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Vermont Rural Partnership LEARNING IN PLACE UNIT  Oral Histories of Peacham:A Sample Standards-Based Unit by Cathy Browne, Peacham School Our Story During the Fall of 2001 my 2/3 multiage class explored the question, “what is a community?” This is a unit that takes place over many months and has several basic components, described in detail in each chapter. We began the year by taking “Walks of the Week” to introduce students to the cultural and natural heritage of Peacham. We have focused on what makes each natural landmark or community organization important to the community. Students have generated weekly reflections that will become part of the ongoing assessment for this unit.  During the fall we also explored elementary activities in map making, utilizing the resources in David Sobel’s book, Mapmaking with Children. These included classroom treasure hunts, drawing neighborhood maps, nature trail maps, and village maps. These activities were designed to help students visualize and internalize the geographical nature of their surroundings. We then continued with our village walks into late winter and early spring. During this time we began a study of biographies of famous people. The students chose their books based on interests and ability levels. We explored these biographies through various activities, including storyboards and oral presentations. In early spring we began thinking about the question: what information does a biographer need in order to write someone’s story? The children discussed what questions are needed for a good interview. We shared an example of an older student’s peer biography. The students then generated their own list of questions, interviewed a partner, and wrote each other’s story. They enjoyed sharing these stories with their classmates.  We then began the final step in our journeythrough Peacham. We asked members of the Peacham community into the classroom to participate in interviews with the children. The goal of these interviews was to connect the children with adults in Peacham who have valuable perspectives on their lives within the Peacham community. Children were partnered with another student, and conducted their interviews in teams. The entire class participated in each interview as an audience, and were encouraged to ask their own questions. Students are now completing short biographies of each person, which will then be assembled into booklets with accompanying pictures. These booklets will be shared at a community “tea” with the interview participants. We hope to share not only the booklets, but also pictures of our weekly walks, clips of videotaped interviews, samples of our work on biographies, and mostly fun, laughter, and a renewed sense of what makes a community. Designing the Unit Essential Questions: • What is a community? • How do the people and places in Peacham create a community? Focusing Questions: • What are the social, cultural, and economic institutions in Peacham? • Who are some of the people involved in these groups? Why are they involved in these groups? • What are some of the reasons people live in Peacham? • What are the different ways people appreciate Peacham? Vermont Standards: • 1.8 Reports • 4.6 Understanding Place • 6.5 Traditional and Social Histories Goals: • Students will demonstrate progress in the above standards • Students will be able to answer the essential and focusing questions • Students will gain an understanding of what constitutes a community • Students will appreciate their own role within the community Rationale: • Reinforces a sense of place and belonging for students • Creates connections between students and the people in their community • Allows for students to take an active role in their learning • Addresses multiple standards Culminating Activity: We will complete our spring interviews and walks with a “community tea” in the classroom. We will invite all of the Peacham interviewees and students’ parents to share the students’ biographies of their neighbors, as well as their peer and “famous people” biographies, photographs of the weekly walks, and a sampling of transcriptions of the actual interviews. Assessment Plan: Student progress will be assessed on an ongoing basis using a variety of assessment techniques. These will include: written reflection, oral presentations, hands-on class participation and teacher observation, and both teacher-designed and generalized-standard rubrics. Please see our Assessment Matrix for a chapter outline of assessment tools. Resources: Bartsch, Julie. (2001). Community Lessons: Promising Curriculum Practices. MA: The Massachusetts Department of Education, Learn and Serve America, & Massachusetts Service Alliance. Buckley, Susan & Leacock, Elspeth. (1993). Hands-On Geography: Reproducibles and Activities to Develop Early Geography Skills. New York, NY: Scholastic Professional Books. Gillis, Candida. (1992). The Community as Classroom: Integrating School and Community Through Language Arts. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Sobel, David. (1998). Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Chapter 1: Introduction - What is a Community? Chapter 2: Exploring “Walk of the Week” Chapter 3: Introductory Mapping Standards Being Addressed • 4.6 Understanding Place Focusing Questions: • How do maps help us to understand our surroundings? • How do we read basic maps? • How do we create simple maps? Topic: • Simple mapmaking and the reading of maps for information • Our community’s geographical and man-made landmarks, and how these form the basis of our community. Materials: • Teacher reference materials for elementary mapmaking (see attached list of resources) • Set of wooden blocks • Small objects (for treasure hunt) • Large drawing paper • Basic art supplies (markers, crayons, pencils) Procedures: • Begin by having students draw a map of their own “neighborhood” from memory. Define neighborhood as the area around their home. Have students share these drawings in class to describe what is in their neighborhood. • Discuss why maps are important, and what kind of information they can give us. Share various examples of maps of local places (Peacham, Vermont, and New England). Demonstrate how these maps are connected with a “Russian nesting doll” explanation, layering maps to connect with each layer of doll. • Encourage students to bring in maps that they have at home to share. Share these at Morning Meeting and other appropriate times. • Share class treasure hunt activity (see David Sobel’s Mapmaking with Children for more complete explanation.) Set up blocks in classroom when children are out of the room. Blocks should represent objects (tables, desks, etc.) as much to scale as possible. Place a small cube or other object in several places on the model, and then hide an object in the corresponding place in the classroom. When children return, have them try to determine what is being represented. Then have students volunteer to find the objects in the model. • After the class activity, have students draw their own maps of the classroom. With a partner, they then try the treasure hunt activity with each other’s maps (marking the hidden object with a sticker or star). Have students gather after the activity to discuss what made it easier or harder to find certain objects. • Explore elementary mapmaking techniques and vocabulary (compass rose, map scale, horizontal or aerial views) using assorted resource materials (see list). • Have students take clipboards, paper, and pencils on two particular weekly walks: one of the center of the village and one of the school nature trail. Have students take notes as they walk, and return to classroom to make maps based on their walks and previous map activities and information. Task-Specific Assessment: • Student maps of neighborhood, classroom, village, and school nature trail • Participation in classroom treasure hunt activity Generalized-Standard Assessment: • None Chapter 4: Classroom Biographies Study Standards Being Addressed • 1.8 Reports • 6.5 Traditional and Social Histories Focusing Questions: • What is a biography? • How can we share what we know about a person’s life? Topic: • Biographical studies of famous people, including written and oral presentations of information learned. Materials: • Assorted biographies, including books at a wide variety of ability levels and areas of interest • writing paper and supplies • models of older students’ biography storyboards • posterboard and a variety of art supplies • computers for publishing work Procedures: • Read aloud several short biographies to the class over a period of several days, during Morning Meeting, library times, and other appropriate times. Include picture books, chapter books, and autobiographies. • Discuss what makes a good biography. What information can be learned about a person from a biography? • Have students read and share short biographies in small groups. Rotate among groups to check for comprehension. Have students share briefly about the books to class. • Introduce biography storyboard project. Explain that students will be able to choose a biography about a person of interest to them. Bring students to older students’ classroom to view completed biography storyboards as models. (if not available, teacher models storyboard technique). • Introduce student rubric for storyboard. Discuss basic criteria. • Help students choose biographies at appropriate reading levels and in areas of interest. Have individual conferences with students to check for comprehension. • Allow for significant reading/ writing workshop time to complete writing pieces, with frequent conferences for support. Share examples of completed writing pieces. • Assist students with assembling storyboards after all pieces are completed. • Have students share completed storyboards in class, and save for final community tea. Task-Specific Assessment: • Teacher designed rubric for storyboard, incorporating Generalized-Standard rubric for Reports Generalized-Standard Assessment: • See above assessment Chapter 5: Learning to Interview Standards Being Addressed • 1.8 Reports Focusing Questions: • How do we write an effective biography? • What questions do we need to ask the person we interview? Topic: • Biographical studies of peers, practice with interviewing techniques, writing peer biographies Materials: • paper and pencils • sample of peer biographies Procedures: • Discuss what type of information students discovered in their biography studies. What made their biographies complete? • Read a sample of older student’s biography of a peer. If this is not available, create a peer biography of another teacher. • Explain that students will be writing their own biographies about each other. Generate classroom list of questions needed to find out information to write a good biography. What do students want to know about each other? • Divide students into partnerships. Explain that partners will deliberately be other students that they probably do not know as well as the friends they spend most of their time with. • Have students interview each other using the list of brainstormed questions. • Students then write stories about each other, and illustrate their stories. • Students share their biographies in class, and save for community tea. • Students reflect on process. Task-Specific Assessment: • Written peer biography • Written reflections Generalized-Standard Assessment: • None Chapter 6: Conducting Interviews Standards Being Addressed • 6.5 Traditional and Social Histories Focusing Questions: • Who are the people in our community? • What have their lives in Peacham been like? • How do their lives relate to ours? Topic: • The people in Peacham, their lives, jobs, families, and important memories and traditions. Materials: • List of student-generated questions • Clipboards, paper, and pencils • Digital camera • Tape recorder and video camera Procedures: • Prepare students for interviews with Peacham residents. Discuss the goal of the interviews, and how our work on biographies has prepared us for the interviews. Read aloud picture books with themes including grandparents or older characters. Discuss how their lives may be different than the students. • Discuss appropriate behavior for the interviews, and the different roles: interviewee, interviewer, and audience. • Invite members of the community to join the class to be interviewed. Give community members background information on the unit, questions that the students will be asking, and let them know that there will be a tape recorder. Encourage them to bring any photographs or other information they have that they may like to share with the students. • Pair students for the interviews. Explain that they will take notes, and will take turns asking the questions, and that the tape recorder will remember any information they are not able to record. • Prepare the classroom for the interview. Greet community members, and have children introduce themselves. Have student interviewers begin. • Encourage both students and adults to ask any other questions they may have, besides the questions on their lists. • Have students write thank you notes to community members. • Enlist help of parents to transcribe tape-recorded interviews. Task-Specific Assessment: • Participation in interview • Written thank you notes Generalized-Standard Assessment: • None Chapter 7: Writing Biographies Standards Being Addressed • 1.8 Reports • 6.5 Traditional and Social Histories Focusing Questions: • How do we tell the stories of the people of Peacham? • How do we write their stories so that they show a picture of their lives in Peacham? Topic: • The people in Peacham, their lives, jobs, families, and important memories and traditions, and how to share this information in writing Materials: • Paper and pencils • Tape recorder and video camera Procedures: • Have students write their Peacham biographies as soon as possible after the interview. Follow basic writing workshop techniques for writing, editing, and publishing. • Students may use the videotape to find information they may have forgotten or been unable to record during the interview. Encourage students to talk with their partners to fill in missing information. • Have students complete their biographies with a digital photograph taken during the interview. Task-Specific Assessment: • Written biography Generalized-Standard Assessment: • Generalized-Standard rubric for Reports • Chapter 8: Culminating Activity Standards Being Addressed • 1.8 Reports • 4.6 Understanding Place • 6.5 Traditional and Social Histories Focusing Questions: • What have we learned about the people and places in Peacham? • Who and what is Peacham? • What are all of the pieces that make up our community? How do we fit into this community? Topic: • Sharing the people, places, traditions, and memories of the people of Peacham, from the perspective of the students and their neighbors. Materials: • Gathered work from the unit: maps, storyboards, reflection journals, peer biographies, Peacham biographies, pictures, and videotapes • Tea and cookies! Procedures: • Students write invitations to community tea to interview participants, tour guides, and parents. • Students write and illustrate final reflective piece: What is a community? • Students and adults participate in sharing of community work Task-Specific Assessment: • Written and illustrated reflections Generalized-Standard Assessment: • Generalized-Standard rubric for Understanding Place |
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