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Lesson Plan:
Teaching the Lesson: Overview, Goals, and Planning
Overview
This program shows a group of 11th- and 12th-grade students at Anoka High
School in Anoka, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, engaging in a significant
way to improve the quality of their community. All students in Anoka are
required to participate in service learning in order to graduate from
high school. Students begin with simple teacher-defined activities in
the ninth grade and become progressively more involved and self-directed
as they progress through their high school years. In this human geography
class taught by Bill Mittlefehldt, a 30-year veteran of the classroom,
students work in teams to define a project, choose and meet with a community
partner who can help educate them about the seriousness of the issue and
its current status, conduct further research on the identified problem,
and present the problem and their proposed solutions first to their peers,
and then to a special session of the Anoka City Council. This lesson satisfies
state and national standards while helping deal simultaneously with the
needs of today’s teens and today’s communities.
Goal
The goal of the human geography course is to help students understand
how their region is changing historically, economically, and environmentally,
and how these forces are shaping the future. In this applied civics unit,
students are challenged to become involved in a project that can have
a positive impact on their own communities. A major component of the lesson
is a special session of the Anoka City Council, at which student teams
present the issues they have researched and the solutions they are proposing.
(See also, Teacher
Perspectives section on Lesson Goal.)
Planning
The lesson follows units of study on a variety of themes in human geography,
including where and why people live as they do in the world; human relationships
in terms of space, population, and other features of human interaction
with the physical features of their community; origins of students in
the class; the impact of civilization and urban development on the community
in which students live; and the concept that people have a responsibility
as citizens to work for the common good, as opposed to being disengaged,
disconnected, ungrounded learners who are inclined to be passive consumers
rather than active, democratic citizens.
The lesson seen in this program takes place in week six of a nine-week
Sequence
of Learning Activities. Prior to the lesson seen in the video, students
identified particular issues or problems they wished to address in the
community and began working in small groups, applying the knowledge and
skills gained from the course to identify and describe the concern they
wish to address. They’ve also begun researching the identified problem
and developing potential solutions, working with community partners on
the research and proposed solutions, and identifying the most feasible
solution based on their research and understanding of the economic and
political realities of the community within which the problem exists.
Role of the Teacher
Bill Mittlefehldt has included this civic action project in his course
for a dozen years. Over that period of time, he has developed relationships
with many of the professionals in the city who are potential community
partners for his students. Thus, they understand their role in the process
as well as that of the student. He also has developed a relationship with
the City Council (the current mayor is a former student), whose agreement
to hear the students’ presentations at a special session is very
important to the project because it truly gives students an opportunity
to have an impact on important community issues. The attendance at the
special session by numerous local dignitaries, the cablecasting of the
session, and the newspaper coverage of the session are other areas of
community participation that enhance the success of the project. These
may not all happen during the first year such a project is undertaken.
Teachers contemplating this lesson may find it helpful to form a parent
committee to help with this phase of planning.
Overview, Goals, and Planning |
Introduction |
Activity 1
Activity 2
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Activity 3
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Activity 4
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Activity 5
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Scheduling
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