Community Action
Introduction
The primary purpose of this lesson is to actively involve students in a community project by allowing students to select a meaningful issue or problem that affects their community. Student should analyze and develop a realistic plan of action that involves middle school students and their community in addressing the problem.
Students identified two problems of a very different nature that they felt impacted on their community. First, the long-standing and highly complex problem of the increase of substance abuse, which includes usage, trafficking, and destruction of life, property, and values in their community. Even though it was immediately apparent to all the students that due to the pervasiveness and complexity of the drug problem that there were no easy answers and further that school involvement would not be very significant in ameliorating the problem. Nevertheless, they felt a strong desire to address the problem.
Another problem that was of interest to the students was a shortterm and entertainment oriented problem that was not viewed as destructive, but seen as a ‘solvable’ problem, was the ‘Carnival’ in New Haven, held annually in the community.
Primary Concept: Activism
Curriculum Objectives:.
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1. To become actively involved in the community.
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2. To develop school related projects to assist in community development.
Secondary Concept: Problem-Solving
Instructional Objectives:
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1. Identify a community problem.
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2. Explain the causes of the problem.
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3. Assess the effect that the problem imposes on the community.
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4. Formulate goals and objectives that the community and schools can set to control the problem.
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5. Outline steps and strategies for implementing objectives.
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6. Develop evaluation instrument for measuring effectiveness of the projects.
Behavioral Objectives: The Carnival
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1. List the main points contained in the newspaper article.
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2. Select and define five vocabulary words from the article.
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3. Formulate three comprehensive and analytical questions.
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4. Identify geographical locations on a map.
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5. Develop two map skill questions.
Problem Solving Approach
This lesson is organized around thought-provoking and developmental questions. The teacher will help students clarify their thinking through a series of problem-solving steps. The essential steps are:
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1. Problem Recognition.
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2. Assessment of the problem.
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3. Clarification of the problem.
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4. Goal setting.
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5. Development of plans of action.
