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Community Study Through Photographs

Diane J. Tallman
Townsend North Elementary, Vassar, Michigan

Subject: Community Studies
Grade: 1-3 (Gifted)

"In this project, students actively developed their perceptions of the working elements of their city, rather than reading about them."

Purpose and Description of Project

Diane J. Tallman and her students laid aside typical textbook curriculum on model communities and instead went out into their own community to study and photograph its government and services, agriculture, industry, retail businesses, and recreational and social facilities. In the process, they not only learned what makes a city work but produced three slide/tape shows to share their findings with others.

During the project, reports Tallman, her students not only mastered the required social studies concepts and vocabulary but demonstrated many higher level thinking skills as they analyzed what was important, synthesized the information into a new form, and evaluated their emerging products. And, she states, "photography was an essential part of the process as it gave us a way to analyze and synthesize the new product."

Activities

Throughout the project, the students went on 14 field trips to historical sites, city government buildings, and businesses-all within walking distance of the school. The students themselves decided what they wanted to learn and where they needed to visit. They all kept journals and worked in pairs to take the necessary photographs and write various segments of the scripts. Other writing exercises included thank-you letters to the people who assisted them at each field trip site, an original play about the city's founder, and letters to the group's pen pals in Vermont. Specific project activities, which continued for about three and a half months, included the following: Students and teacher discussed the project, what they knew about their city, and what they wanted to know, and listed places they needed to visit. They categorized them as governmental, agricultural, historical, etc. They also learned about picture-taking during this time. Each student took several pictures, and the class projected the negatives and evaluated their work. At this point, field trips began. Sites visited included City Hall, where the children visited with the city manager, treasurer, clerk, and police; the Waste Water Treatment Plant; a city council meeting, where the students spoke with the mayor; the house of the town's founder, Townsend North; the local newspaper office; and a number of commercial facilities, including a restaurant, a bank, and a foundry. At each site, all the children took notes, except for two who acted as photographers. Between field trips, the youngsters wrote their play about the town's founder, made puppets, painted scenery, and photographed the puppets as well as worked on the other script segments for the slide/tape shows. After the field work was completed, the students selected the final slides to be used, reviewed and evaluated the scripts, and taped the narrations. The children put on their puppet show as part of the school-wide Art Fair, presented their entire project to interested classes, and, at last, gave a special premiere showing of the slide presentations. Their audience included parents, school board members and administrators, and the hosts of their field trips. The slide/tape shows have also become part of the school library collection.

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

Primary human resources were the photographer who taught the children how to take pictures, parents who accompanied them on field trips, and the people at each field trip site who conducted tours and answered questions.

Equipment included a Pentax Autofocus camera, a Canon FB 35 mm camera, film and processing, a KODAK EKTAGRAPHIC EF Visualmaker, tape recorder, tapes, and slide trays. Much of this equipment was available from the school, although the Pentax camera was purchased.

Outcomes and Adaptability

Tallman reports that her students passed objective tests on city government and businesses even though, due to the project, they had not read the entire textbook. They also passed a test on their own city. However, she stresses, "their understanding and enthusiastic application of these concepts went far beyond what was measured by the test." In addition, says Tallman, "the students feel proud of their slide/tape programs and feel they were worth all the hard work. They have also been noticing newspaper stories about city government and businesses and have been bringing them to class to share."

Tallman concludes that "any class of students could use photography for aspects of their own community to enhance a study of that community."

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