Matt+Krieger


 * Writing for Change: Civic Responsibility **

“All that is necessary for the triumph evil is for good men to do nothing” ~Edmund Burke “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.

Motivation:
 In today’s society, in today’s generation, many adolescents don't understand that justice requires the entire population to advocate it. They trust that the governments are not corrupt.This is not always the case, especially in other countries. It is our responsibility to care not only for ourselves, but to come to the aid of those who ask for it as well.

Those in power have proven that they need to be held accountable. It is left to the general population, the citizens, to hold our world responsible for any atrocity that is taking place. That is why it important for students to learn to see injustices in the world around them at a young age.

Goals:
This unit plan is essential because it not only engages students in reading difficult real world texts, it also encourages them to do so beyond the classroom. In finding the power in their voice, students will no longer be writing to us because we're the teacher, they'll be writing to someone in the real world, about something that really matters. They will be finding their own sources without doing a research paper because they'll want to learn more about the injustice that they are studying.

This unit will exceed the common core standards because the students will engage in a multi-genre project towards the end of the unit. In the Injustice Solution Project, the students will many different genres, technology platforms, and publications. They will excel in their writing because they strive to actually make a difference. I list the common core standards that this unit exceeds and why later in the unit plan.

This unit will engage students beyond other units because it transforms your classroom into a workshop where everyone is working together to fight injustices in their institutions, community and world. It transforms your students into inquirers. They will no longer do anything passively. They will inquire and ensure that it is for the greater good. They will search for hours on a subject that engages them, without us having to force them under threat of a bad grade.

This is the reason for the final portfolio. Students put this together in order to look back on the unit plan and show what they have done. Everyone they have affected and the publications they received. They will be amazed at all they accomplished in four weeks and it will not stop there. They will want to keep growing, learning, and changing the world.

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Learning Objectives:

 * Students will... **


 * **widen their perspective on local and global injustices **
 * **form opinions on local and global issues **
 * **become skilled in multiple genres **
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 24px;">become skilled in multiple technology platforms **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Introduction: <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> I think it's important to first say that this unit plan needs to be malleable. Anyone using the exact version I put here is not going to achieve the intended result. In order to get students aware of worldly and local injustices, we must allow them to discover the injustices for themselves. Wolk writes that "Teaching through inquiry and teaching for social responsibility have a symbiotic relationship. Classroom inquiry nurtures social responsibility, and living a socially responsible life means to live a life of inquiry" (666). We need to provide the resources that will allow them to find the injustices happening in the world around them, and combat them through writing. The reading or listening that we assign should either widen their awareness of issues happening in the world, increase their confidence in the power of their voice, or provide them with the tools they need to convey their voice.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">This unit could be used in any secondary classroom, because of it's flexibility. Of course, we need to be selective of the material and resources we are supplying younger students. I have created this specific unit however, with the eleventh grade English classroom in mind. I think it would be very well suited for students who have been having trouble with the writing process. This unit would work very well with an at risk classroom because many of the those students have faced injustices all their life and could combat them using their writing. They just need a teacher who could provide the resources they need to do so.

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 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Class Resources: **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Wangari Maathai's Unbowed **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Local Magazines **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Blog Posts **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">News Casts **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Articles **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">United Nations Statements **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Etc. **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">This is a very small list of general ideas as to where your class may take this unit. Again, you want to mold your class into one of inquiry. Your classroom should be continually finding new information on the issue that you will be studying. It is your job as the educator to lead them to resources, such as the ones mentioned above. You may have noticed that Unbowed is the only book I put up. I think it is an amazing memoir of how Wangari Maathai used writing and her activism to change the world. It is a good model for what your class should be doing.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Background:
<span style="font-family: Arial Black,Gadget,sans-serif;"> This unit plan seems ambiguous because I tried to make it usable for many different teachers at any time. I intend for teachers to be able to use this plan for any Civic injustice the class may see. The intent of this unit is for students to realize the power of their voice, the capabilities of their writing, and the responsibility they have to their world. Allowing students to find this power will help them understand what they must do. They must take responsibility. This unit will allow students to open their eyes to injustices around them and realize that they have the power to make a change in any situation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">As the teacher, it is our job to give them the resources they need to inquire. Magazines, news articles, current blogs, webisodes and videos should all be available to the students. We should be pumping our classrooms full of important information about what is going on around the world.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">It’s important to listen to what the students want to do. They will be drawn into unit by the moving literature and the issues, but what do they want to do. They may want to begin a large collaborative class project on one important topic. The class may be split between three or four important topics at the time. We should facilitate the students in to groups based on their strengths and interests.

