TITLE OF THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE: All Around the Community
by Lori Breier

1. LEARNING CONTEXT
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce and expand on the concept of community. What is a community? How do we become good community members? Why or how do we change our communities? The Social Studies Curriculum requires that students will be able to understand the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation (Standard #5). Students will be able to describe what a community is and what roles people have in a community. Hopefully these studies will allow students to reflect on their roles as classroom community member and members of the community in which they live.

2. PROCEDURE
Second grade and Kindergarten students will participate in a variety of learning activities including whole group and collaborative group work. Working in a variety of groups will allow students to modify and expand their responsibilities, since each community (or work group) has designated roles. Beginning with a Treasure Hunt launch, second graders will be matched up with a Kindergartner they may or may not know. Children will be asked to go around the school and find people who: a) Keep the school clean b) Help you feel better when you are sick c) Serve lunch to hungry kids d) Help them choose good books to read e) Make sure rules are followed in the school f) Announce when recess is inside and tells the school when they are dismissed to go out to their busses. Children will find out the name of the person for each job and write the name down. They will also ask that person the title of their job (if the students is not sure what it is). The children will return back to the classroom to share the information they found. Did all students find the same people? Are there people who do the same thing, but have different titles? Write the answers they found on chart paper. Talk about how all these people are a part of a community. Next, we will read trade book "People At Work" by Paul Humphrey. Second grade students will share the book with a Kindergarten student. Teachers and second grade students will read out loud while K students follow along. Children could also just read to their K students like they would with a book buddy. Were all of these members in the book important? Can we find these people in Waterville? Present the Waterville Central School District video to the children so they can have a closer look at the community most of them live in. What places do they recognize? Complete a word map for the word community and include people and places they would find in a community. Create a good definition based on the word map-A communit y is. Pose the question after a definition is create, "How is our school and our classroom a different community?" A quick look at Waterville's surrounding communities can be done by showing students a map of the Waterville Central School District, which can be found at http://mohost.moric.org/waterville/area_map.htm. Teacher can bookmark this site to make it easier for students to find their community on the Internet, as well as discuss which communities make up their school district. A small final project will be to complete a book of People and Places in Waterville. Student pages will be typed and drawings will be scanned in by the teacher. Some pages may include (for example) "Mr. O'Brien is the Mayor. He makes sure Waterville is kept safe." This will be done for other people and their jobs.

3. INSTRUCTIONAL/ENVIRONMENTAL MODIFICATIONS
Since this learning experience is a multi-age lesson, second grade students will be expected to do the writing during the treasure hunt. They will also write the descriptions of the people in Waterville, Kindergarten students will be responsible for helping the second grade students come up with answers to the hunt, and descriptions for the booklet. Second graders will also assist Kindergarten students while reading People at Work. All should be able to participate during the video and help describe a community on the word maps. There do not have to be many modifications made to the classroom, although a carpet setting would be nice for the video viewing and word mapping. Teachers will be expected to assist students in working with the Website on the computer since this may be some of their first experiences with the computer. Kindergarten and second grade students can work as partners to write their sentence about the person they will be explaining. They can also draw their pi cture together.

4. TIME REQUIRED
It will probably take at least two 40 minute planning periods to coordinate plans with the other teacher, as well as make up treasure hunt worksheets and work maps. Setting up materials will be done on a day to day basis. The treasure hunt and discussion will take approximately one forty minute period. Reading People at Work and discussing members in Waterville, another 25-30 minutes. Viewing the video and Website as well as completing the word map will be about 45 minutes. It will take the children another 40 minutes to write their sentences on a separate sheet of paper (which the teacher will correct) and draw their picture. Children will then need about 20 minutes in the computer lab to type their sentences. Teacher will need about 1 hour (perhaps during planning time) to scan in children's pictures. All together, this learning experience should be done over a span of 4 or 5 days, depending on the amount of time you have allotted. Assessment will take another 25 minutes wi th the students and approximately one hour for the teacher to complete formal rubrics on the statements of information (if being used).

5. RESOURCES
To successfully compete this Treasure Hunt, students will need a pencil and something to lean on when they write. They will need lined paper to write the rough draft for their sentences about their community work as well as crayons and markers for the picture. Teachers will need to create a list of treasure hunt items that the children can compete. They will also be responsible for designing a word map and getting copies of People at Work, as well as the district video. A VCR will be needed to show the video. Teachers will need to open up computers to Netscape and have the Website bookmarked so children will be able to go to the district Website. The teacher will also need a scanner to scan the pictures for the book.

Resource citations: Humphrey, Paul. People at Work. Steck-Vaughn Company, 1995.

6. ASSESSMENT PLAN
Children will be assessed on their ability to gather information by how well they complete the Treasure Hunt. Student learning will also be gauged by their participation in group discussion and the making of the word map. We will also watch to see if children are able to relate the book they read to their own lives and where they live. The final project-the book will be culminating activity that everyone will participate in making. The quality of the statements of information may be assessed using a rubric for statements of information. Children can be involved in this assessment by being asked to talk about how well they think they worked with their kindergarten/second grade partner. They may also discuss how they feel about the book and what they learned by doing it all. Direct questioning and guided questions will be good here. The latter assessments will help the students work towards being better community members, which is the ultimate goal of these activities.

7. STUDENT WORK

8. REFLECTION
Being a successful community member begins by understanding what a community is. These lessons help give students experiences that they can take and relate to their own lives. They will lead to more discussions and activities that involve being a positive role model in our own community. I believe a successful classroom begins with a strongly knit community. Children do not always have this at home and school may be the only place they think about it. Children will need to communicate with all different types of people and understand what their roles are. Begun at an early age, children have a better chance of appreciating their community and being positive contributors to it. This learning experience is a good way to begin a community unit and gets the children to think critically, which is very important when they are trying to be positive members of their own various communities.