Rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina:

A Four Week Collaborative Unit Plan

Susanna Hall

IST 668 Literacy through School Libraries

August, 2010

Dr. Franklin:

I am very sorry, but the assignment requirements could not fit into ten pages.

Because this was an embedded unit, it was necessary to provide contextual information

in the theme description and within each lesson plan.

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I. Descriptive Information

Students and scope: This four week unit will be taught to a class of twenty-four eleventh

graders in a public high school. A school librarian will collaborate with a Humanities teacher to

design the scope and sequence of the unit. The librarian will co-teach four seventy-minute

classes in the library, once per week for four weeks.

Theme and Essential Questions: This unit takes place in the third term of a year in

which the essential question in Humanities class is “How do we do right in the face of injustice?”

During the first half of the year, teachers use the pedagogical model created by Facing History

and Ourselves (2010), which approaches the historical case study of the Holocaust by focusing

on individual and collective identity, stereotyping and conflict, guilt and responsibility, and the

choice to “do right”—to participate in transforming injustice. For the first four weeks of the third

term, the case study becomes more recent—usually either the genocide in Rwanda or Darfur is

studied—and the same pedagogy is used.

For the second four weeks of the third term, students will study the case of Hurricane

Katrina, which hit New Orleans, Louisiana in August, 2005, and left the African-American

neighborhood of the Lower Ninth Ward especially vulnerable. This case focuses on the following

three essential questions: How are the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward faring today in terms of

rebuilt housing and schools in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? Is injustice currently

occurring in the Lower Ninth Ward, and if so, how will we choose to act? Is New Orleans within

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our “universe of obligation”1—are we obligated to act in this case?

Goals and Objectives:

• Students will understand rebuilding efforts in the areas of housing and school reform that

have occurred in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

• Students will examine statistical, photographic, book, and web documents related to

Hurricane Katrina, and will understand how these types of data can contribute to a

persuasive argument.

• Students will learn internet research skills necessary to find a relevant, current, and

credible article in an online database or on the web.

• Students will work in groups of six to develop a persuasive argument and formulate it

clearly onto a poster.

• Student groups will present their persuasive poster orally to the class, and the class will

vote to see if the housing and school situations in the Lower Ninth are primarily just or

unjust.

• Students will coordinate and facilitate an “expert interview” via Skype or conference call

with a representative of a local housing or educational organization operating today in the

Lower Ninth Ward.

• Students will determine whether or not injustice is occurring today in the Lower Ninth

Ward, and will then decide how they will act in response to what they have learned.

1 The idea of a “universe of obligation,” developed by psychologist Helen Fein in her book Accounting for Genocide (1979), is also used by Facing History and Ourselves. It refers to “the circle of individuals and groups toward whom obligations are owed, to whom rules apply, and whose injuries call for [amends]“ (pg. 4).

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Collaborative Roles and Responsibilities: The Humanities teacher will teach this unit for

four seventy-minute classes each week, and the fifth class will be co-taught in the library by the

teacher and a librarian. The librarian will be responsible for locating, obtaining, and copying all

print and media materials for the unit. The teacher will create and copy all worksheets,

checklists, and graphic organizers the students will use. They will meet for forty-five minutes

each week to share resources, review lesson plans, and discuss ongoing assessments of student

work. The teacher will create mixed ability groups of students and share the learning needs of

students with disabilities in the class. The librarian will assist two students from each group with

calling potential interview subjects and setting up Skype and/or conference call technology.

During the four periods of co-teaching, the librarian will present mini-lessons to the class, and

then both teachers will circulate actively to monitor and assist students. Librarian and teacher

will both assess and grade students on the work they complete during these four classes.

II. Four Individual Lesson Plans

LESSON ONE: Background Information on the Lower Ninth Ward Week One

Before this lesson in Humanities class: Students will watch excerpts from Spike Lee’s 2006

documentary “When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” and discuss government

response, bias, issues of justice, and persuasive techniques in the film. They will read “Loot or

Find: Fact or Frame?” (Troutt, 2006), examine flood maps of the Lower Ninth Ward, and learn

general vocabulary surrounding Hurricane Katrina.

