Writing for Change: Jade Band Learners Tackle Complex Social Issues in Investigative Journalism Unit
It’s not exactly news: nonfiction writing can be less than thrilling for many learners. But in Jade Band’s recent investigative journalism unit, these middle-school learners discovered new ways to deeply invest in finding and telling the true stories lying hidden all around them.
Long-form journalistic writing, a type of narrative nonfiction, is a tricky genre. To pull off an article of the sort one might read in The Atlantic, learners had to draw on and synthesize skills from many genres they’d practiced previously, including narrative writing, informational text, and argument. Precision and economy of language, key features of journalistic writing, were skills learners had explored earlier in the year while studying poetry.
To navigate this genre-balancing act and practice what it was really like to be a journalist, Jade Band studied techniques featured in their go-to mentor text, the brilliant, complex, and often humorous investigative journalism book Zoo Story, by Thomas French. They observed and took notes on a Long-View math class in action. They studied the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and debated case studies of ethical dilemmas journalists have faced. Soon they were researching their own in-depth investigative pieces, requesting interviews with UT professors and taking outside-of-school trips across Austin and as far as Balcones Canyonland Preserve to visit relevant sites and talk to locals.
Why? Because for Jade Band learners, journalism wasn’t just an exercise in some challenging writing techniques. It was a chance to direct their literary skills outward to engage with their local communities and call for change. Some learners had previously identified broad issues they cared about during their historical fiction and documentary-writing units, such as sexism, racism, and discrimination against immigrants and refugees. These learners used the investigative journalism unit as an opportunity to explore how these historical phenomena play out today right here in Austin, Texas. Other learners found new stories and contemporary issues that they felt were important to investigate.
One learner studied French philosopher Michel Foucault’s theories on the history of prisons and punishment, then interviewed students and faculty at several Austin schools, ultimately producing a searing indictment of school systems that are structured around compliance and discipline. Another learner conducted substantial independent research and interviewed multiple experts to help understand the plight of immigrants who cannot access health insurance. A number of learners explored the issues of gentrification and economic segregation, speaking with residents of multiple Austin neighborhoods, studying the history of racism within Austin, and vividly describing communities experiencing significant upheaval.
Working under pressure like professional journalists do—given a specific word-count range (a constraint most learners had never worked with before) and a hard deadline—they ultimately published and presented their work on a learner-created blog, The Jade Times, which went to press (in true journalistic fashion) just in the nick of time.
Was everyone’s final product perfect? Certainly not. But Jade Band knew: this unit was about something bigger than that.
