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Concern for Community
Subject Area:
Language Arts
Grade Level(s):
8
Duration of Activity:
Five to six, 55-minute class sessions for reading the vignettes, introducing the project, and planning the activities. Times for completing the other components of the project will vary depending on the number of students involved, their expertise in creating Web pages, and their accessibility to the service groups contacted for the project.
Description of Activity:
After reading selected vignettes from the young-adult book The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, the students will discuss the types of social injustice presented in the vignettes that include, “The House on Mango Street,” “Those Who Don’t,” “There Was an Old Woman She Had so Many Children She Didn’t Know What to Do,” and “Bums in the Attic.” After identifying the social injustices they see in the lives of the characters in this book, the students will discuss ways in which they could help combat such injustices in their local community. Students will divide into groups to discover the various community-service projects available in their area. They will use this information to create a class Web site that highlights the available community resources. Students will design and create flyers to post in the community advertising the Web page. Students will use the World Wide Web, the telephone book, and the local newspaper(s) to locate the community-service projects for inclusion on the Web page.
Objectives:
- Students will read and discuss selected vignettes from the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
- Students will identify social injustices felt by the various characters in the vignettes.
- Students will discuss solutions to combat these real-life problems as a class.
- Students will view various community-service Web sites and discuss the work that each group undertakes and whether or not the groups’ approaches appear to be beneficial to those they seek to help.
- Students will use the World Wide Web, local newspapers, and other community resources to find community-service opportunities in their local community.
- Students will contact the various community-service organizations to request information about opportunities these organizations offer for service in the community.
- Students will volunteer to serve on various committees to help in the location of information about, the creation of, and advertising for a class community-service Web page resource.
Materials/Equipment:
Prerequisites (skills or background needed):
- The teacher should obtain permission from the administration for the Web site to be created and posted to the World Wide Web via the school district’s/school’s Web server.
- The teacher should obtain permission from the administration for students to make on-site visits to community service project locations. Point out that the students always will be accompanied by their parents if they do on-site visits of any type.
- Parental permission will be needed for any student whose photograph appears on the Web page. C•R•E•A•T•E for Mississippi’s standard release form for photographs can be used as a model for creating such a form. See Handout 7: Release Form—Student Photographs(s)
- Students should have a basic knowledge of how to conduct research on the World Wide Web.
- Students should have a basic knowledge of how to use word-processing and/or spreadsheet software.
- Some students should have a basic knowledge of how to use video equipment.
- Some students should have a basic knowledge of how to use digital camera equipment.
- Some students should have a basic knowledge of how to create a Web page.
- Some students should have a basic knowledge of how to use desktop-publishing software if it is available for their use.
Procedure
Teacher Component:
The teacher will
Days 1 and 2:
- read the vignettes orally to the entire class so that students can react and discuss with each other the injustices portrayed in each vignette.
- monitor students as they discuss and suggest solutions to the injustices found in each vignette.
- ask probing questions of students who are not vocalizing their ideas to encourage them to make suggestions and contribute to the discussion.
Days 3 and 4
- divide the students into groups and distribute Handout 1: Hot List of Sample Community-Service Project Web Sites so that the student groups can investigate what communities around the nation are doing to help those in need of particular services.
- discuss with students the reputability of the groups represented by the Web sites. Are they reputable or could they be fraudulent? Ask the students how they might determine which organizations are reputable. Discuss how organizations can abuse the public’s trust.
Day 5
- ask the student groups to conduct research using the World Wide Web, local newspapers, the telephone directory, and other available resources in the same groups as on Day 4. Students are to find what community-service projects are being carried out by volunteers in their local community. Possible projects might include: Habitat for Humanity, Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs, women’s shelters, soup kitchens, nursing home volunteers, homeless shelters, environmental protection groups, public park clean-up committees, and various church, synagogue, or mosque projects.
- remind the student groups to keep track of the following information for each local community-service group they find through their research: name, address, telephone number, Web site address, and contact person (if available).
