Investigative Journalism: an Integrated (?) Unit

"Let's do an integrated unit together," my math/science colleague suggested when he returned from the NSTA conference in Boston last spring.

"Uhh, OK. On what?" I tentatively replied, thinking about my Early US History Social Studies curriculum. Where's the science in that? What could he do in science related to my SS units?

"I could teach the science content and you could teach the writing part of a project!" he replied. He was very excited, fired up from a workshop that encouraged writing in the disciplines-- probably Common Core related.

Immediately, my chock-a-block ELA curriculum flashed in front of me. There was no wiggle room to add an integrated project. And besides, what did that mean anyway: I would teach the writing? What would it be? Who would grade it? I already have more writing to grade than time needed! And why couldn't he teach the writing in the discipline? Isn't that the direction that Common Core is nudging us?

"Well, maybe we could do something around Week Without Walls," I countered. This was the only wiggle room in either curriculum-- an undefined something related to our eighth grade trip to Thailand. Over the past years, the WWW project has taken many forms (sometimes so formless it was non existent), with a tenuous link to the SS curriculum via a "Global Citizenship" benchmark. 

"I was thinking I would move the Environmental Science unit to the beginning of the year. That could be our WWW content, environmental issues." I liked the idea of an environmental focus for the trip; we do a lot of activities related to the natural environment while in Thailand. We agreed we would discuss it further when school started up again in the fall.

image of elephant conservatory by Janet Pohl (author)

But it was not exactly on my radar as school started in August. We were tasked with implementing the new CCSS English standards, and we were handed the Calkins et. al.'s Units of Study in Writing as a resource. As a department, we started the year with a flurry of unpacking standards, adjusting writing units, exploring new rubrics, and closely reading the densely-written Units of Study. We were about two days ahead of the students. 

Meanwhile, back in science, my colleague was happily going about his Environmental Science unit. A month or so before our trip, I finally had the head space to talk with him about his integration idea. I learned that his unit would be finished about a week before the trip. Students focused on 5 different environmental issues each: what they were, how they were caused, and some solutions. None of the research about issues was specific to Thailand. Take it away, ELA/SS!

After a weekend of wondering how this was at all integrated-- after all, I was taking on the responsibility of continuing the authentic science writing product and science took on nothing of my curriculum, I decided to look on this as an opportunity. The one unit in the new Units of Study in Writing that puzzled me the most was the Investigative Journalism unit (how is that narrative?). Since the content of this WWW piece was securely on the shoulders of science, I could focus completely on the process of writing a new genre. Surely we could use the environmental issues as a content base and build in "field research" from our trip to write in an authentic journalistic style.

image of Chedi Luang Temple by janet Pohl (author)

I looked for models in the world, and found that Time for Kids has very accessible articles about science topics which would match the kind of writing I wanted from my students. I considered what topic I would use when I was modeling lessons, and decided against an environmental issue (I didn't want to do someone's work for them). Instead, I focused on Buddhist monks in Thailand; we visit a temple and participate in a "monk chat" while in Chiang Mai, and selecting Buddhist monks as a topic allowed me to introduce background information to students before we went. The issue? It turns out that the number of monks in Thailand is rapidly decreasing because the economic boom and falling population rates have drawn men away from the traditional commitment of ordination. Oh, and did I mention "Global Citizenship"?

I spent the first day expanding their Google search skills so that they could find relevant, readable, reliable sources about how their issue related to Thailand. Then I got them taking notes in the "5 W's" structure (who, what, where, why, when, and how), which they had to summarize in a "lean" or "dramatic" journalistic style to synthesize the information and to practice the new writing style. I left them to continue researching at home, and turned the lessons over to writing up the general science information in a "background information" way, incorporating their Thailand research when they were ready. Before leaving on the trip, we worked on interview questions-- they were required to take pictures and interview at least one person about their issue while they were there. This was the "field research" part.

Once we returned, lessons centered on incorporating the interview, writing leads that hooked readers, and writing endings that left readers with something specific to do to help solve the problem. We discussed headlines and always always focused on meaning-- What is the message you want your readers to understand when they finish reading your article? Finally, we made e-zines and students made their pages for their articles. More tech lessons helped them understand layout options, citing and usage rights with images, embedding pictures and slideshows, and hyperlinking to organizations related to their issue. Several rounds of peer review took place-- remember, the world will be reading this! You want to look as smart on paper as you are!

For a giant experiment all around, the e-zines turned out well. Students worked hard to make them attractive and engaging. Of course, the articles have a variety of proficiency, as the writers themselves do. They are eighth graders, after all.

Next year, I would like the science teacher to take on the Thailand research link, and to help grade the content part of the article. That would make it a little more integrated (and fairer) in my view. Overall, though, I like the project and the writing genre, and it made the students view Thailand with more than tourist eyes. It was also a way to get more writing into the year, and in a fresh, new genre. There's a lot of good in that!