Background

Heritage education is a teaching and learning approach that incorporates information available from the material culture and the human and built environments as primary instructional resources in order to strengthen students' understanding and appreciation of history and culture. Community heritage education not only promotes a sense of connectivity with historical and cultural experiences, but it also encourages citizens to consider these experiences in planning for the future of their communities. Through direct examination and evaluation of buildings, landscapes, and other historic sites and objects, citizens gain knowledge and attitudes that can enhance their capacity and desire to maintain and improve their community.

There are several other beneficial results of implementing a community heritage education program for use in elementary and middle schools. Such a program provides opportunities for cooperation among educators, students, and heritage organizations at local and state levels. The activities of heritage education additionally encourage the participation of family members, friends, and neighbors. Heritage education programs also bridge age, race, and culture boundaries to create understanding, tolerance, and positive opportunities for interaction among students. Another benefit of heritage education for school children is that it helps to foster community pride and interest beginning at a young age.

Recommendations for Heritage Education Program

There are many options for creating an effective community heritage program for the classroom. Any program, most importantly, should move away from textbooks, and instead use visual materials and hands-on activities as a means of bringing the built environment into the classroom. However any project should be part of the curriculum and built on information that has been taught prior to the project's date. Otherwise, the projects require preliminary information about "our community."

Suggested Classroom Activity for 4th Grade Students
"Community Mapping: Creating a Sense of Place"

Purpose:

The purpose of the project is to teach the students to get to know their community through understanding their built environment and its assets by mapping. Identifying the physical features that make up a community and its assets builds pride in the community. The intention is that the discussion of their built environment will create a base to map the cultural assets of their community at the same time. It is hoped that the results of this project will guide students to be responsible and active participants in their community.

Mapping is a means of experiencing and expressing a community's features in a way that deeply engages the mapmaker. It is a tool of discovery that helps students build connections to their home and promotes an ethic of caring for the community and its assets.

Community Heritage Kit (Materials):

Map of the local area showing the streets and street names
A variety of pre-cut building forms, ready for drawing and coloring
A variety of pre-cut trees and people
2"x4" wood to paste the building facades to the map or frame stands
colored markers
glue
8.5"x11" construction paper of a variety of colors, but especially green
Circle or star shaped stickers

Procedure:

First Classroom Session

(This session will take place, if studying communities is not part of the class curriculum, at the time of the project begins.)

1. Introduce the elements of the built environment in their community (houses, churches, schools, shops, markets, community centers, recreation centers, swimming pools, play fields, parks, plazas, bus stops, sculptures, etc.). Have a discussion in importance of the elements.
2. Introduce the elements of pride in the built environment (i.e. old buildings, nice buildings, buildings in which they have fun, places where they play with friends, places where they have block parties, streets which they have Halloween parades, streets that have the nicest trees, your best friend's home).
3. Introduce the local history of the community (famous people who lived here, stories about certain streets, oral history about the area from grandparents, older relatives/adults, etc.).
4. Product of this lesson: Ask the students to write a paragraph defining their community, concentrating on the above issues, and to draw a picture to describe their community visually (a place where they had most fun or they want to remember, etc.).

Second Classroom Session:

1. The information from the first classroom session can now be transferred onto a map. The map has to be prepared in advance. The base map should show streets, street names, and special features.
2. First, the students should map their built environment. For this task, they will choose a building type from the pre-cut building shapes. They will draw a facade and color it. The building could either be their own home or a landmark building. Once the coloring is finished, the facades should be stabilized to stand vertically on the map.
3. The second part is to discuss where each building should be located on the map, then glue the facades on the map.
4. Once they have the built environment model, include "your favorite" as a picture drawn in the previous lesson or a statement written on the stickers.
5. Work must be completed in small groups (about 5 students) and one adult to assist each group. For this reason parents should be involved in this project as assistants.

Third Classroom Session (optional):

1. Celebration session where parents and community leaders will be invited and the students will talk about their experience in doing this project.
2. The next step is to talk about how the students can maintain their community as a place of pride.

For more information, contact: Warren.Huff[at]phila.gov