and presenting about specific scenarios around the globe. Finally, students will begin to research how policy can address climate migration to avoid disastrous outcomes in the future.

The Chicago Public Schools typically operate with a $7.7 billion annual budget that now has over $2.3 billion in federal stimulus funding to address inequities, COVID-related impacts and gaping needs. That is a 30% increase beyond a typical CPS budget that normally has very little room to address historic inequities. However, there is no participatory budget process in place to allow students or CPS families to have their voices heard in the process. This unit plan is designed to change that and provide opportunities for students to directly influence the budget process at this critical moment when historic inequities have widened.

As of April 16, 2021, about 37.1% of Chicago residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. But the question is: WHO is getting vaccinated? In this unit, students will identify inequities in vaccine distribution in Chicago and then explore why these inequities exist. Students will then work to take action to address these inequities.

This 5-day unit will teach students about patterns/trends in mortality as they look at what is causing health issues around the world and local health disparities within their own city. Students will explore factors that influence mortality and how local and global communities are improving their health. Students will ultimately analyze the health indicators within their own community and pick a “Healthy People 2030” objective to help achieve through civic action.

In this writing-based unit, students will reflect on how global issues influence their lives through the lens of migration. Students will make personal connections to migration by exploring its impact on themselves and their families through research and interviews, resulting in a feature article on the theme of “My Personal Story of Migration.” This will encourage a “citizen of the world” mindset while developing positive identity awareness.

What is the role of Journalism in ensuring justice in society? In what ways has the Universal Declaration of Human Rights been violated in the world and our community? How do individuals and groups uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the world and our community?

This 15-day unit focuses on the fragility of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our responsibility to uphold the document. It looks at the role of the media in defining our universe of obligation and highlights the importance of underreported news stories.

In their analysis of journalism, justice and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, students will use Pulitzer Center texts and materials to identify human rights violations in underreported global and local news. Students will analyze how individuals and groups uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the world and our community. In the culminating project for this unit, students will take civic action to address an underreported violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within their community using the LAUNCH design thinking model.

In this lesson, students will listen, analyze, and respond to episodes of the 1619 podcast. The lesson includes time-stamped sections, guided questions, and extension activities for each episode. Students will be able to engage meaningfullywith The 1619 Project and consider how they can utilize podcasts and other media to tell their own stories.

This 12-day unit focuses on the various experiences of immigrants traveling to the United States. Students will identify a variety of reasons people choose to move to the United States by analyzing a range of texts that detail the individual experiences of immigrants from various parts of the world. Texts and conversation will encompass themes common to the immigrant experience: hope, hardship, and adaptation.

In order to give students a real world application and view of the immigrant experience, they will learn the skills of interview questioning in order to conduct their own interview. Students will use the texts explored in the unit to inform the questions they craft for their interview.

In this lesson, students learn about the experience and journey of enslaved Africans along the Middle Passage. This lesson aligns with both modules, in which students write narratives with a focus on understanding perspectives. Students will read two texts, one from The 1619 Project and another from N.J. Amistad. Using the texts, visuals and video, students will write a narrative piece from the perspective of an enslaved African.

In this mini-unit, high school students examine the question, “What is the migrant experience?” with the intention of demonstrating how international policies feed migration patterns that have a global effect.

“The Migrant Experience” mini-unit contains three (3) lessons. Each lesson is designed for approximately 90-minute class periods to be taught over a period of two or three weeks using 7 Step Lesson Plans - Do Now, Direct Instruction, Guided Practice, Independent Practice, Closure, Exit Ticket, and Homework - as well as media literacy resources and technological educational tools. The unit has been devised to be implemented in the traditional classroom setting or with the virtual classroom in mind.

The 4-day unit is designed to center on the voices of a marginalized community, Muslim Americans, as a foundation for students to explore and celebrate the plurality of values and identities in their own classrooms. Students will be engaging with journalism, practicing active listening, compassion, and empathy, and meet differences with curiosity rather than prejudice.

Students begin this unit by reading The Proudest Blue, a picture book by Olympic medalist Ibtihaj Muhammad that captures the challenges Faizah and Asiyah face when Asiyah wore her hijab to school. Students discuss discrimination and focus on the the hijab as a symbol of cultural identity.

Then students screen a short documentary film “Holding Fire.” The documentary follows Somia Elrowmeim, a naturalized American Yemeni immigrant and activist, who fights for the rights of South Brooklyn Muslims. The film provides a behind-the-scenes look at how grassroots organizing works especially during the modern Islamophobia period.

Driven by the courage and joy that Faizah, Asiyah, and Somia demonstrate in celebrating their cultures and standing up in their communities, students will explore these themes in their classroom. This mini-unit is being taught as a part of a longer classroom exploration of conflict and resolution.

In an eight week unit of study, students will explore concepts of migration through the lens of cultural identity and perspective. What are elements of culture that shape us, shape how we see others, and shape how we are seen in return? Students will investigate shifts in cultural norms and stereotypes specific to forced migration and captivity as depicted in The Tempest by William Shakespeare and supplemented through a variety of texts, discussions, and reflections.

Award-winning writer Jacqueline Woodson describes her books as “real, hard, yet hopeful.” This unit strives to be all three. Certainly, we need to give students opportunities to analyze and understand the world and its injustices; however, we also have an imperative to help foster hope while giving students the agency and skills to use their voices to speak up and change the world—even if that world is the one right outside their front door.

This unit hopes to amplify voices of individuals that you don’t often hear from—those from underreported stories, and from students’ own communities. Through these individual stories, universal truths are also illuminated.