Students investigate whose stories are visible, missing, or misrepresented in local public spaces and use that research to make a credible case for change. Through oral history interviews, study of Community Cultural Wealth and antiracist historical frameworks, evidence ledgers, and collaborative seminars, they learn to connect historical analysis, community voice, and civic action. The work builds toward a formal proposal dossier and live presentation that asks students to argue how public art, markers, or street names should better reflect the community’s diverse history and values.

Students will analyze how public memory is shaped by historical narratives by applying Community Cultural Wealth assets and the ideological lenses of segregationist, assimilationist, and antiracist thought to texts, oral histories, and local spaces. They will conduct sustained research using interviews, maps, surveys, and print and digital sources, then synthesize evidence in a two-column historical ledger, explanatory writing, and argument-based proposal materials with precise citations. Students will strengthen collaboration, active listening, shorthand note-taking, and discussion skills through critique swaps, Socratic seminars, and team decision-making as they develop recommendations for public art, markers, or street renaming. They will create and revise audience-ready visual and written products, then deliver a formal public presentation that uses digital media, verbal citation, and respectful reasoning to advocate for changes in community spaces.

Students will create working research tools throughout the year, including a two-column historical ledger, oral history interview notes and transcripts, community survey instruments and data displays, annotated maps, notebook biography profiles, artifact sketches, and portfolio audit trackers documenting critique, revision, and reflection. In teams, they will build a formal civic proposal dossier that combines historical research, claim-evidence-reasoning writing, survey findings, site maps, visual design concepts for art, markers, or street renaming, and a concise evidence packet with precise citations. They will also produce polished digital and print presentation media for a public pitch, along with rehearsal notes and speaking goals developed through Socratic seminars, critique swaps, and coaching cycles. By the end, each team will present a live proposal to authentic community audiences and curate its work for the Archive Exhibition, Living History Walkabout, Pitch Fest, and Community Curators Night.

Open with a neighborhood memory pop-up: students bring or sketch a meaningful local place, then conduct a timed oral history interview with a partner using active listening and shorthand notes to capture direct quotes about why that space matters. Next, move into a gallery of local maps, street signs, monuments, and marker examples where teams annotate whose stories are visible, whose are missing, and connect their observations to Community Cultural Wealth and the ideological lenses from Stamped. Close with a short concentric-circle fishbowl in which students use claim-evidence-reasoning to argue which public story deserves greater recognition, citing evidence from the gallery and interview notes. End by revealing that their work will culminate in a formal public proposal to community decision-makers.

Host a Community Curators Night that begins with a screen-free Living History Walkabout, where teams display their proposal dossiers, hand-drawn site maps, artifact sketches, biography profiles, and survey findings in a neighborhood-style exhibit. Visitors rotate through stations on public art, historical markers, and street renaming proposals, leaving Golden Line feedback and questions while students serve as curators who explain their research, cite evidence, and reflect on how community cultural wealth shaped their recommendations. Close with a Public Space Pitch Fest in which each team delivers a concise formal presentation to city officials, school board members, historical societies, artists, and neighborhood leaders using visual displays, evidence packets, and audience-ready speaking moves. End the evening with a gallery celebration and shout-out circle that recognizes revision growth, collaboration, and the civic impact of each proposal.