As the calendar turned to 2019, so did the 9th graders turn their attention to a new unit of study that will culminate in a week-long experiential educational opportunity from February 19-22. Similar to last year, our topic of choice for this in-depth study will be immigration in the United States. English teachers will lead the unit, and once again Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario will be our core text, along with a wide range of other literary and non-fiction texts and resources. Global Perspectives will be spending time on this very relevant contemporary topic as well. There will also be three guest speakers coming to campus to support our efforts; more information on those speakers will be forthcoming.

To get things started, I spoke to the entire Freshman class on Tuesday. I started by laying out the fact that we as teachers are going to present the immigration topic in its full complexity, noting that if this were a straightforward issue we wouldn't be spending so much time discussing (and arguing over) it in this country. We looked at a NY Times infographic article that showed where there is already existing fence or wall along the 2000 mile Southern border and where other proposed building would occur. We discussed the varying geography of those 2000 miles and how different security measures are currently employed. Next, I brought their attention to another resource with embedded videos that carefully explains the pro/con arguments of the illegal immigration debate. (To that end, I would also highly recommend this amazing web resource, which English teachers will be using extensively in their classes: https://immigration.procon.org/)So we are off and running and looking forward to our exploration of this topic together. Last year, Vicki Hildner in our Communications Department wrote up an excellent overview of the work that was done; this year's Intensive will follow a similar plan. Please click on this link to read that article: https://news.coloradoacademy.org/ninth-grade-intensive-2018/