- guide the class as they agree on a common format for setting up a table in Microsoft Word or a worksheet in Microsoft Excel and compile their information, which will be discussed by the class. Files should be saved to diskettes using a pre-determined file-naming convention so that no group’s files are overwritten. Diskettes containing the files should be given to the teacher.
Day 6
- combine the information from all groups into one Microsoft Word table or Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and review as a class the community-service groups located by the students through their research.
- distribute Handout 2: Telephone/E-mail Etiquette and discuss it with the students. Encourage them to follow the rules on the handout if they ask organizations to take part in the Web site project. Conduct role-playing exercises as part of this discussion, with the teacher playing the part of one of the community-service organization representatives. Stress the fact that the students should clearly explain the project when they are informing the community-service project leaders of the class’s request to advertise their project to the public along with other community-services projects in the community.
- distribute Handout 3: Community-Service Committee Preference Form and Handout 4: Example Parent/Guardian Permission Form. Explain that the classes will be divided into different committees, with each student taking part in helping to create a Web page that will serve the community as a resource for those in need or for those who want to volunteer to help to those in need. Review the handouts with the class and carefully explain the different tasks involved. Point out that students need to have parental permission to sign up for some of the committees. Ask the students to sign up for their first, second, and third choices for committee assignments, and to return the completed and signed forms.
Please note in regard to Handout 4: Example Parent/Guardian Permission Form that for the purpose of seeking permission from actual parents/guardians, the word “Example” should be removed from the title and the handout modified to meet any school district guidelines.
Day 7
Note: Day 7 will not fall immediately after Day 6 in all probability.
- collect and review the students completed Handout 3 forms and make the committee assignments. When this work is completed, inform the students of their committee assignments.
- create a master list of student committees and post the list in the classroom for all students to see. Student committees will do the following:
- Contact Committee—to compile a master list of community-service groups to contact, complete with names, addresses, telephone numbers, and Web site URLs (where appropriate) from information gathered by the students during classroom activities on Day 5
- Correspondence committee—to write the text for letters to be mailed to various community-service organizations and thank-you notes
- Word-processing committee—to key in and format text of documents, create mailing lists, and prepare letters for mailing
- Web-page designers—to organize Web page content in a user friendly way; to determine the overall appearance of the Web site (Experience with Web-page design is preferred.)
Note: If there is enough interest in this aspect of the project, more than one group may be formed. Each group will submit storyboards that detail their designs, and the class will vote on the design to be used.
- Graphic designers—to create flyers for advertising the Web page project (Experience using desktop-publishing software is preferred.)
- Proofreaders—to review all correspondence before it is mailed, all Web pages for errors and omissions, and all advertising flyers before they are distributed
- Camera committee—to take pictures with the digital camera(s) and video camera(s) for use on the Web site (Students must have parental permission to do this.)
- Telephone committee—to contact service organizations (Students must have parental permission to do this.)
- Interview committee—to meet with service organization representatives (Students must have parental permission and assistance to do this.)
- Other—to complete any other additional tasks that the teacher feels need to be done
Day 8 to the End of the Project
- set aside class time for the students to work on the project each week or as necessary.
- meet with the various student committees before or after school as needed to coordinate their efforts.
- guide the students throughout the completion of the project.
- review any materials created by the students before the information is posted to the Web site.
- make arrangements for uploading the Web site files to the school’s server. The Web page can be uploaded to the server before all elements are created. Web-designers can add to the content as it is provided to them.
- ask the students to complete Handout 5: Peer Evaluation Form at different intervals during the project’s completion. One time for each grading period might be appropriate. Each student will rate the other members of his/her committee so that the teacher might get a better picture of what is being done by each member of the committee.
- ask the students to complete Handout 6: Reflections on Community Service as part of the assessment of their participation in this project.
Student Activities:
The students will
Days 1 and 2
- read the vignettes orally and discuss the social injustices found in each.
- discuss various ways to combat the injustices found in the vignettes.
