Writing for Change!

          For my third and final unit plan this semester (critical inquiry), I focused my students attention on using their literacy power to promote social change within the larger community. I look forward to explaining my unit in more detail today in class, and I can not wait to hear what everyone else has come up with. I feel that the idea of critical inquiry should really be the basis for our teaching, as it asks students to use their literate lives and literacy powers for real and productive reasons. At the end of the day, if we have our students thinking, speaking, and writing about important issues that matter to them and to the world outside of the classroom, then we are doing our jobs.

            My rationale for the unit (entitled “Writing for Change”) is pretty simple–I wanted to get my students writing about meaningful topics that impact their lives and the lives of the larger community outside of the classroom. By having students focus on specific social issues (similarly to my non-fiction unit), I hope to draw their thoughts beyond the classroom environment and empower their voice to reach a larger audience. The timing of this unit, in my opinion, is perfect. I set the unit to begin right after the STAAR test and I think focusing on powerful writing for social change would be a wonderful shift from the mechanical regurgitation of the STAAR test and would help refocus their minds on authentic writing.

            The assignment itself is pretty simple–students are asked to pick a social issue and to write a 1-2 page persuasive article about that issue for publication in a class wide journal. It is also important to note that this will not be the main “persuasive writing” unit, so the students will already have a base of knowledge built around persuasive writing that I can tap into. I think this is a way, however, to reclaim out voice as powerful and persuasive writers in order to use our “writing for change.” The compilation of the individual articles within a communal journal is an effort to unite our voices and use our literacy powers to truly inject our voices into the community. Students will engage in the act of pre-writing, a focus of my entire yearlong unit that I think is critically important for growing writers. They will journal about their topic and will share their journal entries with partners. They will also engage in active peer review, an experience I hope will grow our writing community and allow us to help each other become better writers.

            Finally, the publication day will be a true celebration, as I want students to have pride in their work and to recognize that their writing is valid, powerful, and important. I think this is especially important as a way to re-ignite their writing powers after the STAAR test and before the end of the year.