The Effects of Urban Renewal

Unit Plan Summary: 

This unit plan has been designed for a 6th grade Social Studies class and takes place over 8 days. In this unit, students will analyze the city and learn more about Detroit neighborhoods, becoming informed about how urban renewal began and has affected citizens from the past to now. On day 1, students will explore what urban renewal is and how it is defined. The unit then leads into lessons focusing on areas of Detroit that urban renewal has affected in the past and how those effects have created challenges for Detroiters in the present, a debate discussing if urban renewal is ultimately good or bad, and a brochure project in which students will research their own neighborhoods and find evidence of urban renewal and changes that have been made to the area overtime. The unit ends with a field trip and scavenger hunt surveying areas of Detroit discussed in class. 

Unit Plan Resource Overview: 

• Venn Diagrams

• Articles from Rise Up Detroit and Fortune.com focusing on Urban Renewal's positive and negative effects

• Central Park Plaza website and brochure information

• A debate worksheet

Children's books: The Very Last Castle by Travis Jonker, Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howel, and ABC Detroit by Kari Jo Wagner