Objectives
As stated above, the goal is to have students apply their studies of geography and culture to themselves and their community as well as other communities. To conduct this comparative study, I will be partnering with David Cash, a teacher at George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans. Carver is one of the few remaining traditional neighborhood public schools in New Orleans and faces similar threats to its own community identity. We will have our students communicate with each other electronically to examine their existing biases, research methods and conclusions about their communities. To do this comparative study effectively students will examine the work of geographers who utilize this technique. Two texts that will guide us in the process of comparative geography will be Urban Outcasts by Loic Waquant 16 and What is a City: Rethinking the Urban After Hurricane Katrina edited by Phil Steinberg and Rob Shields. 17 The former will provide geographic and cultural insights into inner-city Chicago neighborhoods as well the process of comparative geography.
In Urban Outcasts (2008), Loic Waquant has made important theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to our understanding of the "new poverty" through his comparison of the late 1980s/early 1990s Chicago Black "ghetto" to the Paris banlieues. In so doing, he makes four central arguments drawing on a wealth of ethnographic and quantitative data. (Gilbert) 18
These arguments address a definition of American hyperghettos, identifying differences between his subjects, the role of the state policy in these conditions, and a framework for future research. (Gilbert) 1 9 The latter text will provide the insights needed to make legitimate comparisons with post-Katrina New Orleans and also provides further exemplars of comparative geography.
Comparative theory (with the Netherlands, London, Mumbai) acts as a device to remind American scholars that New Orleans' perceived uniqueness in the United States does not mean that similar issues, and solutions, cannot be found elsewhere among world cities. (Hernandez) 20
The original intent of this unit was to reinvent the culture unit for my AP Human Geography course. I was looking at having students research and study cultures exclusively outside their experience. Upon further reflection, I realized that my students need to develop a stronger sense of identity and belonging to their community. Studs Terkel kicks off The Great Divide with a quote by Carlos Fuentes that sums up the importance of this identity. "We must go forward. . . but we cannot kill the past in doing so, for the past is part of our identity and without our identity we are nothing." 21 I have instead developed an introductory unit to the concept and importance of culture, so my students can focus their further study of culture through the lens of intangible space. The course also ties together the larger, ongoing project of the Community Transformed website.
The unit will be tied into a double period cohort consisting of my AP Human Geography class and my Freshman AVID class. This will allow us the freedom to do some longer lessons and more complicated projects in a shorter period of time. We will begin by having students explore what they already know about the Gage Park Community and identifying both tangible and intangible aspects of the community culture and traditions. Students will read a brief history of their community to give them a sense of its evolution from open prairie to Irish, Polish and Lithuanian enclave to the predominantly Hispanic and African-American demographic that exists today. 22 To expand their understanding of the area's historic diversity, students will also examine excerpts from Studs Terkel's Division Street America and The Great Divide.
Additionally, they will take a community walk field trip, during which students will speak with local cultural leaders and gather information to develop a culture map and calendar. Stops along this tour will include the Park District Field House at Gage Park, a mural by Thomas Lea, and a museum-quality kiosk developed by previous Gage Park High School students to commemorate the equal housing marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1966. My students will contribute their work for publication on the kiosk's related website, . The purpose here is two-fold. First, we will build collegiality in our school community as my freshman will be able to cite the work of upperclassmen and alumni from Gage Park High School in their own research. Second they will contribute to existing efforts to define a sense of shared history and culture within the Gage Park community.
As my classes tend to be evenly split between Hispanic and African-American students, they will precede this unit by also engaging in a series of literature circles exploring their own cultural identity and that of their diverse neighbors. For the literature circles, I have selected The Americano Dream by Lionel Sosa and Enough by Juan Williams. Sosa's text extols the benefits and advantages of being bi-cultural without shying away from the obstacles faced by Hispanic-Americans. 23 Williams' text, although more politically charged, also celebrates the historical strengths and successes of African-Americans while identifying more contemporary obstacles to the African-American community's success. 24 Enough was recommended in Alfred W. Tatum's Reading for their Life as one of ten enabling texts for African American Adolescents. 25 Ideally, these texts will help students to define their own cultural identity and how the diversity of the Gage Park neighborhood can be a unifying asset. Another piece of the AVID component of the course will be guest speakers. Students will hear from at least two teachers who also attended Gage Park High School, to discuss the past cultural traditions of the school and the community.
During the unit, students will read excerpts from Remembering Gage Park by William P. Shunas. The story is about two working class white boys coming of age in the Gage Park Neighborhood during the 1960's. The text offers a unique perspective for my students regarding race relations in the neighborhood at that time and should give them an opportunity to compare, contrast and connect the past and the present. The story depicts a neighborhood that will be familiar to my students but tainted by the ignorance of racism and how the young people of the community felt and coped by either embracing the horror of racist violence or, in the case of the main characters, grappling with the shame of it. 26 I expect this text to be attainable for my students academically, but challenging for them when dealing with the complexity of their neighborhood's past. The goal of using these texts is to encourage students to reflect upon their own identities and aspirations while gaining a deeper knowledge of their personal identities allowing them greater access to defining the intangible space of their community culture.
