Studio 1 · Day 2
How a Studio
Works
Six weeks, one big question, and the thing you'll build.
Do Now
One word.
What's one thing you remember from yesterday about how a studio works? Turn and tell the person next to you.
The shape of every studio
Six weeks. Six phases.
WEEK 1
Launch
Meet the question. Pick your angle. Write your contract.
WEEK 2
Dig
Research. Find sources. Build a source log.
WEEK 3
Build
First draft of the thing. Done, not perfect.
WEEK 4
Shape
Feedback. Conference. Revision plan.
WEEK 5
Finish
Complete your proof. Polish it.
WEEK 6
Publish
Exhibition. Real audience. Reflect.
Week 4 is the secret
"Shape" is where
the grade is won.
Anyone can make a first draft. The students who hit 3.0 are the ones who take feedback seriously and revise. First drafts don't have to be good — they have to exist.
Every studio asks for two things
🎯Demonstration of Learning
Your proof you know the standard. This is what earns the 1.0–4.0 score.
🛠️The Deliverable
The thing you make and exhibit in Week 6 — essay, podcast, documentary, exhibit, and more.
You choose how to prove it
Six ways to show mastery
Written Assessment — a focused response
Extended Writing — an essay or analysis
Verbal Conference — talk it through with me
Visual / Creative — timeline, exhibit
Multimedia — podcast, documentary, debate
Portfolio — curate & annotate your work
Your headquarters
The Commons
Everything lives on our wiki: the studio packet, the reading library, the "skinny" skill cards, and every past student's work. sdacommons.org — this is where you'll start every day.
Your plan for six weeks
The Studio Contract
- Your inquiry angle — your specific version of the big question
- The standards you're targeting (US History and English II)
- How you'll prove your learning (your demo mode)
- What you'll build and how you'll spend six weeks
You'll write your first one next week. I approve it before you dig in.
So… what's the
first big question?
One that runs through 60 years of American history.
Studio 1 · The Essential Question
"When an institution fails the people it's supposed to serve — what does it take to fix it, and who has to do the work?"
Look at what
"broken" looked like.
Before the laws changed, real people lived inside failing systems. Look closely — what do you notice? Who is being failed?
The system failing the poor
New York City, 1888. Photographer Jacob Riis dragged a camera into the tenements to show America how the other half lived — and forced a conversation nobody wanted to have.
Jacob Riis, "Bandit's Roost" · public domain
Who was being harmed
These are breaker boys — children who sorted coal for pennies, some as young as eight. Photographer Lewis Hine used images like this to make child labor impossible to ignore.
Lewis Hine, South Pittston, PA · public domain
What one writer exposed
Chicago's meatpacking plants. In 1906 a young writer named Upton Sinclair went undercover here and wrote The Jungle — a book that changed what ended up on America's dinner plate.
Swift & Co. meatpacking plant, Chicago, c. 1917 · public domain
What it took to force change
Little Rock, 1957. It took federal troops to walk nine Black students into a high school — three years after the Supreme Court said segregation was illegal. Law on paper wasn't enough.
101st Airborne at Central High School · U.S. Army · public domain
Gallery Walk
Get up. Investigate the evidence.
The four images are posted around the room. Visit each with your group and record See · Think · Wonder — plus one more: whose voice is missing?
~4 minutes per station. Move when I call it.
See · Think · Wonder
See
What's actually in the image? Just the facts — no guessing yet.
Think
What does it say about who a system serves — and who it fails?
Wonder
What question does it leave you with?
✍️ On your handout now
Day 2 Packet · Gallery Walk sheet
Complete See / Think / Wonder + "whose voice is missing?" for all four images as you rotate.
Now — the voices
behind the images.
You looked. Time to read. We'll investigate real reformers in their own words, one at a time, together.
Read like a detective — the protocol
🎯2.0 Identify
What is the claim? Mark the appeals — ethos, logos, pathos.
🔗3.0 Analyze
How do the pieces work together to serve the purpose?
⚖️4.0 Evaluate
Does the reasoning hold up? Where's the blind spot?
This is the same protocol on every text handout.
Text 1 of 4 · I do → we do
The Jungle — the reformer as JOURNALIST
1906. Upton Sinclair went undercover in the Chicago stockyards. Watch me read and annotate the opening — then we finish together.
✍️ On your handout now
Text 1 — The Jungle · page 1
Annotate as we read: underline how the system treats living things, star the detail you think shocked America most.
✍️ On your handout now
Text 1 — The Jungle · page 2
Do the 2.0/3.0 protocol + Questions 1–2. How does Sinclair argue without ever stating his argument?
Text 2 of 4 · we do → you do
Frederick Douglass — the reformer as WITNESS
1845. He taught himself to read, freed himself, and published his story as evidence against slavery. Your turn to lead more of the reading.
✍️ On your handout now
Text 2 — Douglass · pages 1–2
Mark where the system keeps people ignorant, then answer the protocol + Questions 1–2. Why is reading a threat to power?
Exit Ticket
Two reformers so far.
Journalist or witness — whose method forces change more powerfully, and why? One sentence, using one detail from a text. Tomorrow: Hamer and Dr. King.
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← → to move · F for fullscreen