Assignments:

 * __Writing for Solutions:__ These are daily writings that the class will participate in. They will have a direct audience and will always reach someone beyond the classroom walls. These can take the form of any genre. We should encourage students to tell the stories of the injustices in their life and how it relates to what they are studying. They will be proofread by the author and then handed in for grading. If they are online, the URL will work. When grading the Writing for Solutions papers, we should respond to what the student had to say, mark if they have put in a significant effort, if it needs more work before being published, and where the student can go from here. We should not be editing the Writing for Solutions assignments. We will receive far to many to mark all the grammatical errors. We should make note if it is not yet ready to be published.
 * __Injustice Inquiry:__ These are daily research assignments. The goal is for students to be thinking about injustices around them and in their own life. A good way for your students to start is to just search "injustice in _" into google or ask.com. This will give them a jumping off point. They should then find an issue that interests them and research it more in depth.
 * __Nicenet Posts__: These posts are a reflection of what the students learned in the Injustice Inquiry. They should post a brief summary of what they learned, and ideas for how it might be resolved. This is a place where others can add ideas to others posts and have discussions on important issues.
 * __Injustice Solutions Project__: This project is a culmination of everything the students have learned through the Injustice Inquiry. On the start of the project, the entire class will have a discussion on the most pressing issues or injustices they have seen throughout the unit. We, as a class, compile a list of the most important. The class then breaks up into groups of two or three who are interested in the same subject. They then take that issue and combat it, bring national attention to it, and try to resolve it through the use of technology and writing. Each student should use at least seven different genres and five different technology platforms to use in the ISP. The final project should be a compilation of everything they did as a group to combat the issue. Although it is the students job to decide where they are going to go with the ISP, we need to be closely regulating their work and encouraging them to go the extra mile with it. We should be there to give them any resources they need, spark new ideas, and answer any questions they may have.
 * __Final Portfolio:__ This is a collection of everything that the students accomplished in the unit. It is for them to look back on all of their accomplishments and all they did through their writing and activism. This should include every piece of writing they sent out into the world, every piece they may have received back, and the ISP. It does not have to include the discussion boards.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 24px;">Potential Writing for Solutions:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 24px;">Travel Writing <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 24px;">Journal Entries <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 24px;">Short Stories <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Letters <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Blog Entries <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Websites <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 24px;">Message Boards <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; line-height: 24px;">Videos <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Facebook <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Twitter <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Interviews <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Etc.

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Publication Platforms:
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Weebly, Wix, Prezi, Glogster, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, Wikispaces, Wikidot, Xtranormal, Voice Thread, YouTube, Animoto, IMovie, Audio Boo, Illuminated Text, Red room, Tagxedo, Wordle, AfterTheDeadline, AcrobatFreeForums, Nicenet, mind meister, bubbl.us, Pikistrips, StripCreator, Webspiration, Google documents, Zoho Writer, Good Reads, Poll Everywhere, Empresser, SpringNote, Celtx, Twitter, Facebook, Comic Creator, Literary Worlds, Second Life..., tumblr, thesunmagazine, chapelboro

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Grading:
30% Homework: Mailings, Writing, Reading, etc. 40% Participation 10% Injustice Solution Project 20% Final Portfolio