Days 3 and 4
- divide into assigned groups and view the Web sites listed on Handout 1: Hot List of Sample Community-Service Project Web Sites. The students will investigate what communities around the nation are doing to help provide services for those in need.
- discuss as a class the organizations and their reputability. Do the organizations seem genuine or fraudulent? Students will discuss how organizations could abuse the public’s trust.
Day 5
- research the World Wide Web, local newspapers, the telephone directory, and other available resources to locate possible needs in the local community as well as organizations that have been established to combat social injustices.
- record information about each local community-service group found through their research in Microsoft Word tables or Microsoft Excel worksheets as directed by the teacher. Basic information that must be noted include each project’s name, address, telephone number, Web address (if available), and contact person (if available). The class should determine the manner in which the information should be set up and save their data accordingly. Student groups will save their files to diskettes and submit the diskettes to the teacher.
Day 6
- review and discuss Handout 2: Telephone/e-mail Etiquette with the class. Participate in role-playing activities as a class in preparation for contacting community-service group representatives by letter, e-mail, telephone, or on-site visits.
- review and discuss Handout 3: Community-Service Committee Preference Form and Handout 4: Example Parent/Guardian Permission Form. Students should note carefully which committee assignments require parental permission.
Day 7
- rank their first, second, and third committee assignment preferences and return Handout 3 to the teacher along with copies of Handout 4 initialed and signed by their parents.
Day 8 to the End of the Project
- work with their assigned committees to collect information and get that information posted to the Web site correctly as well as advertised in the community through student-designed flyers. Student committee assignments will involve the following:
- Contact Committee—to compile a master list of community-service groups to contact, complete with names, addresses, telephone numbers, and Web site URLs (where appropriate) from information gathered by the students during classroom activities on Day 5
- Correspondence committee—to write the text for letters to be mailed to various community-service organizations and thank-you notes
- Word-processing committee—to key in and format text of documents, create mailing lists, and prepare letters for mailing
- Web-page designers—to organize Web page content in a user friendly way; to determine the overall appearance of the Web site (Experience with Web-page design is preferred.)
Note: If there is enough interest in this aspect of the project, more than one group may be formed. Each group will submit storyboards that detail their designs, and the class will vote on the design to be used.
- Graphic designers—to create flyers for advertising the Web page project (Experience using desktop-publishing software is preferred.)
- Proofreaders—to review all correspondence before it is mailed, all Web pages for errors and omissions, and all advertising flyers before they are distributed
- Camera committee—to take pictures with the digital camera(s) and video camera(s) for use on the Web site (Students must have parental permission to do this.)
- Telephone committee—to contact service organizations (Students must have parental permission to do this.)
- Interview committee—to meet with service organization representatives (Students must have parental permission and assistance to do this.)
- Other—to complete any other additional tasks that the teacher feels need to be done
- complete Handout 5: Peer Evaluation Form for each member of the committee to which the students are assigned. This may be done at appropriate intervals during the project.
- complete Handout 6: Reflections on Community Service as a final assessment for the project.
Accommodations:
- Establish safe and monitored student e-mail accounts through Gaggle.net / gaggle.net. This would allow committees to conduct some of their work through e-mail.
- Divide the students by heterogeneous ability levels for any required group work.
- If there are enough students with Web experience or the desire to learn to build Web pages, multiple designs can be submitted and one selected by vote of the class members.
- If space is not available on a school-district Web server, permission may be obtained to post the Web site to free sites such as:
- Adapt the lesson plan as a joint project with the Social Studies teacher to provide more time for the student groups to work on their assigned roles.
- For a less involved project, allow small groups of students to design community-service Web sites that actually will not be posted to the World Wide Web and do not involve contacting representatives from the community-service groups. Having more than one student group contact these organizations could prove to be a burden as well as an annoyance.
- Enlist the aid of future classes in updating the content and maintaining the Web site as a community resource.
