What’s Your Philadelphia Story? That’s the question guiding Fieldwork this quarter. As an interdisciplinary endeavor, English and Art classes will be collaborating to gather data and tell the stories of Philadelphia through the eyes and interests of students during the Fieldwork block.
Inspired by CJ Gross’ book, “What’s Your Zip Code Story?”, ninth and tenth graders will tell the story of their zip codes. The eleventh and twelfth graders will focus on an issue or interest area in a Philadelphia community.
Over the next several weeks, students will learn and apply ethnographic and journalistic interviewing techniques as they visit various neighborhoods and connect with people on their topics. Ultimately, they will publish their data in a variety of creative (op-ed, podcast, video, artwork) and research-oriented (report) ways.
This week, WHYY investigative reporter Kenny Cooper joined students to frame his work as a journalist at CNN, CNN Sports, and NPR. He talked about how to gather stories and connect with potential interviewees. During the Fieldwork block on Thursday, students headed out on a sunny day to Rittenhouse Square to practice their interview skills.
Next week, students will be connecting with art students at UArts, who are co-creating games with students based on Philadelphia stories and topic areas of interest. Students will share their interview data and their stories thus far, and UArts students will share their game ideas for feedback and input. On May 4th, UArts and Revolution School students will collaborate again to play their co-created Philadelphia Story games!
