This Week in Education: Reflecting on the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall

Country:

Mexico United states

Juan Cavazos of Brownsville, Texas at the electronic gate in the border fence that runs through his property. Image by Martin do Nascimento for The Texas Tribune. United States, 2017.

English

Donald Trump's promised border wall will involve taking land from hundreds of people. An earlier...

Multiple Authors

Featured Lesson Plan:

Student Spotlight: Reflections on the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall

On March 23, 2018, home-schooled students from the DC metro area met with Texas Tribune reporter Kiah Collier to discuss the impact of the existing U.S.-Mexico border fence and the potential consequences of building a new wall. Their compelling essays on what they learned are now available on the Pulitzer Center education blog. “I thought I knew all about the border wall," writes Virginia 10th grader Molly Rufus, "but by the time the class was over, I was frankly amazed by how much I didn’t know. And what you don’t know can hurt you.”

Want to bring this discussion into your classroom? Get started with "Standing Ground: Eminent Domain and Just Compensation Rights," a lesson plan that guides students through Collier's multimedia reporting project and an examination of the border wall.

A USA Today employee got some of the students to smile for a picture in the newsroom. Image by Alyssa Sperrazza. United States, 2018.

Featured Blog:

DC Middle School Students Get an Inside Look at USA Today

As part of a Pulitzer Center education program on digital storytelling, 85 DC middle school students toured the USA Today headquarters and met with the publication's Editor in Chief, Managing Director of Digital, and Art Director as well as two multimedia journalists. The field trip was the second part of a three-day workshop that began with students exploring "Pumped Dry: The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater," a documentary produced for USA Today, and culminated in students storyboarding their own "Pumped Dry"-inspired documentary with the guidance of producer Steve Elfers.

In Key Allegro, a coastal town where Harvey made landfall, the devastation was made worse by the fact that, prior to February, 2016, the lack of a designated flood zone allowed for homes to be constructed as close to the water as owners desired. Alex MacLean. United States, 2017.

Featured Reporting Project:

The Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey

Screen this video to meet Alex MacLean, the aerial photographer showing how Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texas landscape. To explore Alex and Daniel Grossman's reporting project in greater depth, guide your class discussion through this 15-minute lesson on documenting natural disasters.

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