Extension Activities:
- Students could write letters to the editor of the local newspaper to rally support for the various community-service projects. This could be done using word-processing software and as part of a letter-writing lesson plan activity.
- Based on experiences they have read about or been involved in, students could write vignettes following Cisneros’ style that would be appropriate to include in The House on Mango Street if others were added. The best vignettes by the students could be submitted for publication in magazines or on-line publications.
- The student could use word-processing software and write critiques of the national World Wide Web community-service sites reviewed in preparation for this lesson plan.
Integration:
- Language Arts
- Technology
- Social Studies
Assessments:
- Observe and keep a list of student participation during discussions. Simply place a check mark beside a student’s name when he or she makes a comment.
- Review students’ responses to Handout 5: Peer Evaluation Form. Assign an appropriate grade for each grading period. Students might also be asked to create a rubric together that would give them a sense of ownership in the assessment of the project.
- Assess students’ responses to Handout 6: Reflections on Community Service.
URLs:
These are a few Internet sites seeking help in projects, but these will probably need to be done in consideration of a particular communities’ location. Students can search and find more.
Curriculum Frameworks
Mississippi:
Eighth Grade
- Communicate for a variety of purposes through forms of writing using processes of reading, writing, listening, and viewing for an expanding audience.
- Speak coherently in order to express ideas and opinions for a variety of purposes and audiences.
- Complete projects and tasks in an organized and coherent manner.
- Read, listen, and view multimedia sources to select and use information for a variety of purposes.
- Develop self-monitoring skills to work independently and cooperatively.
- Participate cooperatively while engaging in small group activities to analyze and interpret information, to make decisions, to solve problems, and to produce a given product.
- Read, analyze, and respond in written and oral language or other art forms to increasingly challenging literature and other resources.
- Demonstrate continuous progress toward control of grammar, mechanics, and usage of Standard English in oral and written communications.
- Use language to record observations, to clarify thoughts, to synthesize information, to analyze and evaluate language, etc., in order to facilitate continuous learning.
- Construct meaning by applying personal experiences, and by reading,
writing, speaking, listening, and viewing.
National Educational Technology Standards (NETS):
- Apply productivity/multimedia tools and peripherals to support personal productivity, group collaboration, and learning throughout the curriculum.
- Collaborate with peers, experts, and others using telecommunications and collaborative tools to investigate curriculum-related problems, issues, and information, and to develop solutions or products for audiences inside and outside the classroom.
- Select and use appropriate tools and technology resources to accomplish a variety of tasks and solve problems.
- Research and evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, comprehensiveness, and bias of electronic information sources concerning real-world problems.
TerraNova:
Reading/Language Arts
01 Oral Comprehension (Level 10, 11)
Demonstrate both literal and interpretive understanding of passages that are read aloud.
Use writing or other means to respond to literal and interpretive questions about passages that are read aloud.
03 Analyze Text (Level 11-21/22)
Demonstrate comprehension by drawing conclusions; inferring relationships such as cause and effect; and identifying theme and story elements such as plot, climax, character, and setting.
Write responses that show an understanding of the text that goes beyond surface meaning.
04 Evaluate and Extend Meaning (Level 11-21/22)
Demonstrate critical understanding by making predictions; distinguishing between fact and opinion, and reality and fantasy; transferring ideas to other situations; and judging author purpose, point of view, and effectiveness.
Write responses that make connections between texts based on common themes and concepts; evaluate author’s purpose and effectiveness; and extend meaning to other contexts.
05 Identify Reading Strategies (Level 11-21/22)
Demonstrate awareness of techniques that enhance comprehension, such as using existing knowledge, summarizing content, comparing information across texts, using graphics and text structure, and formulating questions that deepen understanding.
Write responses that interpret and extend the use of information from documents and forms, and that demonstrate knowledge and use of strategies.
Link and Feedback to Author(s):
Michelle Byrd, New Hope Middle School, Columbus, MS
Michelle.Byrd@lowndes.k12.ms.us
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