Classroom Activities
Mapping Our Lives: Where we live, where we spend our time, and the activities we engage in.
To help students understand the geographic area of Emeryville and to provide a lens that they will use to uncover the layers of our city's history, students will use paper maps of the city and surrounding areas to mark their homes, our school, places they visit after school and on weekends. Together we will mark on a larger map locations such as community services, places for shopping, and areas for recreational activities. In addition we will mark bus routes and bike paths to gain a better understanding of traffic and how we move around our city. These markings are significant because they will be a reference point for students as they compare their lives with the lives of those who came before them.
As we explore different time periods in Emeryville's history. Students will place transparency film or tracing paper over their paper map as they mark how the city looked differently through each era we study. By creating a new layer for each time period we study, students will visualize how the city and its use of land evolved while predicting how the city might look 100 years from now.
KWL Chart: What is Bay Street to our community and us?
A Know, Want to know, Learned chart will help launch our investigation into the Bay Street site. On individual pieces of paper divided into three columns, one for each area (know, want to know, learned) students will work in small groups to compile a list of things they already know about Bay Street and things they want to know about Bay Street. Using large chart paper we will compile a KWL Chart based upon each group's lists. The class KWL chart will become the basis for our initial inquiry about Bay Street and contemporary Emeryville. As students learn more about the site, we will return to the KWL Chart and fill in what we have learned based upon our observations, readings, and interviews.
Visit Bay Street: Observations and creating a Mind Map to share
Together as a class we will visit Bay Street, spreading out in different areas to observe people, spaces, sounds, and smells. Students will create lists and sketches of things they see, hear, smell at Bay Street and then organize those observations into Mind Maps (a diagram to visually organize information). Each student's Mind Map will inherently reflect their viewpoint of the space while incorporating words and images that reflect what they saw during our class visit. Upon completing their Mind Maps, students will use the Thinking Routine: See Think Wonder to discuss the Mind Maps in small groups then share out with the class and discuss their observations of Bay Street.
View the Film "Shellmound": Take notes in sketchbooks and discussion
The documentary "Shellmound" by Andres Cediel examines the journey of the Bay Street site from toxic clean up through construction of the mall and explores the decisions that were made. This film will provide an introduction to our larger exploration of the narrative of Emeryville by giving students a short history of the site from the perspective of the city of Emeryville, the developer, the archeologists, and members of the Ohlone tribe who were witnesses to this history and transformation. Cediel is a local filmmaker and connected to the school community, upon viewing and discussing the film we hope he will join us to share more about how he created the film.
Revisit Bay Street: Make more observations and another Mind Map to share what's changed now that students know more about the Bay Street Site
Possibly as a homework assignment, students will revisit the Bay Street site and document their observations again through what the see, hear, and smell. During this visit, they will have with them the perspectives of those who where there while the site was cleaned, excavated, and rebuilt as a shopping mall. The voices and stories that students heard in the film "Shellmound" may change what they notice during this second visit to the mall. Perhaps during this second visit students may notice areas like the memorial or the names of the streets differently then they had before. With these comparisons and new observations in mind, they will create a second mind map of Bay Street to bring back to class and discuss.
Timeline: Charting our past, present, and future
At this point in the historical exploration student are very aware of the present and have a hint of what has happened in Emeryville's past. As a class we will create two large timelines using register paper that will wrap around our studio space. One timeline will reflect what we are learning about Emeryville's history beginning with the present and working backwards to the time when the Ohlone were the only inhabitants of this area. The second timeline will rest right below the first and serve as place for personal connections representing the history of students and their lives. The second timeline encourages students to mark significant events in their narrative while comparing these events to the narrative of the city of Emeryville. For example a student might mark a their birth, when they moved to a new home, or when the experienced a loss in their family. These personal connections will help students recognize the events in their lives and understand how events are layered throughout time, but also connect them with the people they will read who shaped Emeryville.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS): "Images of America: Emeryville"
Using the three VTS questions: What's happening in this picture? What makes you say that? What more can we find? Students will draw out information from historic photos of Emeryville's industrial era. These questions take the emphasis off of a dissemination of facts and focuses on a student directed conversation that encourages observation, and inference. During VTS discussion, teachers only ask the three stated questions, leaving opportunities for quiet observation and debate among students. As a classroom routine, this practice deepens student critical thinking, vocabulary, and communication skills. In class we will look at two to five images that depict Emeryville's factories and industrial work force. By examining these images students will understand how the factories looked, who worked in them, and what they produced.
