Demographics and Student Description
I teach at a Back of the Yards College Preparatory High School, a Chicago Public School, on the Southwest side of Chicago. The school is named for the neighborhood it serves, Back of the Yards. The neighborhood is the former location of the Union Stock Yards and has always been a diverse immigrant community.15 Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, portraying the harsh conditions of the Union Stock Yards. It is currently primarily a Latino and Black neighborhood.16
The enrollment of the school is about 1,000 students. The school's population is comprised of students who are 95.9% Latino, 1.5% Black, 1.3% Asian, and 1.3% White. 93% of our students are low-income, 45% have chronic absenteeism, 38% are English Language Learners, and 9% have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
At Back of the Yards College Prep, I teach 12th-grade English. I am a general education and special education teacher. I teach English IV co-taught as the special education teacher, English IV instructional (self-contained), and general-ed Argumentative Literature, senior elective. My Argumentative Literature classes are an elective that can have students of all levels; it's a great opportunity for diverse learners to have classes with their at-level peers. I always have several students with IEPs, some with more severe conditions, IB students, ELL students, Bilingual students, and at-level students; it’s a mix of all levels. This unit will be designed for the Argumentative Literature classes; however, I will also incorporate aspects of the curriculum unit in the English IV classes.
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