What is District 504?

District 504 is an affinity space built around the phenomenom of "The Hunger Games" trilogy in Room 504, the classroom of Dina Alikakos, 8th grade Language Arts teacher at William P. Gray Elementary School in the Chicago neighborhood of Portage Park 

Within this space a democratic learning community has opened up entry points for connecting literary and real-world events based on shared knowledge of an imagined world.  The members of this space include Mrs. Alikakos, thirty 8th grade thinkers and  interdisciplinary teaching artist Kristina Gosh.

Together, they are exploring civic engagement, engaging in critical thinking skills, critically consuming media and building participatory literacies through an interdisciplinary art-making that encompasses shared authorship and art activism. 



Using the trilogy as a thematic anchor for everything from revolution to metaphor to message with impact, students are freely exploring a wide variety of ideas and concepts in a community with a shared culture and language.  



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