Alison B. Kennedy
This unit is meant to create in the students a working knowledge of the community in which they live and the ability to express how they feel about it. It is my hope that through this careful observation of their neighborhood the students are able to realize what they believe is worth preserving, as well as what they would like to see change. This unit would be well suited to do in collaboration with older grades, and with teachers of art, gym, and music. It also lends itself to much parent participation. The more of the school community that is brought into working on the project, the more of a sense the students will get of how a community can work together to achieve positive results.
Appendix I Poetry Resources List
Eloise Greenfield,
Night on Neighborhood Street
, ( Picture Puffins, 1991) This book is ideal for this unit! The poetry focuses on a predominantly African American, inner city neighborhood. The poems are written with a childlike voice, and the book has beautiful illustrations.
Jack Prelutsky,
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children
, (Random House, 2001) This book has wonderful poetry of substance that is suitable for young children. It also contains a few poems about place that were especially useful. It has an entire section with poems about city which includes "City, City" by Marci Ridlon and "Sunrise
"
by Frank Asch which I have used successfully.
is a website that contains hundreds of poems which can be found by title, author and subject. I retrieved
"City Trees" by Edna St. Vincent Millay on this website.
Appendix II Map resources
I was able to obtain many maps through the city tourist information center and public transportation systems. Here are a few websites that I also found useful.
Many types of maps in a format that is easy to navigate.
This site includes interactive maps, satellite imagery, and more.
Includes maps as well as information on demographics and geography of every country and many major cities.
This site if full of aerial and satellite photographs.
A page of the world's subway systems and their maps.
Appendix III Possible Culminating Activities
There are many places that would work for a venue to show the students work. These are just a few possibilities:
Senior Citizen Centers
Libraries
Hospitals or clinics
Other schools or Youth groups
Museums or Historical Societies
Possible activities could include:
A Poetry Reading or Slam
Displaying and explaining the maps
An interactive workshop with either mapping or poetry
Donating the work to the venue
A performance of the rhythm and movement pieces they created to go with other poets' poems.
These are only a few possibilities. There are many!
