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When I found out I would be teaching three sections of English 12 during the 2015-16 school year, I felt a little overwhelmed. I had taught senior students before and knew that keeping them motivated and engaged could be challenging. I also welcomed the opportunity, because I wanted them to practice an inquiry-based writing strategy applicable to future writing situations- whether in college or the workplace-by writing for authentic audiences and publishing their writing publicly. Finally, I wanted my senior students to participate in a capstone-type project: a project lead by them that would contribute to our school community.
As I thought about a project for the English language arts curriculum, I considered a TED Talk in which Candy Chang describes how she created an interactive art/writing installation in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A giant chalkboard wall on the side of a deserted building had columns with the opening phrase: "Before I die I want to_." The blank space invited individuals to respond. Patricia Sullivan's article about Nancy Belmont's Courage Wall, which was installed in my former neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, also impressed me. Similar to Chang's wall, Belmont's Courage Wall (featured on the cover of the September 2018 issue of English Journal) invited community members to complete the phrase: "I wish I had the courage to_." I was inspired by the way these walls used writing in a public space to foster community.
Using these walls as inspiration, I invited my students to participate in a community action project. The learning goals (see Table 1) represented my commitment to project-based learning (Railsback) and multimodal writing (Sheppard). While these began as lofty goals, the project had potential to influence my students and the school community. This article describes the culminating student-led project that features authentic writing and engagement to increase motivation. In the sections that follow, I will highlight important instructional strategies for implementing community action projects and the resulting student learning. I will then conclude with my own reflections and observations.
THE COMMUNITY ACTION ASSIGNMENT
East High School is an urban high school in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a diverse student body: White, Latinx, African American, Native American, Polynesian, as well as refugees from Somalia, Sudan, Nepal, Burma, and...