Travel+brochure+project

To do lists
= = =Goals:=
 * Knowledge**
 * history of activism
 * I can explain one way people worked as activists in each neighborhood.
 * celebrate parts of Boston that are not celebrated (excitement)
 * I can list things that make a neighborhood special. This means I can list the art you see, the music you hear, the languages spoken, the food you eat, countries people come from, and ways people work together to make the neighborhood better.
 * Skills**
 * Fluency
 * Writing clearly and explaining your ideas
 * Getting information from interviews / field work
 * Interviewing
 * Map-making
 * Illustrating
 * Oral presentation skills
 * Note-taking
 * Character**
 * get connected to other neighborhoods in Boston (exposure)
 * excitement / pride for your own neighborhood / culture
 * activism in your own neighborhood (radio show is this, but kids may not know it)
 * working in groups

Learn about neighborhoods before we go, and then go there and do a service project?

Big questions:

What is a neighborhood?

 * Where do people come together?
 * to eat
 * to have meetings and read and learn
 * to enjoy art
 * to make their community better

Nonfiction writing
Start with yourself: > Each day write about one of the things. > Then read a partner's profile and take dash facts and make a nice profile of them.
 * Do a profile of yourself.
 * Brainstorm what makes you special
 * food
 * music
 * language and country of origin
 * art
 * how you work with people to make Young Achievers a better place (your community)
 * These profiles become the Resource Book for the lower group, which makes a brochure about our class community, to use as an About the Reporters for the radio show.

Expand this to neighborhood:

Travel brochure for a neighborhood

 * Choose one of the 4 neighborhoods
 * Find an authentic audience (My Town, DSNI, CPA, IBA, WBUR, Mattapan Library)
 * Get these organizations to send a letter requesting information for visitors about each neighborhood
 * 5 kids in each class do each neighborhood
 * food
 * languages
 * art / music
 * activism
 * There are 4 things you need to cover in your brochure
 * When it's time for the Radio Show, you write a script about one of the 5 areas. One child from each class talks about each topic (they split the script)

Cover

 * Name of the neighborhood
 * Image that represents the neighborhood
 * caption for image
 * border (put artifacts into it)

Inside (Version 1)

 * Headings are provided; kids make sub-headings for each panel / captions
 * language
 * What languages are spoken?
 * Where people go to learn languages including English
 * image of a sign in another language (plus English)
 * art/music
 * what kind of art exists in the community
 * image of a piece of art
 * description of the piece of art
 * activism (where people come together to improve their community)
 * what brings people together?
 * food (where people come together to eat)
 * food (where people come together to eat)

Inside (Version 2)

 * pick one place or artifact (brainstorm list with the kids after the first trip to the neighborhood)
 * Cover
 * name of neighborhood and image for neighborhood (looks the same for everyone)
 * everyone makes a design; form a "committee" that chooses which elements to use from each design (extension activity for stronger kids)
 * name of artifact
 * sub-title (strong lead / determining importance)
 * image of artifact
 * introduction
 * interesting lead (What makes an engaging introductory question?)
 * overview
 * What it is
 * location -- where it is
 * map? (just the cross streets and where it is in relation)
 * with a description of where it is, using prepositions
 * do a sketch on the field trip
 * then visit google maps later to double check / revise (or print them for each kid)
 * physical description of artifact (descriptive writing)
 * explanation:
 * what this artifact means
 * what it tells me about the community
 * why it is important to the community
 * Quotations from people about the artifact
 * ask 3 people about it and write down what they say
 * Image of the artifact

Back Cover

 * About the author (profile)

Brochure prep

 * look at examples of brochures; list common elements


 * Low group does YA?
 * Come up with visuals for all topics?
 * Lessons: PowerPoint - show it
 * Lessons: Brainstorm a bunch of questions (then have students put them into categories)
 * Lessons: Hopefully have a speaker come in and discuss information about Chinatown
 * Lessons: Restaurant Lessons
 * Bring small moment topics
 * Carousel when they come back at the end
 * Don't break up into groups yet: have students break up after we carousel. During the trip they will look for everything.


 * Comparative focus:**
 * art: entry points -- Chinatown gate, Fern Cunningham statues, Cultural Center in Villa
 * libraries: none in Chinatown, Mattapan branch is new, Villa???
 * Why is a library important? Why do you like to have one nearby?
 * food: Chinese, Haitian, Dominican
 * activism: housing (Haiti-Mattapan)
 * languages:


 * Before each intro field trip**
 * 1) Have a powerpoint for the neighborhood to get them interested.
 * 2) Brainstorm questions: what are you wondering?
 * 3) Have a visitor and ask questions.
 * Glenola (Mattapan) Jean-Marc Jean-Baptiste (Haitian Multi Service Center)
 * Jose / Luana (Villa)
 * Jojo Barros or Carlos Henriquez (DSNI)
 * Sam Yoon / Mark Liu / Caroline Chang / Lacet Le (Chinatown)

On the intro field trips

 * 1) We lead the field trip, but there is an expert or two in each neighborhood. We make a map for each tour ahead of time.
 * Present it as an exploration, not a walking tour, because they are too young. See what they notice, gather what they learn.
 * 1) Kids look for evidence / clues (like investigators) for each of the 5 things.
 * 2) We ask questions like:
 * What do you notice? What do you see? What do you wonder?

For each neighborhood, you write about one of the 5 things when we get back. We compile these into a binder (like a chapter book) with chapters about each subject. Then when kids are ready to make brochures, they have texts to use as resources.

After each field trip, do a carousel where you write what you learned about each of the 5 things on chart paper. Then the kids writing about each of the 5 things get the chart paper as a resource for their writing.

Make 5 icons for each of the things. While you walk around, have a silent signal you make when you hear information about one of the 5 things. Back at school, do some re-enactment and remembering of what you learned about each thing. The next day, do the carousel.

Follow up Field trip

 * Go to visit each artifact in groups of 7 or 8 (14 or 15 total)
 * Have a field work journal for each kid
 * at each artifact, the student whose artifact it is has to find information for the brochure; other kids sketch or are the buddy of that kid
 * Make pairs ahead of time: stronger student from one class with a weaker kid from the other class. Make the pairs ahead of time and they agree on an artifact to do.
 * On field trip, the 2 kids doing each artifact are in the same group. Each group only visits 3 or 4 artifacts.

Field Work Journal

 * sketches of little images related to the artifact (others can help you with this too -- other people who aren't doing the artifact can help you with this)
 * sketch of artifact (might also be done by the other kids in the group)
 * teacher takes photos
 * 3 quotations (owner, author, employee, artist, people who use it or see it)
 * what questions do they ask?
 * Why is this important?
 * What does it mean to you? How does it help people belong to a neighborhood?
 * What is your favorite part? What do you like about it?
 * map of cross streets
 * collect descriptive words (using your 4 or 5 senses)

Writing Minilessons:

 * organization
 * voice
 * sentence fluency:
 * starters
 * connectors
 * Word choice
 * mechanics
 * leads
 * description
 * surprising detail