Exploring Community: Literature Based Inspirations

by Nancy Ancharski

Nancy Ancharski is a teaching librarian at Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Keene, NH. She began using community service learning projects and place-based education as a foundation for student research. Nancy’s explorations with her students are inspired and supported by the Antioch New England Institute (www.anei.org) specifically through the Rachel Marshall Outdoor Learning Lab and CO-SEED (www.coseed.schoolsgogreen.org) programs.

Three years ago I planned a community service learning project for the 3rd grade classes at Franklin School. The challenge for the students involved developing a guide for the cemetery adjacent to our school. Students would investigate the natural and historical elements of the cemetery through direct observation and research. Students would record and make a visual representation of their data and use it to inform and inspire the many people who walked through the cemetery.

The project seemed huge, but early in the school year the project grew. I wanted the students to understand that this project would serve their community, but first I felt they needed to understand the definition of a community and to figure out their place in their own community. How could I get eight-year-olds to relate to these fairly abstract ideas?

I turned to children’s picture books for inspiration and developed a series of literature-based lessons to explore the concept of community. These lessons focused on constructing an understanding of what a community is; what people, places, and events are important to make a healthy community; and the needs and wants of a community. For awhile this study overshadowed the cemetery project. Watching and listening to young students define community and struggle with sorting out what elements of their community were important to them made the diversion worthwhile.

Students began with the dictionary definition of community: “A group having common interests existing in the same place; a place where such a group lives; society as a whole; the public; a group of plants or animals living in a specific habitat.” The students identified with the plants and animals more than with the public or society. So, we started asking and answering questions. Is a family a community? Is an after school program a community? Is your neighborhood a community? Why or why not? Can you name some other communities? Focusing on the specific and concrete helped students grasp the idea of group cohesion.

In order to get the students to examine their particular place in their community, I read Nothing ever Happens on 90th Street by Roni Schotter, a story of a girl looking at and writing about her street. I also shared Madlenka by Peter Sis, a visual treat that takes a girl from the window in her apartment out into the street, and then into a wider multicultural community. Students went home to write or sketch what happened on their street. They came back to school with personal stories and drawings describing connections or lack of connections to their immediate neighborhoods. The stories inspired thoughtful work.

After students were comfortable with a close-up picture of their nearby communities, I wanted to expand the focus. I read The Best Town in the World by Byrd Baylor and we discussed what made Keene a good place to live. Students talked and wrote about public places and private spots that were personally special. They described community workers and exceptional friends and relatives. They narrated events they enjoyed. The third grade teachers used The Best Town in the World as a model for a writing assignment. Baylor wrote, “This town had lots of space around it with caves to find and honey trees and giant rocks to climb.” A student wrote, “My town has lots of hills around it. One hill is named Beech Hill. I can climb all the way to the top and sit on Sunset Rock. I can see my school and my church and even the airport.”

Then students listened to Weslandia by Paul Fleischman, a fascinating story about a boy who decides to create his own civilization. Wesley grows a staple food crop and produces his own food, clothing and shelter. He invents tools, a language, and a counting system. He entertains himself with newly developed games and music. The book offers an engaging introduction to needs and wants and goods and services. After listing what makes Wesley’s civilization work, students brainstormed lists of what we needed to make our wider Keene community work.

In true brainstorming fashion, I tried not to impose any judgments on the lists, which included everything from trees and parks to arcades and MacDonalds. I realized that students would need to refine their lists in order to distinguish between needs and wants. I also wanted them to explore sustainability issues. I typed the lists in a large font, printed them on card stock, and cut out cards for students to sort. These sorting activities, inspired by the creativity of Fleischman’s book, became the heart of the lessons about community.

First, students sorted their lists into food, clothing, shelter, entertainment, health and safety, and miscellaneous categories. Small groups discussed and decided which card went where with great seriousness. I added a transportation category when so many cards related to getting around town ended up in the miscellaneous section. After completing this sorting, an important discussion ensued: What was absolutely necessary? Nice but not necessary? Unnecessary? This chart shows some examples of their sorting, but the students sorted onto labeled poster board so the arrangement was much more fluid.

Students argued about the need for money, checks, credit cards and banks. If they agreed that money was necessary, they tried to work out the essential nature of the other monetary connections. Most agreed that banks and checks were necessary but credit cards were not. Similar arguments broke out about food, gardens, supermarkets, picnics, and fast food restaurants. I sat back and enjoyed the debates only interfering if groups seemed to be headed for perilous impasse.

These discussions lasted for weeks as we read other books that led students to look at community from different viewpoints. I read Island Boy by Barbara Cooney and we looked at community from a historical perspective. Ideas of time and size and change entered the discussion. Conversations began with phrases like “in the olden days you didn’t need . . .” and “on an island there wouldn’t be . . .” and “then it wasn’t important to have . . ., but now it is.”

I read Toddlecreek Post Office by Uri Shulevitz, a quiet story of a post office that is the town center. The postmaster sells stamps, posts news, fixes lamps, and sews buttons. A lonely old man, two dogs and young children are welcome to spend time in the post office. We talked about the role of meeting places in a community. Students wanted to add places to their list: the Rec Center, my grandma’s house, the Beaver St. Market.

Our literature study ended with Letting the Swift River Go by Jane Yolen. The Swift River was damned to make the Quabbin Reservoir and a town disappeared under the rising water. A young girl recounts what she loves about her town as she and her family get ready to move. She returns years later and rows out into the reservoir, looks into the water, and recalls the important places in her town. After students sat in a silent reaction to a loss of place, they began a rich dialogue about what would be missed most in Keene. Students quietly considered losing their homes, Main St., and Paul’s Pet Store.

These stories allowed the third graders to grasp the definition of community, to feel that they were part of a community, and to take on the role of making that community a good place to live. The stories propelled the third graders to struggle with some very sophisticated concepts. The stories became their touchstones as they moved into their community service learning project.

As they entered the cemetery they were well prepared for their investigations and they knew they had an important task to perform. One girl was so intent on making an exact sketch of a 100-year-old bridge, she asked me to take her back there during lunch so she could draw the pattern of the ironwork. Students were reverent in the cemetery chapel and had all kinds of questions for the caretakers about when and why the Sumner and Knight families contributed so much money for the building. They also showed concern that the chapel is preserved. The students respected the gravestones and were fascinated when a stone carver came to show them his tools and explain the history of creating monuments. I think the time spent studying community through books gave a special significance to the students’ work.