Intangible Space and the Map of Desire in the Gage Park Neighborhood

byAndrew Martinek

In this unit, the goal is to have students apply their study of geography and culture to themselves, their neighborhood, and an unfamiliar neighborhood adding interest and relevance to their learning. To help students broaden their horizons in this manner, we will partner with a class in another part of the country. In this instance, we will partner with a class at George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans. We will have our students communicate with each other throughout their examination of their neighborhood heritage. First they will share their biases about their own and each other's communities. Then they will share research strategies. Finally, they will share and inquire about each other's research findings. To do this comparative study effectively, students will examine the work of geographers who utilize this technique. To gather and report data for this project, students will take neighborhood walks and conduct ethnographic interviews of community members. We will examine both the tangible and intangible spaces of our neighborhood and report our findings in multiple ways. Students will post their interviews and final reports to the Community Transformed website and submit suggestions for pop-ups to Google Maps.

(Developed for AP Human Geography, grade 9; recommended for AP Human Geography, World Studies/Cultures, and Geography, grades 9-12)


Comments (1)

    Brandon Barr (Mark Twain Elementary, Chicago, IL)
    Subject taught: ELA, Grade: 06
    Unit Content
    Andrew,

    While working on my unit for YNI,I took the time to read over some units. I enjoyed reading about some of the connections between seminar content and Gage Park, which is a community that I taught in for many years. You do a wonderful job of merging the content from New Orleans into recognizing a need for understanding and marking a key event in the history of the community. Thanks for sharing your work and dedicated research.

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