🎭Unit Overview: Who Owns Your Face?
Acknowledgements
This unit was developed by NYC Public Schools CS4All's Kelly Johnston. Twenty-one teachers piloted the original iteration of this unit in the Spring semester of the 2022-23 school year and offered their invaluable feedback, which has greatly improved the unit. Special thanks to Toni Capriglione, Lisa Baerga, Margaux Jacobs, Gulin Bilgin, Denise Earl and John Lento for particularly thorough feedback.
Much gratitude to these teachers and the others who so generously shared their time and brought this unit of study to their students in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens and Manhattan. Thank you 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 to Andrew Pecunia, Meiyu Tan, Jacqueline Johnson, Shantoel McLeod, Mercy Tullis-Bukhari, Rachel Kaufman, Ghada Elsendiony, Denise Earl, Sheila Cousins-James, Helena Lopez-Smith, John Lento, Marisa Marquis, Toni Capriglione, Margaux Jacobs, Yelena Palleiro, Kevin Claesgens, Lisa Baerga, Rose-Ann Braithwaite, Gulin Bilgin, and Kathryn Giannelli.
Overview
In this unit, students explore a rich and diverse repository of texts related to facial recognition technology (FRT), with a specific focus on how facial recognition technology works, its demonstrated limitations, and its impacts on society. The unit comprises five modules (each with anchor text(s), supporting resources, and learning activities), an optional independent research module, and an end of unit GRASP task.
The texts is this unit are complex, compelling, and relevant to students' lived experiences. Throughout the unit, students are provided with structured opportunities to read, write, and talk about issues that they experience on a daily basis: the impacts of technology on individuals and communities. The unit culminates in presentations to students' local community, where they apply their learning and the position they've developed after engaging with the material contained in this unit along with their independent research to a specific fictional situation outlined in the GRASP task.
This unit is aligned to both the NYS Next Generation ELA standards and the NYS Computer Science and Digital Fluency standards. Because our classrooms are made up of students with a broad continuum of learning needs, this unit was built using the UDL approach and affords students multiple modes of representation, engagement, and expression. It is also guided by Nonie Lesaux's and Emily Phillips Galloway's research focused on Advanced Literacies for Academic Success, and aligns to all four of the Literacy Hallmarks:
Hallmark 1: Work with engaging texts that feature big ideas and rich content.
Hallmark 2: Discuss to build both conversational and academic language and knowledge.
Hallmark 3: Write to build language and knowledge.
Hallmark 4: Study a small set of high-utility vocabulary words and academic language structures to build breadth and depth of knowledge.
Nota Bene
You know your students best and while every effort is being made to provide you with abundant resources for this unit, you will invariably encounter students who need something different, require a different pace, etc.
This unit provides students with ample opportunities to engage in thought-provoking discussions, to read complex texts and to write about what they are reading and discussing. Depending on your particular students' academic writing skills, you might find that you need to supplement this unit with explicit instruction for: annotating a text to deepen understanding; verifying that claims and evidence are aligned; formulating strong topic sentences; and so on. Since many schools have chosen approaches to implement school-wide practices for tasks such as annotation, there is no one approach recommended here. You will notice, however, that the unit includes versions of many of the anchor and supporting texts with text-based questions that chunk the text and language scaffolds, mostly in the form of glossaries.
NOTE ABOUT VOCABULARY: The vocabulary lists included in each module include terms that show up in the readings featured in that module. These are typically domain specific terms and the words and their definitions are included in the glossaries that have been included for each reading. In the spirit of you knowing your students best, you might opt to focus on general academic vocabulary--particularly for multi-lingual learners and struggling readers--and explicitly model for students how to use the glossaries provided for support with the domain-specific terms. Notably, general academic terms have also been included in the glossaries.
This unit very much puts argumentation at the center. For this reason, it is IMPERATIVE that you ensure there is always an equal number of students representing each position. Students are likely to complain about arguing in favor of a position that is not their own; let students know from the beginning that doing so is excellent practice for critical thinking and for forming counter-arguments.
