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ParkWise
> Teachers >
Culture > People
and Land
> Unit Outline
Activity
2:
What is a Community?
Students
will brainstorm examples of communities, list attributes of communities
and develop a working definition.
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Unit:
Denali People and
the Land
Guiding Questions:
What defines
a community?
Critical Content: what
differentiates a community from just a group of people.
Grades:
5-6
Duration: 45
- 60 minutes
Group size:
4-6 students
Setting: classroom
Materials:
Poster paper, markers, writing paper.
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Procedures:
- Have students break into small groups and list as many different
examples of communities as they can. (Examples: classroom, school,
neighborhood, church, city, state, dog lovers, police officers,
etc.) Each group can create a list or poster of their examples.
Have each group present their ideas to the class.
- Have each group analyze their list to come up with similarities
and differences among their examples of communities. Share your
information with the class either through a presentation or a
visual representation (poster, short play, etc.)
What
attributes describe the term community?
- Have
each group come up with their own definition of community and
share with the class. Then have each group look up the origin
of the word community and/or it's definition. You may want to
use this exercise as a vehicle to do a web search.
Discussion
Questions:
- What "items" are needed to have a community? Do only people
make up communities? Can you give examples of communities that
are made up of something other than or in addition to people?
(Ex. ecological community.)
- Name communities of which you are a part.
- How do these communities (including your family) influence your
life and who you are?
- What type of role do you play in each of these communities?
Are the roles similar or different in the various communities?
- How do you think being a member of a community affect how you
think about the area you live in?
- Why do you think we are focusing on community in our unit on
Denali?
Adaptations:
- Before you begin: create a list of examples and non-examples
for the concept of communities. List out 15-20 items on a piece
of paper, leaving room between each item. Copy list (one list
for each pair of students.) Cut out items or have students cut
out items to sort.
- Have students draw an item from the set created above and discuss
whether or not it is indeed a community. They must provide their
reasoning for their answer. Divide the list into to two groups
- items that are communities and items that are not communities.
Based on the list of examples, guide them through a discussion
on what it is that makes a community.
- Have students break into small groups to create activities
that focus on the concept of community, which they can share with
younger students.
Extensions:
- Have
students make Venn Diagrams of the various communities of which
they are a part. A Venn Diagram visually describes the overlapping
similarities and differences by using circles. If there is a community
that is part of another community, the circles representing each
community will overlap. If a community is separate from another
community, their representative circles will not touch.
Example: The city of Anchorage community, an Anchorage
school community, and classroom community within that school will
overlap because they are related. Fairbanks community is different
from the Anchorage community and our school community and our
classroom community so they would not overlap. However, if we
added an Alaska community, all of these other circles would overlap
with the Alaska community because they are all a part of the Alaska
community.
- Have
students create the "perfect" community that meets everyone's
needs. List the needs and how these needs are met. Does such a
community exist? Can it exist? Why or Why not?
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