Read Aloud from "Images of America: Emeryville": Highlight and define new vocabulary
As part a Common Core Standards strategy, teachers are encouraged to choose challenging texts to read aloud to students, providing students with examples of how text is suppose to sound while encouraging students to develop more complex vocabulary and sentence structure in their own writing. Passages from "Images of America: Emeryville" will be read aloud by the teacher with students following along. When students hear a word they don't recognize, they will highlight it. Upon the end of the reading, the teacher will prompt students to go back over their highlighted words and place each word on an individual note card. All of the note cards will be placed in a fish bowl and students will randomly draw one or two cards with words that they will have to look up the definitions to, create a sentence using the work properly, then create an illustration visualizes the definition of the word on the back of the note card for homework. During the next class session, students will rotate around the room sharing their vocabulary word, definition, sentence, and illustration. The note cards will then be displayed in class and referred to as needed during the unit.
Site Visit Black Panther Party Stoplight: Discussion about why the Black Panthers drew their guns as children were walking to school?
During the late1960s the East Bay played a large role in the developing Black Panther Party and many programs involving school children in the area today resulted from their work. Our school is a few blocks from a crosswalk and traffic light that the Black Panthers worked to establish on August 1 1967. As a class we will visit this site, observe what we see, and hear, then read the plaque that describes the events that led up to the installation of the traffic light. We will then come back to the studio to discuss our observations and envision what the neighborhood looked like in the late 1960s. Students will then sketch or make a Mind Map of what they think the neighborhood looked like in 1967 when children walked to the same school we are sitting in.
Examine the 33 rd Anniversary of the City of Emeryville Edition of the Emeryville Herald & historical maps of Emeryville and Oakland: Discuss how our narrative of Emeryville is changing
A copy of the Emeryville Herald originally published in 1929 to commemorate the 33 rd anniversary of the city's founding contains short articles that reflect on the government, businesses, schools, recreational activities, and people who shaped the city. This document helps to paint a picture of what life in Emeryville was like during this period of time. Profiles of men who led civic and political lives are going to be of particular interest to students, because many of our city's streets and public buildings are named after these men, yet the stories of their lives are unknown. Articles about the racetracks, farms, and dairies that once filled the city and photos of street scenes that tell the story of life in Emeryville will help bring my students to this place in history. Students will recognize some of the buildings and street corners that are featured in the photographs, helping them embrace the history that surrounds their daily lives.
Site Visit: A business or civic building that no longer exists
Several advertisements fill the special edition of the Emeryville Herald. The business names and some of the services they provided are completely unknown to my students. Examining them carefully will give my students another glimpse into the lives of Emeryville residents during this time period. As a homework assignment
Students will select a site of a former business or civic building mentioned in the Emeryville Herald and create two Mind Maps, first a map of what is imagined about the place based on what they know from reading this historical document and a second based on what the student observes when they visit that location today. Students will then compare the two drawings and discuss similarities and differences in what they envisioned and what they observed. From this visualization students will understand that some of Emeryville's history is still visible if we look closely and other parts of the city's history are only visible to those who read about it.
Read Aloud Excerpts from "The Emeryville Shellmound" and "The Emeryville Shellmound Final Report": Highlight and define new vocabulary and discussion about how the narrative of Emeryville is changing.
The University of California at Berkeley excavated the Emeryville Shellmound site twice once in 1902 and a second time in 1920. These original excavation reports are challenging texts for my students however as primary sources of the time period, they will be very powerful for students to examine and draw conclusions from. These texts contain diagrams of tools and human remains that were found at the site. These two texts suggest of the artifacts that were found at the site were used in Ohlone life. The texts differ in their interpretation of the burials that were found at the site the later publication suggests that the Ohlone did not simply burry their dead, but practiced cremation prior to burial. In examining these texts, students will first engage in a prior activity to help make meaning from new vocabulary. When students hear a word they don't recognize, they will highlight it. Upon the end of the reading, the teacher will prompt students to go back over their highlighted words and place each word on an individual note card. All of the note cards will be placed in a fish bowl and students will randomly draw one or two cards with words that they will have to look up the definitions to, create a sentence using the work properly, then create an illustration visualizes the definition of the word on the back of the note card for homework. During the next class session, students will rotate around the room sharing their vocabulary word, definition, sentence, and illustration. The note cards will then be displayed in class and referred to as needed during the unit.