The final project in this unit is a real life application of when, where, and how people can use powerful argumentation skills to effect change in their own communities. It is recommended that you use module 6 as a time to provide further differentiated study: some students are likely to need more time to absorb the material presented through modules one through five; and some students will be ready to delve deeper by exploring new texts and resources. Module 6 is also a a great opportunity for students to explore the menu of options for the GRASP task and start thinking about how they want to present their learning, i.e, which product they will produce for the end of unit project. Materials for doing so are provided within this unit.
NYS Next Generation ELA Standards
R1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly/ implicitly and make logical inferences; develop questions for deeper understanding and for further exploration.
R7: Analyze how a subject / content is presented in two or more formats by determining which details are emphasized, altered, or absent in each account.
R8: Delineate and evaluate an argument and specific claims in a text, assessing the validity or fallacy of key statements by examining whether the supporting evidence is relevant and sufficient.
RST1: Cite specific evidence to support analysis of scientific and technical texts, charts, diagrams, etc. attending to the precise details of the source. Understand and follow a detailed set of directions.
RST7: Translate information expressed visually or mathematically into words.
RH4: Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other content-specific words and phrases as they are used in scientific or technical sources; describe how the inclusion of charts, graphs, diagrams, data influence conclusions.
RH7: Integrate and evaluate visual and technical information (e.g., in research data, charts, graphs, photographs, videos or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
RH9: Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
W1:Write arguments to support claims that analyze substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
W1c: Use precise language and content-specific vocabulary to express the appropriate complexity of the topic.
WHST1: Write arguments based on discipline-specific content.
SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on complex topics, texts, and issues; express ideas clearly and persuasively, and build on those of others.
SL1a: Come to discussions prepared, having read and researched material under study; draw on that preparation by referring to evidence to stimulate a thoughtful, well-reasoned exchange of ideas.
SL1d: Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives, summarize points-of-agreement and disagreement, and, when warranted, qualify or justify personal views and understanding and make new connections in light of the evidence and reasoning presented.
SL4: Present claims, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically; organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
L4c: Consult general and specialized reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses) to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning, its part-of-speech, or its etymology.
L6: Acquire and accurately use general academic and content-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening; demonstrate independence in applying vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
NYS Computer Science & Digital Fluency Standards
9-12.IC.1 Evaluate the impact of computing technologies on equity, access, and influence in a global society.
9-12.IC.3 Debate issues of ethics related to real world computing technologies.
9-12.IC.5 Describe ways that complex computer systems can be designed for inclusivity and to mitigate unintended consequences.
9-12.CT.10: Collaboratively design and develop a program or computational artifact for a specific audience and create documentation outlining implementation features to inform collaborators and users.
9-12.DL.1: Type proficiently on a keyboard.
9-12.DL.2: Communicate and work collaboratively with others using digital tools to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
Suggested Duration
The pacing of this unit will depend largely on instructional choices you make and the needs of your students. There are sufficient materials and activities for six weeks of rigorous intellectual engagement. Each of the first five modules roughly translates to five 45-minute classes but can be stretched or condensed according to your setting. The sixth module is time earmarked for independent research. Again, depending on your setting and your students' needs, the end of unit project--if completed in class--will require at least five days.
Pre-requisites
There are no pre-requisites for this course! It is designed for high school students.
Overview of Instructional Materials
Each module in this unit is framed by an essential question (or two!) and includes anchor texts (short story, essay, articles, videos, heat maps, etc) and supporting resources. Each module includes activities to extend students' learning and formative assessments. Module 3--about midway through the unit--features a mini-project that requires students to synthesize their learning from the first half of the unit. It's a super engaging challenge with a menu of options students can choose from to determine how they will present their learning.
While every effort is being made to provide you with a rich collection of resources with multiple access points, as well as differentiated and modified materials, you will surely find that you have students who might need further adaptations. With that in mind, please review these materials and use them as they apply to your classroom and if you do develop any resources, extensions, supports related to this unit, please share!
Learning Sequence
Module 1: What claims do opponents and proponents of FRT make?
Module 2: Who has the right to use FRT and for what purposes?
Module 3: How do computers 'see'? How does FRT work?
Module 4: To what extent does bias influence reliability & impact of FRT?
🤓 Module 5: What role should government play in the public and private use of FRT?
🤓 Module 6: Independent research, reteaching, and feedback conferences
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