__Unit Outline:__
__Week One:__

__Week Two:__ __Week Three:__ __Week Four:__
 * Day One:
 * Teacher Preparation:
 * Have a handout on how to mail a letter and how to find the mailing address form a website or article.
 * Have a video or reading that will engage the students and put them in the mindset of the unit.
 * Start class with something that will engage the students and put them in the mindset of the unit. This can be anything of relevance of the time. I would try to keep it as recent as possible. In my hypothetical classroom, I chose to show a BBC video on Trayvon Martin which most students would have already had some background knowledge on. Ideally, this incident would have just happened.
 * The class would then engage in a short 10 minute discussion their feelings about the case. We must ask engaging questions such as "where can we see injustices in our own neighborhood? school?" then move the discussion towards "How has writing helped the cause already? How can we use writing to make our voice heard?" We should strive towards adding in different genres. Letters, Blogs, Journals from a different perspective, Short Stories, Poems. Everything you compile should have an audience outside the classroom. Everything will actually be getting sent out.
 * After compiling a list of ways to help through writing, have students pick one and write for 25 minutes. Make sure the students know that everything they write will be published or sent somewhere outside of the classroom.
 * Explain what the next four weeks will be about.
 * Give handout that explains expectations
 * Homework for Tuesday:
 * If what they wrote needs to be mailed, have them go home and mail it. However, for the class duration have them put your personal address as the return address. Give handout on how to mail a letter and how to find the mailing address from a website or article. Don't assume everyone knows this information. Have them bring proof to class the next day. This could be a note from the parent saying they mailed it or a picture on their phone of them putting it in the mail box with all of the information filled out.
 * Ch ? Wangari Maathai's //Unbowed//.
 * Day Two:
 * Teacher Prep: Bring boxes of resources for your students. Local newspapers, distant newspapers, articles, etc. Have a handout prepared on how to set up an email.
 * Discussion on Unbowed. Stay relevant to civic responsibility.
 * Resource Inquiry: Have students pick out resources from the boxes and find five article which show injustices in some way.
 * Free Write: 10 minute free write on how you may have seen this injustice in your own life or how you can relate it to your own life.
 * Relief Listing: Make a quick list of how you have seen this issue be resolved or helped. What are some new ways that you think could help?
 * Writing Prompt: Pick one of the injustices that you have found today that relates back to your own life. Write to the editor of the article on how you have seen this in your own life, how you have seen resolve, and ideas you have for how it could be resolved.
 * This should be started in class, but can be finished outside of class. Always encourage inquiry of injustices outside of class because that is what this unit is striving for. This should also be mailed by the students. You must always make sure they have done this for their homework grade in some quick way. It is essential that the letters get sent out.
 * Homework
 * Finish writing & mail
 * Set up an Email if they don't already have one. There are many easy to use free emails, such as gmail and yahoo. None the less, they should have a handout that runs them through how to sign up for an email.
 * Next Class Students will be meeting in computer lab.
 * Day Three:
 * Teacher Prep:
 * Meet in computer lab. Students should know this at the end of last class.
 * Have a discussion website up and ready for your class. Nicenet is user friendly and easy to integrate into the classroom. You need to have it set up before hand though and all your students must have emails.
 * Have a handout on Nicenet setup and Injustice Inquiry
 * This class is intended to your students comfortable with Nicenet and Injustice Inquiry.
 * Have your students get online and log into their emails. If they haven't set one up yet, lead them through that. Have them sign up for Nicenet and do the email confirmation. You can then add them into the class.
 * Once they are signed into Nicenet, have them write a short post, which you must first create, so they get the feel for it. Encourage responses to other posts. This can be about anything.
 * Get them started on Injustice Inquiry: Have students look online for injustices. This does not have to be anywhere specific. The purpose is to have students looking for issues outside of school every day.
 * Homework
 * Injustice Inquiry: Have students look online for injustices. This does not have to be anywhere specific. The purpose is to have students looking for injustices outside of school every day.
 * Nicenet: After the injustice inquiry, have students write a short summary of the injustice they found and some ideas on resolution.
 * Day Four:
 * Teacher Prep: Have Nicenet printoff
 * Discussion on Postings
 * Quick share of what students found
 * Other possible solutions to the issue from other classmates
 * You should bring in the online print off of the discussions and reference it.
 * Writing for Solutions
 * Have students use what they found and what other students had to say to write to someone that may be able to help. Editor of the article, Organizations surrounding the cause, Local businesses, etc.
 * Homework
 * Injustice Inquiry
 * Nicenet
 * Day Five:
 * Teacher Prep:
 * Have Nicenet printoff.
 * The Injustice Inquiries at this point should be spread out to give the students a wide range on what they might want to do their Injustice Solutions Project on. If they just inquired about New York, encourage them to look into Syria, Zimbabwe, or Texas. If they are researching the Occupy Wall street Movement, have them look into the Arab Spring and have them look into connections. However, if they are very interested and engaged in a subject, they may have already found what they are looking for. It is probably very real and evident in their life and we should let them run with it.
 * Discussion on Postings
 * Writing for Solutions
 * We should be encouraging the students to use a many genres of writing in the Writing for Solutions. If they have been writing many letters, encourage short stories, poetry, video scripts, blogs, etc.
 * Homework
 * Injustice Inquiry
 * Nicenet
 * Day One:
 * Teacher Prep:
 * Printoff
 * Discussion on Postings
 * Writing for Solutions
 * Homework
 * Injustices Inquiry
 * Nicenet
 * Day Two:
 * Teacher Prep:
 * Printoff
 * Discussion on Postings
 * Writing for Solutions
 * Homework
 * Injustices Inquiry
 * Nicenet
 * Day Three:
 * Teacher Prep:
 * Printoff
 * Discussion on Postings
 * Writing for Solutions
 * Homework
 * Injustices Inquiry
 * Nicenet
 * Day Four:
 * Teacher Prep:
 * Printoff
 * Discussion on Postings
 * Writing for Solutions
 * Homework
 * Injustices Inquiry
 * Nicenet
 * Day Five:
 * Teacher Prep:
 * Printoff
 * Start Injustice Solutions Project
 * Introduce
 * Compile a list of the most pressing issues that they have inquired about
 * Form groups of two to three people who are interested in the same subject
 * Allow time for ISP groups to meet, encourage setting up meeting times, goals, and benchmarks.
 * Homework
 * ISP
 * Nicenet: This is a good way for the groups to work with each other outside of school and also help other groups.
 * Day One:
 * Nicenet Discussion
 * ISP
 * Group Work
 * Homework
 * ISP
 * Nicenet: Students should still be posting on what their learning and doing and responding to other students posts.
 * Day Two:
 * ISP
 * Group Work
 * Homework
 * ISP
 * Nicenet: Students should still be posting on what their learning and doing and responding to other students posts.
 * Day Three:
 * ISP
 * Group Work
 * Homework
 * ISP
 * Nicenet: Students should still be posting on what their learning and doing and responding to other students posts.
 * Day Four:
 * ISP
 * Group Work
 * Homework
 * ISP
 * Nicenet: Students should still be posting on what their learning and doing and responding to other students posts.
 * Day Five:
 * ISP
 * Group Work
 * Homework
 * ISP
 * Nicenet: Students should still be posting on what their learning and doing and responding to other students posts.
 * Day One:
 * ISP
 * Group Work
 * Homework
 * ISP
 * Nicenet: Students should still be posting on what their learning and doing and responding to other students posts.
 * Day Two:
 * ISP
 * Presentations
 * Day Three:
 * ISP
 * Presentations
 * Day Four:
 * Final Portfolio: This should be generally easy to compile because we should be encouraging them to keep their stuff in order, in a folder regularly.
 * Day Five:
 * Final Portfolio Reflection: Students can reflect on where the unit has gone and improvements that could be made.

