Week 2

Touring Manayunk
In late June, the team took a trip to Manayunk to see what resources were available to us. Sylvia Myers at the Roxborough-Andorra-Manayunk-Historical Society was a great resource for us. We visited the historical society office/closet which is packed full of information relating to the Manayunk's beginnings, industrial past, followed by fifty hard years and then the current transformation into hip night spot. They have local newspapers, books, maps, photographs and other documents which help tell the story. These resources will be helpful to us for our own background knowledge (and personal curiosity) and some will be useful to the studens as they seek to learn more about the area. We will continue to revisit Sylvia and the historical society as we develop questions and find directions we would like to explore in more depth.

Kay Sykora has been with the Manayunk Development Corp for over two decades and has helped implement the economic development of the neighborhood. When we revisit the neighborhood, we will stop by her office to have an in-depth conversation about what resources and knowledge she has to share with us.

We made contact with Journey's Way Senior Center and talked to the Director Rebecca Kochman about students interviewing seniors about their experience of growing up and living in Manayunk. Our request was met with an enthusiastic yes.

We are also trying to contact an organization called the Manayunk neighborhood Council that is concerned with the balance of sustainable econmic development and neighborhood issues.

If you you have any further ideas for possible resources for the area, please let us know.

Curriculum Map
We are in the process of creating a curriculum map for our year-long study. One of the tools we are using to help guide the development of our curriculum is the Thinking-Feeling Spiral suggested in Through Other Eyes by Skolnick, Dulberg and Maestre. (Book Courtesy of Catalina) This model is designed to help students develop empathy and work towards gaining a multicultural perspective. The spiral starts with children thinking about their own concrete experiences with an issue or and idea and then, through a photograph or other artifact, imaginining someone else's experience with that idea or issue. Once they have begun to wonder about this experience they then proceed to an information gathering period to find out answers to questions and to see how the issue or idea plays out for the wider population. With this information in hand the student may now participate in simulations or other activities that involve their putting themselves into the hisortical situation. Finally students are able to reflect upon and apply what they have learned.

Using the theoretical framework described above, we are beginning to plan big-picture lessons. We are using the curriculum map to help ourselves frame and organize our thinking and to enumerate and align our activities, objectives and assessments. The curriculum map exists online as a Google Spreadsheet, which you are welcome to view. We will be updating it throughout the course of our work. We invite any and all forms of feedback you might have.

Colonial Research
We decided on "Colonial Professions" as our research project topic. This will take the place of sea creature research commencing in mid-October. After much discussion we settled on tools, techniques, training, and clientele as an initial framework to get the students thinking about what it is they truly want to know about the individual professions. One of our goals is to have the students think of what might have been important to a Colonial person and their profession. We wish to incorporate the importance of class, indentured servants and slaves as part of this study.
We have the texts for the individual professions but we are still searching around for a good resource book with general information to use in a book group format to start the research with.

Journaling
Throughout the year the students will be asked to make entries in a journal. They will write from the perspective of a time traveling 9-10 year old entering into different periods of Philadelphia history. They will include historical facts and information that they have learned and deem important to tell their story. Our hope is that they can make the actual journals in art class at the beginning of the year with Sam.

Literacy Essential Questions
In addition to having a Social Studies essential question, we thought it would be helpful to also have a literacy essential question to help students think about creating a meaningful way to communicate what they've learned in social studies. We are playing around with various forms of tools to help students present their projects. One of them is Primary Access, which is an online suite of tools that allows students to create Ken Burns-like documentaries/movies using primary source documents. Students will have to write a script, select from a catalog of teacher-selected visuals, record the narration and select a soundtrack.

In order to frame this multimedia project, we would like students to examine the following questions through the course of their studies.
- What makes a story compelling?
- How do you tell a good story?
- Why are stories important?
- What roles do stories play?
- Who is the audience?

African-American History
We have commenced reading more about African-American History in order to present a truly multicultural curriculum that will weave itself throughout the curriculum and the year, not merely limited to the unit on slavery and abolition.

Philadelphia Soundscapes Project


There was some talk at the beginning of this week about Deb spearheading a soundscapes project similar to the Open Sound New Orleans project featured on NPR. Since students will be taking numerous trips to different parts of the city, we thought it would be a great idea for students to digitally record soundscapes of the city and upload them onto Google Map. Michelle directed us to a project underway at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania called PhilaPlace and suggested we contact Joan Saverino, who is the director of the project and a friend of Rosanne's. Michelle is currently looking into how we can develop an interactive map similar to Open Sound New Orleans that is open to the public and lives online.