making injustice visible

This four-week long PBL unit on expository/informational writing and research skills closed off our reading of The Outsiders by connecting the book’s major themes of division and inequality to our world today. Students brainstormed injustices they saw in our world (between gender, income, race, sexual orientation, and other identifiers), then researched the history of the injustice, how people are affected by it, and what people can do to help. Finally, students compiled their research into a format that could easily be shared publicly-- a series of Instagram posts and captions, an infographic, or a video.

During the project, I supported students through mini lessons on identifying credible sources as well as researching and note-taking skills. Adam Steiner visited to show students a variety of graphic design sites they could use to make their projects. We also analyzed infographics to determine the best methods of presenting information visually. Once students compiled their research, they each drafted a poster-sized version of their iproject. Students left each other feedback on their draft posters in a gallery walk, then revised before creating their final products. Students orally presented their finished projects to 8th grade students from another English class, and the visitors left feedback that most students added to their piece before publishing them online.

Overall, I was really pleased with what students created. Although they were working with issues that have deep roots, students were able to sensitively summarize the main causes and effects of these injustices. I was impressed by how seriously students took the project, and I think it was because they recognized these issues as important and current. In terms of standards, I adjusted the PBL rubric to best match the expository/informational writing skills I aimed to teach in this project, so my rubric measured content more than the original rubric. Students still performed well, and I gave them the opportunity to revise after receiving their original grade and my feedback.

Next year, if I continue this project, I would like to make this closer to a full PBL project by putting students in groups. I chose not to this year because I wanted students to have complete ownership of their topic and because the graphic design sites we used aren’t collaborative like the Google suite. However, I think next year I could rework the project so students create independent products that must flow together to tell the complete story of their injustice, and that would be a way to work around the design site limitations but also encourage group coordination.