The most exciting aspect of this unit will be the ability of my students to collaborate with students in New Orleans' Desire Development Neighborhood's George Washington Carver High School. According to teacher David Cash, "I teach in a high poverty school. My school is a non-charter public school, though it will likely be converted to a charter within the next couple of years. All of my students are African-American. I know they are interested in how other people live in other places. Many of them lived in other states after Hurricane Katrina. I'm sure they would love to compare notes about education in Chicago." 27 Students from both schools will share their findings with each other and complete a comparison study of the two neighborhoods. Ideally the students will interact at the beginning of this unit, in order to share their initial thoughts and biases about their communities. The second communication will be mid-unit to check in on study methods. The third communication will be toward the end of the unit to share final findings with each other for the comparison study. While the students could connect via Skype, e-mail, blog, other media or a combination, we have settled on e-mail as the most efficient means of ongoing communication. Our students will connect via e-mail at the vary start of the unit, and continue communicating that way throughout with a culminating video conference where students share their findings and make inquiries of each other face-to-face.
The study and preservation of intangible space is particularly poignant for the students of Carver High School, where their main building, one of architectural and cultural significance, was recently demolished despite efforts by the International Working Party for the Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement to save it.
The School Facilities Master Plan of Orleans Parish has ignored and consistently threatened to eradicate important mid-century modern public schools from New Orleans's historic neighborhoods. From the outset, DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana identified the George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School as one of the most architecturally significant buildings of its generation. In the early 1950s, the nationally recognized New Orleans-based architectural firm of Curtis and Davis won a design competition, and responded by creating an elegant school complex. The most compelling structure is a dramatic cast in place concrete auditorium building. The monumental structure utilized parabolic concrete hinged arches that extend beyond the building and rest on hinged concrete buttresses, creating a modern stoa that shelters one from rain and sun. The Federal Emergency Management Agency assessed the building's innovative auditorium as eligible for the National Register, thereby triggering the National Historic Preservation Act's Section 106 Process. 28
As the tangible spaces of this storied community are brushed aside, perhaps the intangible spaces can help to preserve what remains and inspire my own students to respect and define both the tangible and intangible cultural icons in their neighborhood. Jacob Wagner puts it best in his essay, Understanding New Orleans.
Rather than attracting us to New Orleans as some exceptional case, however, the idea of Creole urbanism should send all of us back to our own neighborhoods in search of the forgotten place identities in whatever location we call home. 29
To accomplish this task students will become a combination of ethnographers and street-level geographers. C. Tabor Fisher explains the importance of this combination in her essay, The Theorist in the Lower Ninth Ward.
The streetwalking theorist is able to have a complex understanding of space and the relations that constitute it, not by looking at it from above (and thus gaining a breadth of understanding), but by experiencing the production from within the space produced and in company with others moving through and producing it (and thus gaining a depth of understanding.) 30
Students will be expected to tour their neighborhood on foot and interview the tapestry of characters that make up their community. They will engage community and cultural leaders as well as neighbors and friends to develop a combined perspective from the members of the community regarding its intangible spaces and deep time heritage. These interviews are designed to illicit data as well as stories which are more protective of memory than any snapshot. It is only after gathering a deep time perspective that my students will be able to truly identify and define the more tangible cultural icons of their neighborhood and their meaning. According to Fisher, "A streetwalking theorist is aware of both the active subjectivity and the relations that produce space, making it possible for her to conceptualize and move with resistance." 31 In other words, the students are expected to not only gather the perspective of others, but be an active participant with the tangible and intangible spaces of the neighborhood.
Ultimately, students will be expected to produce a research paper that thoughtfully defines the culture of their community using personal ethnographies, neighborhood locations, and cultural events of significance to the overarching culture of the neighborhood.
Finally, I will have students reflect upon their experience using the "Metaphors for the Future" lesson from Engaging Students Through Global Issues. 32
These objectives and their ensuing lessons have been designed to accommodate a confluence of goals, standards and benchmarks surrounding this course provided by the College Board, The Common Core Standards, the College Readiness Standards and the Ninth Grade Benchmarks required by Advancement Via Individual Determination. According to the College Board Course Description, Advanced Placement Human Geography is the study of the way that humans live in, interact with, and impact the world. This course will be of particular value for those who plan to pursue careers in the social sciences and geography. The course is organized by units with the goal that a clear understanding of the associations and implications of theories and models be obtained.
The College Board has defined five essential goals for the Advanced Placement Human Geography Course.
1. Use and think about maps and spatial data.
2. Understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena. (Use the spatial perspective in geography.)
3. Recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes.
4. Define regions and evaluate the regionalization process. (How and why do these regions exist and change?)
5. Characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places. 33
These goals will be met through extensive practical applications, in the form of detailed and comprehensive studies of theories, models and specific information. This course requires a great deal of self-discipline. Students must read, study, and work on projects on their own as well as in groups. Students will need to be organized and communicate with your team members.
Much of the organization required for success will be monitored by the Advancement Via Individual Determination program benchmarks which include twice-weekly tutorial sessions and weekly binder checks for note-taking and organization. The Major Writing benchmark will be met by a Description of a Place essay at the start of the unit and the culminating research paper. The Reading to Learn Benchmark will be fulfilled by vocabulary building activities and text annotation. The Writing to Learn benchmark will be met by Cornell Note-taking, Learning Logs, Summarizing and Annotating, To meet the Inquiry benchmark students will develop questions at levels 2 and 3 for Costa's Levels of Inquiry. Producing work for the Community Transformed website will count as service learning and fulfill the Problem Solving benchmark. The Collaborative Projects benchmark will be met by giving a presentation and participating in Literature Circle activities. Lastly the Fifth Day benchmark will be fulfilled by guest speakers. These benchmarks along with original unit objectives will help students fulfill the Common Core Standards for Literacy in Reading and Writing in Social Studies/History. The targeted range of College Readiness Standards aligned to the American College Test is 20-23.
Comments: