New Haven, like most cities, allows its residents to live through multiple historical trends without necessarily seeing them. We don't often see the forces at work unless we are looking for them. Cities have hidden histories that can elude even the best of historians, let alone the wandering attentions of high school students. New Haven provides a great environment for looking at and examining these urban and human histories. My students are especially blind to the fact that their city is an amazing human phenomenon given their nature but also that no one has asked them to look for it.
This unit is designed around getting students to learn about their city, its history, geography, and human geography. There are different activities designed to introduce students to each facet of the city. Our high school is particularly well situated for these exercises. Its location in the heart of downtown of New Haven provides a great area for students to practice and learn about the city. The New Haven Garden Club (gardenclubnhgmail.com) has produced a DVD History of the New Haven Green. This provides an excellent place to start looking at the city. The New Haven Green is a feature that very uniquely New England and its histories intersect with many different trends and events. Students would benefit from seeing the how different events can overlap on a unique geographic place. The New Haven Green has been the site of Salem-esque Witch Trials, Race Riots, the Amistad Trial, and World War 2 Training. All these different events play into the history of the Green and students need to see this overlap in order to see beyond the immediately visible.
This concept of overlapping histories will benefit the students as they prepare for their projects. Students need to be prepared for finding different histories together in similar geographic areas. As students learn about the histories of immigration, migration, and industrialization, they will be preparing to understand their city better. These histories play a significant role in the New Haven's past and in my students' past. A quick survey of my students revealed that most were not aware of their family's histories but could partially trace roots back to other parts of our nation or other parts of the world. Preparing students to see and locate the different aspects of New Haven History will definitely benefit my students understanding of New Haven's history and our nation's history.
Preparing students to understand the different intersections of history will require a lot of preparation. After we work on Immigration in the classroom, I plan on having my students the first chapter of Douglas Rae's book,
The City: Urbanism and its End
, entitled "
Creative Destruction and the Age of Urbanism
". This chapter does a good job of combining and outline of New Haven's history along with pointing to some of the forces at work in New Haven's History and current issues. This is one of the key issues that my students will encounter in their studies. How does New Haven change with the new people that enter it? What do new people bring to the city? What brings new people into the city? With all the changes that New Haven has gone through, know that change has occurred and how students can trace that change through the eyes of its inhabitants will provide key experiences for my students.
There are a number of different avenues to help students prepare and execute their interviews. There are a couple of different ways to prep your students for this work. In class, you should hold mock interviews, map lessons, and even use the New Haven Museum (http://www.newhavenmuseum.org) or any local museum if you are not in New Haven to help students understand what the project's goals and aim are. These ideas are also outlined in lessons one and two. Having students conduct photo essays, documentary films, or poems inspired by their neighborhood allows for differentiation. My school is also an arts magnet school and allowing for an artistic exploration would be pedagogically appropriate for my students and for our school. Historically, there are any number of artistic endeavors that can connect my students to their experience in the city. The Photo essay portion is the one that particularly excites me because it means that my students will be connecting with the work of people like Jacob Riis. Bringing in multiple ways/methods of conducting the Project will allow students of multiple levels to access the benefits.
The end goal of the students' work needs to be a united view of the history of New Haven. Differentiation not only allows for more students to participate, but for there to be a diverse set of ways for others to look at New Haven. As students tie together their projects, their collective efforts producing narratives, photos, interviews, and maps should mirror the sources and materials we are viewing in class. Getting students to recognize the work they doing, acting as historians of their worlds, provides for meaningful learning and activities. Students will start to see their city's different histories and stories through their work.