Invisible Cities: The Arts and Renewable Community

Objectives

For this unit we will be using Chicago Public Schools' Literacy Content Framework for Grade 12. Built upon the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) Content Framework, this is the foundation used in my district.

During this 10 week unit students will be reading a variety of short texts and using extended sections Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and essays of Michel de Certeau's to create a context of how discuss the visible versus the invisible. Using these texts they will also be completing response writings daily as a way to develop and convey understanding of our short and extended texts. As a way to synthesize these thoughts they will be required to write 4-6 analyses that are written with an argument of explanation based on the ideas and facts gathered in both our short and extended texts. Additionally, students will be asked to cite evidence, analyze content, study and apply grammar, conduct discussions, and report findings. ⁴

Using these readings and various responses students will eventually write either a narrative or a research paper that explains their journey through the Paseo Boricua. Students will be asked to answer the question how does your passage through the Paseo compare or contrast your own history? ** By using original and gathered artifacts, students will examine the history of Chicago's Paseo Boricua by engaging students of both Puerto Rican and non-Puerto Rican heritage to participate in the concept of otherness, while examining the access and agency that is available to the Humboldt Park region of Chicago. Students will be using the Paseo, as well as Italo Calvino's mystical book Invisible Cities and theorist Michel deCerteau's essays from The Practice of Everyday Life as a backdrop to their own visible and invisible histories. Using these readings and various responses students will eventually write either a narrative or a research paper that explains their journey through the Paseo Boricua. Students will be asked to answer the question how does your passage through the Paseo compare or contrast your own history? Or, more simply, how does learning about other cultures help illuminate our own personal histories.