Exceeding Common Core Standards:


<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As said in the <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">CCR anchor standards and grades 11-12 standards <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">:


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Understand and practice writing as a recursive process.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Use writing, speaking, and visual expression for personal understanding and growth.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Compose in speech, writing, and multimedia using content, form, voice, and style appropriate to the audience and purpose.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop and use the tools and practices of inquiry and research- generating, exploring, and refining important questions; creating a hypothesis or thesis; gathering and studying evidence; drawing conclusions; and composing a report.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Produce a variety of written, spoken, multigenre, and multimedia works, making conscious choices about language, form, style, and/or visual representation for each work.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop critical reading, thinking, and viewing strategies.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop as a reader, listener, and viewer for personal, social, and political purposes, through independent and collaborative reading.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Examine mass media, film, series fiction, and other texts from popular culture.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Understand and use the English language effectively in a variety of contexts and settings.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Understand how language variety reflects and shapes experience.

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">More Resources for Teachers: __
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Peter Elbow's //Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process// Steven Wolk's //Reading for a Better World: Teaching for Social Responsibility with Young Adult Literature// Linda Christensen's //Teaching for Joy and Justice: Re-Imagining the Language Arts Classroom// Amira Nowaira's //A Short Story of Academic Oppression// Gary Wockner's //Writing and Advocacy//

Created by: krieger.j.matthew@gmail.com (269) 615-6598