English 2 students at Clemente have completed their first research project of the year! After reading A Raisin in the Sun and examining how people may be displaced from their communities due to how others perceive them, students dove into research about what gentrification is. Most importantly, students looked at how gentrification has and is affecting communities in Chicago and other major metropolitan cities around the world. Some Chicago communities that students researched were Pilsen, Bridgeport, Back of the Yards, Wicker Park, Logan Square, and our very own Humboldt Park. Other international cities researched were Paris, Berlin, and Sao Paulo.
After students completed their research, they created a piece of non-fiction text to share their learning with fellow students. Students created brochures, wrote letters to the editor of the school newspaper, and interviewed community members to increase awareness of such a significant topic that we rarely talk about but can change our lives from one day to the next. “[Gentrification]is happening in our community, and I think it’s important for the students to know. They need to try to help fix this problem because it affects us all,” said Ashley Arroyo in the statement of purpose she wrote for her project.