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Learning Standards Addressed:2 Standard 1.2 Carry out assigned roles in self-run small group

discussions. Standard 8.22 Identify and analyze main ideas, supporting ideas, and supporting

details. Standard 13.21 Recognize use of arguments for and against an issue. 13.22 Identify

evidence used to support an argument. Standard 26.4 Analyze the effect on the reader’s or

viewer’s emotions of text and image in print journalism, and images, sound, and text in

electronic journalism, distinguishing techniques used in each to achieve these effects.

General Goal(s): Students will understand general information about the rebuilding of the Lower

Ninth Ward by examining photographic, film, statistical, and journalistic data.

Specific Objectives: Four groups of six students will read/view materials at four stations and

complete worksheets in which they choose and analyze the most persuasive information at each

station.

Required Materials: “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise” DVD (Nevins, 2010); DVD

player. Multiple copies at each station: Station One: Greater New Orleans Community Data

Center statistics about housing and public schools; Station Two: article “A Brief History of the

Lower 9th Ward“ (Make It Right, 2009); Station Three: excerpts from “After the (media) storm:

four recent disasters and where things stand today” (New York Times Update, 2010) and “The

great debate: should New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward be rebuilt following hurricane

Katrina?” (Montgomery, 2008); Station Four: two copies of two books Look and Leave:

Photographs and Stories from New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward (Alt, 2009) and A.D.: New

Orleans after the Deluge (Neufeld, 2009).

Mini-lesson (anticipatory set): Fifteen minutes. With full class, introduce the day’s agenda and

2 All learning standards used for this unit are from the Massachusetts Department of Education’s English Language Arts Curriculum Framework (2001).

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goals, show a three minute clip from “If God is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise” DVD, and

have students write reactions and pair share. Discuss: which moment in the film clip was most

persuasive, what did it convince you of, and what made it persuasive?

Step-By-Step Procedures / Plan for Independent Practice: Students count off by fours, split into

four groups, and go to the table/station labeled with their number. At each station, students spend

ten minutes examining the documents at the table, helping each other understand them, and

discussing their reactions. Then, for five minutes, each student fills out a worksheet that asks

him/her to choose one piece of data/info from the table that could be used most persuasively.

They will then imagine how this datum might be persuasive: who might use this information to

persuade or convince another person, who might they try to convince, and what position or

opinion might they try to get this person to agree with. Every fifteen minutes for forty-five

minutes total, the groups will move clockwise to the next station and repeat the process. Next, a

few students will report out the most interesting/persuasive piece of information they found, and

the librarian will summarize the opinions s/he hears emerging from the class.

Closure: Students will complete a 3-2-1 Exit Slip: “Write 3 things you learned about the Lower

Ninth Ward today, 2 questions you have about the rebuilding of the Lower Ninth Ward, and 1

thing you liked or disliked about today’s class.”

Assessment: Informal assessment of group process via teacher and librarian circulation during

stations. Formal assessments of understanding: station worksheets and exit slips.

Possible Adaptations: Students with print disabilities can work with group members and

teachers to understand print materials at stations, students with writing disabilities may dictate

their answers to worksheet questions and exit slips to peer, teacher, or librarian. Stations contain

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excerpted texts chosen for their readability, and statistical and visual materials accommodate

different learning styles.

Possible Connections to Other Subjects: math (statistics), visual art (photographs), media

literacy (film).

After this lesson in Humanities class: Four mixed ability groups assigned (six students in each

group), case studies chosen (Housing Justice, Housing Injustice, School Justice, and School

Injustice), case study chapters read3, marked up, summarized, and discussed. Poster drafts begun

by each group. By Week Two, posters must include: title and three pieces of general evidence

from case study chapter readings that address “what has happened since 2005” in housing or

schools in the Lower Ninth Ward. Initial research questions have been formulated.

LESSON TWO: Case Study Research Planning Week Two

Learning Standards Addressed: Standard 6.8 Identify content-specific vocabulary, terminology,

or jargon unique to particular social or professional groups. Standard 24.3 Use an expanded

range of print and non-print sources (databases, on-line resources); 24.6 Design research.

General Goal(s): Students will understand how to plan online research in order to find a current,

relevant, and credible article that will provide evidence for their persuasive posters.

