Primary Source Analysis

One way to introduce the topic of "third spaces" is through historical photos and newspaper articles showing teens in third spaces. Use the Primary Source Analysis Tool from the Library of Congress to support students in analyzing the photos and newspaper articles highlight in this curriculum collection above. Encourage students to reflect:

• What’s happening in the photo?

• Who is in the photo?

• When do you think this photo was taken?

• How similar or different is this photo from what we might see today? 

After an initial analysis, share the bibliographic record of the photo. Discuss with students which questions they now have answers to and what new questions they have. Layer on additional texts and background information as needed.

Historical primary sources can invite reflection on the third spaces available to young people in the past and today. This inquiry trajectory might lead to questions about how and why changes may have occurred.

Joining a Conversation in Progress

When teaching seventh and eighth grade students in Philadelphia, Ms. Little's students analyzed news articles, opinion pieces, and informational texts that focused on "third spaces" for young people. They were exploring the question, "Does our city have enough 'third spaces' for teens?"

Students were joining a conversation in progress. Drawing upon resources from the National Writing Project's College, Career, and Community Writers Program (NWP C3WP), Ms. Little asked students to create an Atwoodian Table to represent the many viewpoints on "third spaces" and young people. (The Atwoodian Table is named for its creator, NWP teacher consultant Dr. Robin Atwood, and is inspired by the Burkean parlor metaphor).

Students wrote down viewpoints from tests as they read in shared Atwoodian tables. Then, students added their own viewpoints to a table to represent the class's viewpoints.

Sequencing Lessons to Support Inquiry

Teachers in our Philadelphia Writing Project network and educators from the National Liberty Museum (NLM) collaborated on creating a text set and lesson ideas for the topic of third spaces for a workshop previewing the NLM's exhibition on "Freedom of Assembly."

Check out a suggested mini unit sequence of lessons below. As part of the inquiry trajectory, students engage with historical texts that provide windows into how and where young people gathered in the past, interview older members of their community to find out what third spaces they enjoyed, analyze multiple perspectives across multiple texts to uncover the current civic conversation about third spaces, and craft their own argument writing texts that contribute to the ongoing civic discussion.

The suggested lessons include links to routines and resources from the Library of Congress's Teaching with Primary Sources program and from the National Writing Project's College, Career, and Community Writers Program.

Writing Op-Eds

Creating texts for audiences outside of school is one of the important features of civically engaged argument writing. National Writing Project's College, Career, and Community Writers Program (NWP C3WP) provides rationales and resources for supporting students in writing to an audience to urge action.

In Ms. Little's grades 7-8 English language arts classes, students wrote Op-Eds about third spaces for teens in Philadelphia. Then, in Mr. Smith's digital literacy class, three students created a website featuring the student writing, which they shared at the annual Philadelphia Media and Design Competition.