Grades 8–12
1 Session: 60-90 Minutes 
Informational, Media, NarrativeLessonsIn this lesson, students document the history they encounter every day and reflect on their part in the overall changes in their community.
This lesson is one of many brought to 826 Digital as part of the Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas Curriculum and Bookshare Project, a collaboration between Big Class, now 826 New Orleans, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. This curriculum provides students opportunities to engage with the unfathomable and inexhaustible possibilities of maps, a provocation laid forth throughout the chapters and maps of Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedekers’ Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas.
These lessons can be adapted at large, or in parts, to fit any city or community. You may find it useful to discuss New Orleans during the instructional parts of these lessons, all the while replacing New Orleans with a city or community closer to home to guide the final products students will create.
In “Civil Rights and Lemon Ice” Dana and Dawn Logsdon write, “New Orleans is a city of ghosts, as is every city: learning history means becoming someone who can see the ghosts and learn from them.” Understanding a place requires not only seeing it and knowing its present, but also learning about its past. The writers refer to their father as an “activist historian” whose knowledge of the New Orleans’ history infiltrated his view of the city: a Treme parking lot was not just a parking lot, but also “a densely packed radical community at the height of Reconstruction.” This activity asks students to look at the history of their own place in New Orleans—or, if adapting this lesson, any neighborhood. Whether the place in question was the site of a well-documented historical event, or the spot where someone learned to ride a bicycle, the ghosts of that place are a part of it. Even if a place has changed, its history makes it what it is today. The Logsdons talk about how “individual locations served the changing needs and populations.” Paul Trevigne, Angelo Brocato, and Tennessee Williams all changed with New Orleans. Their individual stories demonstrate the evolution of different neighborhoods.
This activity asks students to read the chapter in Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas to understand both the city’s changes and see them documented on a map. Then they are asked to reflect on how their own immediate surroundings have changed. Students get to document the history they encounter every day, and see their part in the overall changes in their city. By recalling specific stories from their neighborhoods, students will be able to see how minor changes can reflect larger changes in their city.
by 826 National
Inspired by George Ella Lyon’s original poem, this lesson guides students through naming the people, places, and things that have shaped them.
by Dr. Anne Desrosiers and Precediha Dangerfield, 826 Valencia
The COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives. This lesson will support students in processing the changes in their everyday lives and help them to identify the creativity their community has exhibited.
by Kyley Pulphus, 826 New Orleans
This lesson supports college-bound students in writing compelling personal statements. Students will go from blank page to finished draft as they brainstorm, develop, and analyze personal statements.
by Cristeta Boarini, 826 MSP
Students will identify something they have inherited from their families, conduct interviews, and write a narrative essay. This lesson is especially well suited for English Language Learners.
by Dave Eggers, 826 Valencia
Over a flexible series of activities, students will learn to draw details from real life to create unforgettable characters and compelling stories.
Inspired by Angela Iton and Precediha Dangerfield, 826 Valencia
In this lesson, students will use mentor texts to hone their revision skills before turning to their own poetry drafts.
by Kyley Pulphus, 826 New Orleans
In this workshop, students will create a pourquoi tale, or origin story, of how a local delicacy came to be.
by Debra Mitchell, 826CHI
Students become script detectives in this lesson, searching for the underlying structure of every play. Student then draw from memories to inspire original plays.
by Bryan Wilson, Educator Leader, The Bureau of Fearless Ideas
What do you get when you mix foraging with metaphors? Metaphoraging, of course! In this interactive lesson, students will forage their learning space for metaphors.
by Mallory Miller, 826 Digital Educator Leader
In this lesson, students will construct a short narrative told through concrete poems.
by Emily Clader & Daniel Reck, 826michigan
Students will create infinite poems using fractals, imagine life on a doughnut, and speculate about a universe where time goes crazy. Along the way, they'll explore cool, new math facts and concepts.
by Aarti Monteiro, 826NYC
Emotions play a big role in how we remember places important to us. Students explore this notion by writing memoirs, using plot, dialogue, and description to bring their stories to life.
by Saiya Miller, 826 New Orleans
Students will collect dirt, map their neighborhood, and listen to music that explores low sound, depth of soil, and the psychological landscape of New Orleans.
by Marini Drobish, 826 Digital Educator Leader
This lesson invites students to write a modern day fairy tale. Students will reconstruct classic fairy tales by choosing to focus on altering one story element: setting, point of view, or resolution.
by Louise McCune, 826 Valencia
Working as budding archaeologists, students use artifacts as inspiration for several short writing pieces.
by Tim Campos, 826 New Orleans
Through discussion, map-making, and writing, students will investigate the ways in which our knowledge of places is constructed and will uncover the ways that this knowledge is distorted by biases.
by Lisa Lutz, 826 Valencia
In this lesson by a young adult author and self-confessed superfan Lisa Lutz, students will learn letter-writing tips and create a fan letter.
by College Essay Guy and 826 National
This lesson from College Essay Guy introduces students to two types of effective college essay structures: Montage and Narrative.
by Tom Molanphy, 826 Valencia
Students will learn to see home in a fresh way, to walk through doors and open windows they never noticed, and to find the stories that home holds.
by Alana Herron, 826 Digital Educator Leader
Students will craft an argument about a controversial topic they hold a personal connection to and record their argument to persuade their audience.
by Molly Sprayregen, 826CHI
Over the course of this lesson, students produce memoirs, poems, and essays that explore what it means to be a member of the LGBTQIA community in America today.
