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A Guide for Community Living

Kathleen Noneman
Peggy Lear Bowen, Traner Middle School, Reno, Nevada

Subject: Community Studies/Language Arts
Grade: 7-8

"Pictures act as a catalyst to stimulate students' interest in writing and to motivate them to develop a better descriptive vocabulary."

Purpose and Description of Project

Kathleen Noneman and Peggy Bowen designed this project to help their students become more familiar with the services and facilities of their community and to stimulate their interest and skill in writing. The group participating in the project included speakers of Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Tongan, many of whose schooling had been interrupted "by political, social, or economic upheaval."

During the project, the students had the opportunity to hear a number of guest speakers as well as to go on several field trips. Their picture-taking, say the teachers, not only helped the youngsters become more knowledgeable about essential community services but spurred them to write about these photographic adventures. Their products were individual "guides for community living," and they also contributed photos and compositions for creation of a class book on the same topic. The students developed a local area survival game in which problems are solved by finding the correct community agency.

In addition to the valuable personal experience the students gained with various aspects of their community, including health services, transportation, and recreation, Noneman and Bowen found that their students also got used to the process of writing, editing, and rewriting. They became more enthusiastic about producing compositions.

Activities

The project extended over a three-month period and began with a class demonstration by a professional photographer. He discussed several types of cameras and gave the students a hands-on experience. The teachers set up a display of an old camera and its parts. At this point, the students' experience trips began.

The students' picture-taking and writing exercises focused on several themes. The first dealt with transportation systems and included a visit to the airport and a one-and-a-half-hour tour provided by the city bus system. Students learned how to get around the city by bus and about airport operations. They took photographs of these experiences, and on returning to class, began prewriting activities that included coming up with as many words as they could relating to the transportation theme and grouping the words into categories. The categories of words and photos they had taken were posted on a felt-covered board in a "writing corner," which each student used at his or her own pace to compose paragraphs.

When the paragraphs were completed, the teachers projected them on a screen with an overhead projector so that the class could work together to suggest corrections. Corrected paragraphs were returned to the students for final work and for them to choose the pictures best typifying their writing. Each student mounted together the article and the photograph so as to make up a page for the student's community living guide. These prewriting and writing activities were repeated after each field trip or class visitor. Different displays were set up in the writing corner as the project progressed. Other exercises focused on health facilities, which included visits to the university medical center, public health center, and a dental office; government, which included a class visit by the state assemblywoman for the local district, and student visits to the police station and a court; and business and finance, which included trips to a bank, a plastics factory, and a livestock show.

From the pictures taken during all these experiences and the paragraphs written about them, the students produced their individual and class community living guides.

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

Class speakers included a photographer, state assemblywoman, and representative of the Sierra Arts Foundation. Other teachers also cooperated by allowing Noneman and Bowen's students to piggyback on other field trips. Personnel at various city offices and businesses facilitated the class's own field trips.

Camera equipment used included two 35 mm cameras and a Kodak camera owned by the teachers. Kodak color film ISO 400 was used for outdoor shots and ISO 1000 for indoor shots.

Outcomes and Adaptability

The teachers report that the students became much better informed about their community and also more productive, interested, and skillful in their writing. The students' writing output increased threefold, and they were much more careful about errors. "They knew that papers would be subject to peer editing," state Noneman and Bowen. "They began to plan their paragraphs in advance and were enthusiastic about adding another page to their books."

Since writing is an integral part of the curriculum at all levels and all students need to know about their communities, the teachers believe that this project would be valuable at any grade level in any community. Even if cost is a limiting factor, they note, "there are many photographic experiences that can be found within walking distance of most schools."

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