We have been studying immigration for several weeks now. All of the work we have done is listed on the top of each class's "Breaking the Single Story Brainstorm" document. We brainstormed that list from all of the work that we have done together so far. All of the links are there in case anyone has lost the hard copies of documents or forgotten some of the work we've done. Below that is a brainstorm of a few ways we could set up paragraphs to answer our question: "How has your single story of immigration changed/grown?". Underneath that is our rubric we created together in class. Finally, there is a sample essay (on another topic) but it could still be a helpful model for organizing ideas.
We began this unit with this idea that "single stories" (stereotypical, one-sided stories that we are fed by media, etc) are dangerous and that we need to read more widely and have discussions to break through those stereotypes. The students' assignment is to explain how their thoughts about immigration have changed since we began this work, since we began with mainly negative stereotypes about immigrants and immigration. I believe that rather than just have the students write an informational essay that is merely a list facts that they have copied down, it is important for them to think metacognitively and be able to name what they have learned. This is a challenge for them developmentally, but that is why we have been thinking through that process together as a class!
The students will have 3 class periods this week to work on it and the final draft will be due Wednesday 11/23. I can't wait to see what the students have to share!