Lesson 7 – Completing and Submitting the Phase 1 Document

Complete and submit the Phase 1 document for approval to the CaL team.

• Complete and submit the Phase 1 document

• Phase 1 Guidelines document
• • Note 1:It is mandatory to submit this and get approval before moving to Phase 2.
  • Note 2: If your students do not know how to do key word searches, you may need to teach them that first and also to teach them how to check the validity of a source.

• • Read and go over the Phase 1 guiding document in detail with the students.

• • Explain to students what a rationale is and why it is important. A rationale gives the REASONS why the story is important to tell. For City as Lab, it is important that the stories we tell strike a chord among the readers, enlighten them in some way about their city and its citizens, provide food for thought, etc. For this purpose, the authors must include a convincing rationale in their Phase 1 document that provides secondary research and citations to make a strong case for why the three stories are important to tell. A few examples of what kind of research will be needed are provided in the phase 1 document itself. Go over and discuss those examples.
  • Explain to students that their rationale includes two parts, a personal reason for selecting the people they have as protagonists and second, placing their experiences in the larger context of the city. 
  • For each selected protagonist, discuss with students, what kind of research would make the most sense. Have students FIRST think this through before they start doing research. Please talk to the CaL team if you are not sure yourself. 
  • Give students an hour to start their research online and support them through the process. Avoid using sources that are more than 5-7 years old. 
  • Remind them to download and save their sources in an organized fashion.

• Students read all the research they have collected and start writing the rationale. Tell them that they cannot just pull out random facts from the research and list them but rather the rationale has to be written in a narrative style by creating a logical paragraph that summarizes all the research they have done to place their story in a larger context. A strong rationale makes their case and uses the sources by citing them in APA format. Show them previous research papers from our website if they are not sure how to insert. 
• For example, let us say students decide to tell the story of a  high school student who stayed silent on a group chat of boys objectifying the female classmates
• . They may find the following sources of information:
  • https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/20-boys-from-4-reputed-delhi-ncr-schools-part-of-lewd-chat-club/story-C9oFvgNUFCzggvJKCNtLqM.html 
  • https://9now.nine.com.au/today/yarra-valley-grammar-private-school-boys-ranking-scandal-no-surprise-says-sexual-consent-advocate/c64b7bdb-293a-4ae9-9568-1b30b72165d0 

They would use the data from these two sources to write a rationale as follows: “Both incidents reflect deep-rooted gender inequity, where girls are objectified and reduced to their appearance, while boys assert power through degrading behavior. This highlights how society normalizes sexism, teaching boys dominance and girls inferiority. Such actions reinforce harmful gender dynamics, making it crucial to challenge these attitudes and promote equality and respect in schools and beyond. Our first story is of ____________ who was himself part of such a group in his high school. At the time he chose to stay silent. In this story, he reflects on his silence and how he regrets it.”

• Walk around support students as they write and cite. Help them use Word and create a bibliography at the end. Remember to use APA style. Collect and give feedback and let them revise one more time, if needed.
• Complete the Phase 1 document and submit to CaL