Specific Objectives: Students will understand how to brainstorm keywords from their research

questions and compose effective search strings. Students will understand what constitutes a

credible source and how to choose appropriate online search tools.

3 For school case studies, the chapters will be Jervis, R. (2010). “Post-Katrina School Reform Has Been Successful in New Orleans,” and Chamberlain, C. (2010) “Post-Katrina School Reform Has Not Been Successful in New Orleans,” both in Haugen, D. (2010) At Issue Series: Hurricane Katrina. Housing case study texts to be determined.

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Required Materials: Lesson taught simultaneously in separate classrooms: twelve “housing”

case study students and twelve “schools” students are separated. Classrooms require white board,

dry erase markers, two sheets of poster paper and markers. Students will bring notebooks,

writing utensils, initial research questions, case study chapter readings, and worksheets from

Lesson One. One handout will list online databases available through the school library website;

another handout will list organizational resources for housing and schools in the Lower Ninth.

Step-By-Step Procedures: Introduction: Why is it best to plan out research before sitting at a

computer?

Mini-lesson One: Ten minutes; whole group activity. Instructor will lead brainstorm session on

choosing keywords and composing effective search strings using quotation marks, synonyms,

and “site:org.” Since students will be searching for articles that show “justice” or “injustice,”

synonyms will be brainstormed (i.e. “success,” “failure,” “improvement,” “decline”). Students

will refer to their reference questions and other materials, and instructor will draw out and offer

specialized vocabulary the students may not have encountered in their research. For example, for

housing, keywords might include: evacuees, housing, “lower ninth,” development, “African-

American,” hotels, “FEMA trailers,” reconstruction, rebuilding, homelessness, forgotten, poor,

victim, demolition. Instructor will model by creating two possible search strings, using

synonyms, quotation marks, and site:org.

Independent Practice One: Ten minutes. Students split up into their groups of six (justice or

injustice), work together to compose two detailed search strings, and write them on a poster

board. Instructor then debriefs search strings with whole class for five minutes.

Mini-lesson Two: Ten minutes. What makes a source credible and which online search tools are

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appropriate for this search? Brainstorm and list credible newspapers and magazines on white

board. Discuss possible bias of these sources (i.e. Mother Jones is liberal, The Wall Street

Journal is conservative) Have students review handout with descriptions of library databases and

circle one or two they may use (i.e. Opposing Viewpoints Database, Infotrac database).

Independent Practice Two: Fifteen minutes. Students split into their “justice” and “injustice”

groups and fill out a worksheet in which they list three online search tools they will use and two

possible search strings for each source. Instructor circulates, reviews search strings, and suggests

possible changes or additions. Five minute debrief with whole group: one student from each

group writes a favorite search string on the white board, and suggestions are taken from the class

on how to improve it. Instructor may suggest and demonstrate broadening or narrowing the

search depending on the online tool chosen. Instructor collects worksheets.

For the final ten minutes of the class, instructor will hand out an annotated list of

organizations whose websites may also be good sources for research. For example, the “housing

organizations” worksheet will include: Lower Ninth Ward Homeowners Association, Brad Pitt’s

Make it Right Project, Habitat for Humanity’s Musicians Village, Policy Link, Housing and

Urban Development (HUD), United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial

Discrimination (CERD), and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The “school organizations”

worksheet will include: the Dr. Martin Luther King Charter School for Science and Technology

(the only public school in the Lower Ninth Ward), Recovery School District, and the Southern

Poverty Law Center. Students will circle one of these resources they have interest in learning

more about.

Closure: Students will complete a 3-2-1 Exit Slip: “Write 3 things you learned today about

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keywords and credibility, 2 questions you still have, and 1 thing you liked or disliked about

today’s class.”

Assessment: Informal assessment through circulation and discussion. Formal assessment through

worksheets and exit slip.

Possible Adaptations: Students with print disabilities can be privately steered towards sources

that can provide audio content (such as National Public Radio) and databases that can filter

results by reading level (such as Gale Infotrac Junior Edition).

Connections to Other Subjects: Online research skills are necessary across the curriculum.

