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9th Grade  Project 9 weeks

Chicago Neighborhood Time Travel

Sarah F
Updated
VA:Cn11.1
VA:Cn11.1.Ia
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.4
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.10
TH:Cr2.HS1.a
+ 15 more
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The Challenge

In Chicago, rapid development and displacement can erase neighborhood landmarks, public spaces, and local stories, making it harder for you to see how identity, culture, and history are tied to place. When communities lose visible traces of their past, you also lose access to multiple perspectives on social change, race, migration, and belonging that shape how neighborhoods are understood over time.

Challenge Question

How might we address the loss of neighborhood landmarks and local stories caused by redevelopment and displacement so that Chicago residents can preserve and share the histories and identities of their neighborhoods?

Standards

  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cn11.1 - People develop ideas and understandings of society, culture, and history through their interactions with and analysis of art.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cn11.1.Ia - Describe how knowledge of culture, traditions, and history may influence personal responses to art.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.4 - Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social studies.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.9-10.10 - By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 9—10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Cr2.HS1.a - Explore the function of history and culture in the development of a dramatic concept through a critical analysis of original ideas in a drama/theatre work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Re8.HS3.b - Use new understandings of cultures and contexts to shape personal responses to drama/theatre work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Cr1.HS3.c - Integrate cultural and historical contexts with personal experiences to create a character that is believable and authentic, in a drama/theatre work.
  • [Common Core] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.7 - Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person's life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cn10.1.IIIa - Synthesize knowledge of social, cultural, historical, and personal life with art-making approaches to create meaningful works of art or design.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] TH:Cn10.HS1.a - Investigate how cultural perspectives, community ideas and personal beliefs impact a drama/theatre work.

Competencies

  • Diverse Perspectives - Situating my perspective (GC.SA.1.b)
  • Cultures - History and culture (FK.SS.4.c)
  • Cultures - Global connections (FK.SS.4.d)
  • Cultures - Social groupings (FK.SS.4.b)
  • Building Empathy - Understanding others' viewpoints (GC.IS.3.a)
  • Diverse Perspectives - Collaborating across difference (GC.SA.1.a)
  • Navigating Power - Race and identity (GC.SA.2.b)
  • Cultures - Cultural difference (FK.SS.4.a)
  • Community Advocacy - Self and injustice (GC.SAg.1.b)
  • Logical Thinking - Contextualizing my perspective (OT.Crit.2.c)

Learning Partners and Clients

The Chicago Architecture Center will serve as a key learning partner by supporting map-based and site-based investigation of landmark buildings, historic districts, and redevelopment in Chicago neighborhoods. Students can use CAC resources, neighborhood case studies, and possible guest expertise to study how community spaces change and why local histories matter. As a client-facing audience, Chicago community members can respond to students’ community preservation proposals about threatened neighborhood spaces and their cultural significance.

Phase Overview

Phase Key Experiences
Discover
I can explore a Chicago neighborhood through a story walk and photo analysis, notice signs of redevelopment and disappearing landmarks, and ask questions about how displacement and changing community spaces affect local identity, memory, and belonging.
Examine
I can compare maps, archival photos, oral histories, and current news to identify how a Chicago neighborhood has changed over time and determine what political, social, and economic factors shaped those changes. I can read history and arts texts independently, define key vocabulary about segregation, migration, preservation, and redevelopment, and use that language accurately in discussions and notes. I can analyze how neighborhood stories are told differently in print, multimedia, artwork, and theatre, and explain how culture, tradition, and history influence people’s responses to places and artworks. I can interview residents, artists, or Chicago Architecture Center partners to understand multiple perspectives on a threatened space and practice listening across differences with empathy and respect. I can examine how race, identity, power, and social groupings affect whose stories are remembered, whose spaces are protected, and whose voices are often missing from public history.
Engineer
I can develop a community preservation proposal for a threatened Chicago neighborhood space by selecting strong evidence of its cultural significance, planning a realistic action step such as a walking tour, awareness campaign, or public presentation, and shaping artistic and dramatic elements that authentically reflect community history and perspectives.
Do
I can put my preservation proposal into action with community members, gather feedback and participation data from audiences or partners, document how people respond to the space’s story, and use that evidence to judge how well the action step raises awareness and supports preservation.
Share
I can share my preservation proposal and learning journey through an interactive community event where guests experience our neighborhood stories, respond to our evidence and artistic choices, and hear me reflect on how my understanding of Chicago, identity, empathy, and my own perspective changed during the project.