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Featured Activity
My Voice Activity: Community Walk
Grades: • Curriculum: Social Studies, Speaking & Listening and Writing
Description: The class takes a walk around the schoolʼs community noting things they would like to see changed or improved. Ask students to notice positive and negative, tangible (graffiti vs. murals) and intangible (sense of neglect vs. neighborhood pride). The information collected can be used to generate ideas for a project topic. Students can use a map to outline their route prior to the walk.
Materials:
1. Community Map
2. Handout - Community Walk Observation Sheet
3. Pencils
Objectives – Students will be able to:
1. Describe the positive and negative aspects of the community
2. Assess the needs of the community
Procedures:
1. Remind students that the focus of the service-learning project will be on an issue that affects their
community. In order to determine what issues exist it is important to go out into the community, paying close attention to positive and negative aspects.
2. Determine your route by providing students with a map of the neighborhood surrounding the school.
User-friendly maps can be created and printed out at www.maps.a9.com, maps.yahoo.com, maps.google.com, or mapquest.com.
3. Distribute the Community Walk Observation Sheet and have students fill out the Pre-Observation
questions. Discuss answers.
4. Read the directions for the Observation questions prior to taking the walk. Tell students to look
closely and try to find things others don’t see. Pay attention to the advertisements and billboards, businesses and agencies, people on the streets, and the activities they’re involved in.
5. Take a community walk following the map. Remind students to bring their pencils and worksheets.
6. While walking, remember to stop at appropriate and safe locations to allow students to fill out the
Observation questions.
7. Once back in the classroom allow time for students to answer the Post-Observation questions.
8. Have students share what they recorded and how their observations compared with their predictions.
Using the Community Walk (2nd Session):
9. Generate a list of the needs and problems that students recorded. Allow students to add issues to the list that they are aware of but did not observe during the walk.
10. Use the list to discuss possible topics for the service-learning project. Ask students to think about
which issues are most prevalent in the community, most important to the class, and most interesting to pursue.
Assessments:
1. Did students identify a variety of neighborhood characteristics?
2. Were the Observation Sheet and discussion responses thoughtful and thorough?
Curriculum Standards: Writing, Speaking, Culture
Extension/Homework:
Creative Writing - A Sense of My Community: The community walk helps students focus on what is visible in their communities. Students can write a creative piece about other facets of their neighborhoods that they can hear, smell, taste and touch.