After this lesson in Humanities class: Students will perform their online research. Each student

will locate one article; the six articles in a group must be from six different sources. Articles will

be read, marked up, and discussed. Three persuasive pieces of evidence will be added to the

group’s poster. Three statistics, three direct quotes, and a persuasive image will also be added to

the poster, and presentations will be rehearsed. Citation pages will be created. Two students from

each group will meet with the librarian to begin planning the expert interviews for Week Four.

LESSON THREE: Poster Presentations and Voting Week Three

Learning Standards Addressed: Standard 3.3 Adapt language to persuade, to explain, or to seek

information; 3.17 Deliver formal presentations for particular audiences using clear enunciation

and appropriate organization, gestures, tone, and vocabulary. Standard 2.2 Contribute knowledge

to class discussion in order to generate interview questions to be used as part of a class project.

General Goal(s) and Specific Objectives: Student groups will orally present their posters in a

formal manner. Students will discuss and vote upon issues of justice and injustice. Students will

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formulate appropriate questions for expert interviews.

Required Materials: Chairs set in semi-circle, white board to tally votes, digital projector.

Mini-lesson: Review agenda, communicate behavioral expectations for presentations.

Step-By-Step Procedures / Plan for Independent Practice: Forty minutes: The two “housing”

groups will present first; each presentation will last ten minutes, and each student in the group

must present. All students will then vote with their bodies to indicate whether they have been

convinced that the housing situation in the Lower Ninth Ward today is primarily just or unjust.

An instructor will tally these votes and facilitate a five minute discussion about the voting results

during which the most persuasive evidence on the two posters will be determined. Next, the two

“schools” groups will present their posters for ten minutes each, the students will vote, and an

instructor will tally the votes and facilitate a discussion. Fifteen minutes: Students will now

break up into their groups of twelve. With instructor assistance, the two “housing” students and

two “schools” students who are organizing the expert interviews will briefly speak about the

experts they are hoping to secure for Week Four’s interviews. The experts and the organizations

they represent will be profiled, and then appropriate interview questions will be gathered and

typed onto Word using a digital projector.

Closure: Students will complete a 3-2-1 Exit Slip: “Write 3 things you learned today about

formal group presentations, 2 things you noticed (or that surprised you) during the voting

process, and 1 thing you liked or disliked about today’s class.”

Assessment: Formal assessments of the posters and the presentations through the use of two

rubrics. Informal assessment of participation through discussions and question formulation.

Possible Adaptations (for students with learning disabilities): None.

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Possible Connections to Other Subjects: Formal presentations connect across the curriculum.

After this lesson in Humanities class: Students will self-assess their posters and presentations

using rubrics; students will assess their group work in writing. Four students will continue to

work with librarian to schedule and plan for expert interviews.

LESSON FOUR: Expert Interviews and Discussion Week Four

Learning Standards Addressed: Standard 2.3 Gather relevant information for a research project

through interviews.

General Goal(s): Students will understand the personal and organizational experiences of

interviewees who live and/or work in the Lower Ninth Ward today.

Specific Objectives: Students will participate in two formal group distance interviews, will take

notes, will begin to decide if the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward are within their “universe of

obligation,” and will brainstorm ways in which they might act.

Required Materials: Skype access, audio speakers, and a digital projector and screen.

Step-By-Step Procedures: Sixty minutes: Two student organizers will introduce each interviewee

and ask prepared questions. Each interview will last twenty minutes; further questions will be

asked if time permits. For five minutes after each interview, students will work silently to

complete their notes and write comments or questions. Then, instructors will facilitate a five

minute discussion debriefing the interviews.

Plan for Independent Practice: Students will take two-column notes during and after interviews.

Closure: Ten minutes: Instructors will facilitate discussion about possible action steps to take.

Assessment: Informal assessment via student discussion and participation. Formal assessment of

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student notes.

Possible Adaptations (for students with learning disabilities): Students with writing disabilities

will be provided with a scribe during interviews and with a copy of a peer’s notes afterwards.

Possible Connections to Other Subjects: Other content area teachers, as well as administrators,

will be invited to attend this event. Formal interview and note taking skills are relevant across the

curriculum.

After this lesson in Humanities class: If students have decided to act in response to their

research, this action will be organized and carried out by the students with assistance from

instructors. This will conclude the unit.

