How can we improve our community?
Who are we as a community of thinkers, innovators?
COMMUNITY EXPLORATION & MICRO PROJECT IDEATION
12:00 p.m. Meet as Advisories.
DO NOW: "What makes Sheboygan unique?" Geographically? Economically? Historically? Generate a list of specific things that make Sheboygan unique, making sure that each group member contributes at least one idea. Capture the list in a place where you can take it with you : collection of post-it notes, list on paper, assign each person to memorize one.
OVERVIEW: Explain that we will be leaving the building to explore an area of the city. Review expectations for professionalism. The focus of the time will be observing the city, trying to do so intentionally to notice things that we may not have noticed before. This can be compared to looking at art and asking the questions of "What decisions may have lead to this (building, street, river bank, street sign, etc) looking the way that it does today?"
Library Outside - Timi
Fountain Park - Dan & Becky
Outside the Arts Center - Molly & Beckah
Blue Harbor (Beach/Boardwalk side) - Erin & Addie
Riverfront - Tim, Erica, & Mike
Commerce Street - Kimberly
GATHER MATERIALS (Optional: Assign roles and responsibilities.) :
- Map & Route (Navigators)
- Watch or Clock (Time Keepers)
- Photograph Machine (Photographers/Historians)
- Sketching Tools: Markers, Pens, Crayons (Artists)
- Paper: White Squares, Post-It Notes (Recorders)
- Thinking Routines for Observing/Questioning (Facilitators)
- Choices and Materials from Exploration Guide (Facilitators)
EXPLORATION: As a group, follow the route you planned - making stops to use a Thinking Routine, one of the following structures, or a process of your own. Be sure to document your group's thinking.
- Colors. Shapes. Lines : As you are walking and observing, assign three students or pairs of students to sketch and collect colors, shapes, and lines that you encounter in your spaces. This can be done throughout all of the observations or just in one specific instance. After these are collected, generate questions about what the colors, shapes, and lines imply about your area in the community. (For example, a lot of right angles might imply industry whereas rounded edges might imply more nature.)
- Word Whip : Try to generate new words. Spend 2 minutes of silent observation in a well-defined space. Circle up. Go around the circle, taking turns saying single words inspired by the observations. Words can only be said once. You are looking for unique words. When there are no unique words left, stop the exercise. Ask a few students to bring some of the best, unique words together into statements or questions that define the space or the concept of community.
- Texture Collection : As you are walking or while you are stopped at one place, do crayon or pencil rubbings of different textures. These might include buildings, plants, and other surfaces that are part of the space. Each person should contribute one unique texture. Gather the rubbings and try to arrange them into a mosaic that represents the space.
- Found Poetry : Collect words and phrases from signs, plaques, posters, etc. Toward the end of your walk arrange the words and phrases into a poem. The goal is to make the poem coherent AND representative of the space. Try to add as few words as possible of your own.
- Who should gather here? : Imagine your group has been asked to plan an event in your space. Based on the features of the space, determine who would gather there and for what reasons? Create an event plan and invitation.
- Redesign : Notice something is not quite right about how something works or looks in your space? Make a sketch of the way it is. Determine the end users. (For example, a bridge might have users who captain ships and users who drive across it.) Brainstorm alternative designs that would make it fit or function better.
- What if? : What if your space was our school? How would the space change how/what we learn? How might we change the space? Discuss.
- Nature! Goulet! : Use your prior knowledge of botany, ecology, and other sciences as you observe the natural elements of your space. Consider how humans and nature interact successfully or unsuccessfully. Create a metaphor that explains how the observations and interactions make you feel.
- Movement : Divide the group into pairs. As pairs, choose one feature of the space and create a movement (a body movement) that is inspired by the space. The pairs should then point out their feature and share their movement with the group. The group should mimic each movement. In the end, develop a sequence of movements and rehearse them together.
- Other...
REFLECTION
1:25 p.m. Return to school.
GENERATE DRIVING QUESTIONS
Examine the evidence of your thinking during your Community Exploration. Identify the concepts, words, thoughts, questions, ideas that grabbed your attention. Use the Question Starts routine to generate questions about the theme of "community."
THINKING COLLECTION
Designate a few members of your advisory to take all of your documentation (and tape) from your thinking during your Community Exploration and your Questions to the designated school-wide space. (Cafeteria?)
CLOSING GATHERING
In a go-around, share one new thing you learned about yourself and one other person in your Advisory today.
GENERATE DRIVING QUESTIONS
Examine the evidence of your thinking during your Community Exploration. Identify the concepts, words, thoughts, questions, ideas that grabbed your attention. Use the Question Starts routine to generate questions about the theme of "community."
THINKING COLLECTION
Designate a few members of your advisory to take all of your documentation (and tape) from your thinking during your Community Exploration and your Questions to the designated school-wide space. (Cafeteria?)
CLOSING GATHERING
In a go-around, share one new thing you learned about yourself and one other person in your Advisory today.
