Our World, Our Story: Investigating and Crafting Underreported Stories in Our Communities

This unit was created by Heather Worley, a high school English teacher in Chicago, IL, as part of the 2021-2022 Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellowship program. It is designed for facilitation across approximately eight weeks or twenty 100-minutes lessons.

For more units created by Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellows in this cohort, click here.

Unit Objectives:

Students will be able to...

• Students will identify and evaluate the elements of a feature article.
• Students will identify and evaluate the elements of an underreported story.
• Students will learn how to synthesize research into a clear and compelling story.
• Students will compare and contrast the benefits of multiple multimedia supplements to improve understanding and develop context for an article.
• Students will apply multiple journalistic skills in the development of one major story.

Unit Overview:

In this unit, students will review a series of underreported stories in a variety of narrative formats. Through deep engagement with underreported stories, students will identify perspectives marginalized by mainstream media and evaluate the impact of that marginalization. In preparation for crafting their own investigative projects, students will identify the elements of feature stories, including the supplementary multimedia elements that effectively amplify the underrepresented voices, perspectives, and stories that offer nuance to local and global issues. We will examine and evaluate the benefits and challenges of researching an underreported feature-length story. Then, students will brainstorm multiple untold narratives in their own communities, identifying perspectives that are not always presented by mainstream news outlets. Finally, students will have the opportunity to design and implement an investigation of an underreported story about their own community and will document their story for publication in our Owl’s Eye (Ogden International High School’s student published digital multimedia news platform.)

Performance Task:

Many stories are told about various Chicago neighborhoods by people who are not from those neighborhoods. Students will identify underreported stories from their own communities and craft a feature-length article to be published in the Owl’s Eye, our school’s published digital news platform. Students will create and follow a plan of investigation which will include independent research on their chosen story, background research to provide context on their topic to the reader, multiple interviews, and at least two multimedia elements such as, but not limited to, video or audio interviews, photographs, graphs, or maps. 

Students will have the opportunity to complete this project with a partner as long as they are willing to agree upon their project and rubric, identify individual responsibilities, and sign off on the effect they will have on each others’ summarized scores.

Eight-week unit plan, including warm-ups, classroom activities, graphic organizers, slide presentations, and performance tasks for the unit.

Unit Resources:

Common Core Standards:

Main Criterion #1 - CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2.A

Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information so that each new element builds on that which precedes it to create a unified whole; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.

Main Criterion #2 - CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.7

Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Main Criterion #6 -CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7

Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Main Criterion #3 - CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.5

Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

Main Criterion #4 - CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.11-12.2

Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Main Criterion #5 -CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.5Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grades 11-12 here.)

This unit is assessed through the following formative and summative assessments.

Formative Assessments:

Many stories are told about various Chicago neighborhoods by people who are not from those neighborhoods. Students will identify underreported stories from their own communities and craft a feature-length article to be published in the Owl’s Eye, our school’s published digital news platform. Students will create and follow a plan of investigation which will include independent research on their chosen story, background research to provide context on their topic to the reader, multiple interviews, and at least two multimedia elements such as, but not limited to, video or audio interviews, photographs, graphs, or maps.

Summative Assessment:

Students will be presented with a basic rubric of the six standards and will develop and agree upon specific expectations together in order to be sure we all share the same learning objectives.