A second classroom activity will be a discussion of the ethics behind excavating a site like the Emeryville Shellmound. To begin this conversation students will use the Thinking Routine I used to think… But Now I think… To identify how their perceptions of the Emeryville Shellmound and excavation has changed. These prompts encourage students to share their thinking while citing facts that impacted their opinions.
Map: The Emeryville Shellmound
To gain a deeper understanding of the scale of the Emeryville Shellmound, students will use string and tent stakes to mark the footprint of the Emeryville Shellmound to gain a greater sense of its scale. Upon marking the entire perimeter of the shellmound students will sit in the center and discuss how their understanding of the shellmound has changed.
Read Independently and Read Aloud: "The Ohlone Way", Create Mind Maps of Ohlone life the missionaries arrived
Malcolm Margolin's book "The Ohlone Way" is a rich narrative description of what Ohlone life in the Bay Area was like prior to the arrival of the Spanish missionaries. His text is well known and viewed as an authentic interpretation of Ohlone life based upon archeological research and the letters and journals written by missionaries who lived among and observed the Ohlone. Margolin's text is rich in descriptions of the Ohlone villages, homes, food preparations, hunting techniques, and religious rituals. The text is easily digestible for my students and they will read sections of the book independently and together aloud in class. As we are reading these texts students will periodically create sketches and Mind Maps to visualize portions of the text they are reading. Students will then used these drawings to launch discussions about their interpretations of Ohlone life.
Panel Discussion
I am hoping to put together a panel of local experts with connections to the Emeryville Shellmound to field questions and engage in discussion with my students. The human remains collected from the Emeryville Shellmound are still currently housed at the Phoebe Hearst Anthropology Museum at the University of California in Berkeley. The museum is closed during until the fall of 2014 for renovations. My hope is to invite a representative from the museum staff with knowledge of the museum's collections. The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area are the modern day descendents of the Ohlone people who inhabited the Emeryville area. Many of these descendents were brought in when the Ohlone burials were found prior to the construction of Bay Street. I anticipate that a member of the tribe will join us for this discussion. In addition to these two speakers, I am looking forward to having an Emeryville Historian participate as well.
Create A Podcast
Students will use the classroom timeline as well as their notes to determine places and events that they feel are significant to the Emeryville narrative. In pairs they will write a short description of the event or place to be read and recorded for a podcast walking tour for younger students in Emeryville. As a class we will create a map and walking route for the tour and organize the podcast with the support of guest teaching artist Taro Hattori. This podcast will be available through our school website and possibly other venues to help share the story of the City of Emeryville.
Create an Excavation of the Bay Street site in 2113
Students will transform a display space at the Emeryville City Hall for March IS Education month that reflects what they think an excavation of the Bay Street site could yield. Items such as shopping bags, cell phones, foam cups could be displayed beside museum style placards explaining how the item was possibly used by the people of 2013 and the significance of each item found. Students will envision how the items from their lives might be interpreted or misinterpreted by future generations. Like the early Emeryville Shellmound Excavations, the items "left behind" will be subjected to interpretation and possibly misidentified. This perspective taking exercise will encourage students to see their lives within the same lens that we've examined the Emeryville residents who came before us.
Create Tricksters: Human forms representing Emeryville residents from the past
In conjunction with the exhibit at the Emeryville City Hall students will create life size human forms that represent the people who came before them to help tell the Emeryville narrative. The human forms will be cast from their students' bodies using plastic wrap and packing tape, then filled with paper to give them weight. Each human form will be dressed in attire to reflect a particular time period in Emeryville History. Students will use photographs and descriptive texts to research the clothing of each time period. The completed human forms will be installed in public places around Emeryville and students will document public reaction to the forms through photographs and videos. The individual photographs and videos will be put together in a class video with the support of guest teaching artist Taro Hattori.
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