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Wichita, Then and Now
Carol Webb
Annie Lowrey, Wichita High School East, Wichita, Kansas
Subject: Community Studies
Grade: 10
"The students' writing after the project is measurably more
sophisticated than it was at the beginning of the school year.
Attitudes changed as students progressed from 'halting and uninspired
writing to... I sensitive poetry....' They actually began asking
for more frequent opportunities to write."
Purpose and Description of Project
Carol Webb's and Annie Lowrey's English honors students were given
the opportunity to participate in a project designed to enhance
their writing and photography skills. The project allowed them
to gather factual information they would later use to create an
aesthetically pleasing product. Webb provided guest speakers,
field trips, and numerous writing opportunities as her students
worked toward their eventual goal of creating a slide and sound
show. This show was to feature the students' own slides and original
poetry written in response to cultural aspects of Wichita's past
and present. In carrying out this program, the "most important
objective was to make students feel good about their writing...."
Activities
A local poet visited the class every two weeks during the first
semester. The activities he provided were largely pre-writing
in nature as he increased the students' awareness of sensory imagery
with his vivid anecdotes, discussed aesthetics and the basics
of art, and employed music as a stimulus to writing. A local architect
showed the students her slide presentation of architectural phenomena
in Wichita and accompanied the students on a scavenger hunt for
these phenomena during a walking tour of a six-block area of Wichita's
oldest homes. A professor of general studies at Wichita State
University talked to the class about the life of a former chairman
of the board of a local bank as well as that of a notorious bank
robber who was active in the area from 1915 to 1920. He also arranged
for the students to tour the bank chairman's home which had been
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Then Wichita's mayor discussed
her duties and the city commission's plans for future projects
in Wichita.
Out-of-class activities included a tour of the Wichita Cowtown
Museum and optional field trips for individual students. The students
took slides on all class trips with the help of two senior photography students, and many provided film for their individual trips. These
slides were used in stimulating writing exercises in class, as
each student was asked to write at least two poems about Wichita,
past and present. The slides were then sequenced and the poems
taped with background music for the final slide/sound presentation
to about 80 parents and community members.
Materials, Resources, and Expenses
The primary outside resource persons who contributed their time
and knowledge were the poet, architect, university professor,
and Mayor of Wichita. The two senior photography students not
only helped the students take slides but also developed all the
slides in the school's darkroom. Since the school supplied 35 mm
cameras
and tape recorders, the only expenses were for slide film and tape cassettes.
Outcomes and Adaptability
The teachers evaluated the activities-the guests, the trips, the
slide presentations in class, and the frequent writing opportunities-as
worthwhile and believe that photography enhanced the writing process
as well as the final product. Webb feels the appreciation expressed
by their audience was the students' "most important evaluation."
Both the audience and the students themselves were amazed at the
success of their efforts. The goal of making the students feel
good about their writing had been fully achieved.
Webb and Lowrey used the project with two classes but say it could
easily be replicated on a smaller scale with one class. The basic
requirements are simply something to write about, frequent writing
and photographic activities, and publication of the writing in
some form.