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III. Annotated Materials List:4

Alt, J. F. (2009). Look and leave : photographs and stories from New Orleans's Lower Ninth

Ward. Georgia: University of Georgia Press.

Shares photographs Jane Fulton Alt took while accompanying residents of New Orleans'

Lower Ninth Ward back to their homes for the first time since Hurricane Katrina hit the

city in August 2005, and shares the stories of some of the residents who fled in the face of

the storm.

Chamberlain, C. (2010). Post-Katrina school reform has not been successful in New Orleans. In

Haugen, D. (2010) At Issue Series: Hurricane Katrina. (pgs. 60-67) Detroit, MI:

Greenhaven Press.

Contains seventeen essays that offer different perspectives on issues related to Hurricane

Katrina, discussing the government response, improvements being made in New Orleans,

the Mississippi coast, mental health services, school reform, global warming, and related

topics.

Dyson, M. E. (2005). Come hell or high water : Hurricane Katrina and the color of disaster.

New York: Basic Civitas Books.

Examines the events in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and argues that the

nation's failure to offer timely aid to Katrina victims indicates deeper problems in race

and class relations.

Harris, C. and Carbado, D. (2007). Loot or find: Fact or frame? In D. Troutt (Ed.). (2006). After

the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina. (pg. 87‐110)

4 All annotations copyright 2010, Follett Library Resources, Inc. unless otherwise noted.

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New York: The New Press.

Explores the issues of race, space, class, and government decision-making that arose in

the wake of Hurricane Katrina and examines what the devastation revealed about racial

equality in the United States.

Jervis, R. (2010). Post-Katrina school reform has been successful in New Orleans. In Haugen, D.

(2010) At Issue Series: Hurricane Katrina. (pgs. 68-74) Detroit, MI: Greenhaven Press.

See annotation at Chamberlain, C. (2010).

Make It Right (2009). A brief history of the Lower 9th Ward. Retrieved from http://

www.makeitrightnola.org/index.php/work_progress/timeline_lower_ninth/excerpts

Montgomery, H. (2008). The great debate: should New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward be rebuilt

following hurricane Katrina? Science World, March 10. Retrieved from http://

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_11_64/ai_n24360559/?tag=content;col1

Neufeld, J. (2009). A.D. : New Orleans after the deluge. New York: Pantheon Books.

This graphic novel presents the stories of seven survivors of Hurricane Katrina who tried

to evacuate, protect their possessions, and save loved ones before, during, and after the

flood.

Nevins, S. (Producer), & Lee, S. (Director). (2010). If God is willing and da creek don’t rise

[Motion picture]. United States: HBO Documentary Films; Forty Acres & a Mule

Filmworks.

Documentary that follows-up to the film "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four

Acts," and takes a look at the conditions of New Orleans five years after Hurricane

Katrina struck. (Synopsis © 2010 Baseline StudioSystems.)

New York Times Update (2010). After the (media) storm: four recent disasters and where things

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stand today. New York: Scholastic, Inc. (May 10, 2010) (pg. 11). Retrieved from http://

www.thefreelibrary.com/After+the+%28media%29+storm%3A+four+recent+disasters

+and+where+things+stand...-a0225936759

Nonprofit Knowledge Works (2010) Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. Retrieved

from http://www.gnocdc.org/

The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) gathers, analyzes and

disseminates data to help nonprofit and civic leaders work smarter and more strategically.

(Annotation © 2010 Nonprofit Knowledge Works.)

Pollard, S. (Producer), & Lee, S. (Director). (2006) When the levees broke : a requiem in four

acts [Motion picture]. United States: HBO Documentary Films; Forty Acres & a Mule

Filmworks.

Documents the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005 through the words of survivors,

focusing on its impact on New Orleans, discussing events leading up to the hurricane's

landfall, conditions inside the Superdome where people who had no way out of the city

took refuge, what happened when the levees broke, the long wait for federal, state, and

local assistance, the dispersal of those left homeless, and the slow rebuilding of the city.

References

Facing History and Ourselves (2010). Scope and sequence. Retrieved from http://

www.facinghistory.org/taxonomy/vocabulary/1

Massachusetts Department of Education (2001). Massachusetts English language arts

curriculum framework. Retrieved from www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/ela/0601.pdf