by Catherine Calabro, with inspiration from Rachel Feder, 826michigan
Your students will use free writes, writing games, cheesy pop lyrics, and revision strategies to learn how to make connections between all of the points on their journey of writing a poem.
by Aarti Monteiro, 826NYC
Students will read a poem by Eve L. Ewing and learn to write a poem that retells or reimagines an experience.
by Rebecca Darugar, Liz Levine, and Brancey Mora, 826NYC and 826 National
Invite students to write about their personal experiences with social media and online platforms with this lesson from 826NYC.
by Ryan Harty, 826michigan
By examining patterns in engaging published stories and applying a set of meaningful prompts, students will learn how to develop well-rounded characters that readers really care about.
by Marya Spont-Lemus, 826CHI
Through brainstorming and drafting activities, students will learn the basics of personal narrative writing and craft an essay that they can use for college, scholarships, job applications and more.
by Karla Brundage, 826 Valencia
In this Lesson, students will further their understanding of how language can impact identity through the process of naming.
by Ellen Lathrop and Malia Urbina, 826 Valencia
In this lesson, students will use descriptive language to write a poem about a favorite animal.
by Klariza Alvaran, 826CHI
In this lesson, students explore the graphic novel genre with a focus on plot and character development, scripting dialogue, and visual composition.
by Ryan Harty, 826michigan
By examining patterns in engaging published stories and applying a set of meaningful prompts, students will learn how to develop well-rounded characters that readers really care about.
by Laura Lisabeth, Ph.D, 826NYC
In this lesson, students experiment with the multimodal composition of Instagram and use this social media platform to promote a social justice issue.
by Stephanie Wykstra, 826NYC
A student’s guide for evaluating evidence and learning to spot misleading and false information.
by Jillian Wasick, 826 Valencia
Students write ekphrastic poems, exploring and creating connections between text and image.
by Christopher Ankney, AT Bianchi, & Amy Wilson, 826michigan
Using Twitter as a storytelling medium, students will improve their understanding of perspective, editing for brevity, and the importance of word choice.
by Allison Peters, 826michigan
Discover what’s possible through writing. In this lesson, students will write a thrilling new story about their future selves inspired by their curiosity and imagination.
by Katie Manning and Brandon Brown, 826LA
Students enter The Poetry Laboratory, no lab coats required, and use methods of observation and playful strategies to embark on the process of writing poetry.
by Aran Donovan, 826 New Orleans
Students (virtually) explore a local cemetery and write a monologue from a famous person buried there, including facts from their research and imagined details from a mapping exercise.
by 826 National, in partnership with Paramount Pictures
Imaginary friends come in all shapes and sizes! Inspired by the new Paramount Pictures movie, IF, students will create their own imaginary friend to take with them on their next adventure.
by Naomi Solomon, 826NYC
In this lesson, students will learn about different types of rhymes, identify rhymes in lyrics and generate rhymes to use in their own lyrics.
by Rebecca Darugar, 826NYC
Students will work in a collaborative, constructive setting to create a vision for your classroom as a safe space for students and teachers.
by Gem Carmella, Ministry of Stories and BBC History
In this Lesson, students will learn how to write comedy sketches inspired by "Monty Python’s Flying Circus."
by Cristeta Boarini, 826 MSP
In this lesson, students explore the genres of historical and speculative fiction before they reimagine a time they felt powerless and write a different outcome.
by Rebecca Darugar, 826NYC
Students examine relationships between art, poetry, politics, and current events, and reflect on personal experiences while writing social justice poetry.
by Daniel José Older, author of Flood City.
Students will work together to produce a newspaper for the fictional Flood City. In the process, they will take on the roles of editor and journalist to source, draft, and present their newspaper.
by 826 National
Stories are the thread that connect communities. In this lesson, students learn more about culture and identity through Dakota and Hmong textile arts, as well as reflect on their own identities.
by 826 New Orleans
In this lesson, students have an opportunity to write a letter expressing their views on issues that matter to them most surrounding an election.
by Mariama J. Lockington & Peter Calhoun Hall, 826NYC
In this superlesson, students isolate DNA, design planes, build lairs, and engineer safe transport to help a hero save the day. Students will also take technical notes and explore new forms of poetry.
by Erin Ruane, 826 New Orleans
In this lesson, students are challenged to reevaluate the way water and land are represented on a map.
by Robert Paterno, 826LA
A mock crime scene kick-starts this lesson, getting students to hone their inferencing skills and serving as inspiration for crime stories.
by 826 National
What happens when we start from a place of gratitude? In this lesson, students will use Ross Gay’s "Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude" as a catalyst for a daily gratitude journal.
by Julius Diaz Panoriñgan, 826LA
Students explore multiple STEM disciplines and the importance of scientific modeling, all in context of an upcoming zombie apocalypse. They'll write technical notes and create an ongoing narrative.
by Cristeta Boarini, 826MSP, and Skylar Burkhardt, 826 National
Few expressions of gratitude are more meaningful than a personalized letter. In this lesson, students reach out to essential workers and return their acts of service and kindness by giving thanks.
by Ola Faleti, 826CHI, with an introduction by Amanda Gorman, Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the U.S.
The pen is mightier than the sword. In this lesson, students learn there's no better evidence of this than the poetry behind social movements.
by Kelly Jones, 826 New Orleans
Through writing, drawing, mapping, and researching a chosen fruit, students will become more familiar with the often complex history of food and how people access it.
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