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Category: Library

Posted on June 4, 2019June 6, 2019

The Peopling of New York City: Neighborhood Explorations

The Peopling of New York City: Neighborhood Explorations

Monica Berger

Library

LIB/ ARCH2205: Learning Places

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

How do we understand a neighborhood in terms of who lives there? Specifically, we will look at the different immigrant and ethnic groups that people a neighborhood. This four-class unit is designed for LIB/ARCH2205, Learning Places, but could be used as a module for other courses. The timing of this module in LIB/ARCH2205 would depend on whether the course focuses entirely on the intercultural theme or if the module infuses or adds intercultural learning as a secondary or tertiary aspect of neighborhood exploration. For the full intercultural focus, I envision this module in weeks 4 and 5 after students have learned about New York City and United States immigrant and ethnic history and as well as ethnic studies as it relates to identity and intersectionality. I hope to bring in faculty with expertise in sociology, anthropology and/or history to either co-teach or guest lecture.

We will focus on the Sunset Park, Brooklyn neighborhood: it has a varied and rich ethnic and immigrant history and sociology and is easy to travel to from campus. Class one is an information literacy-oriented workshop that foregrounds student understanding of the neighborhood preparing them for intercultural and place-based learning and meaningful analysis and reflection. Next, in class two, students observe the neighborhood through the intercultural lens. They will be guided in their observations with a series of prompts. Chiefly using photography and audio recordings, they will record their observations. In class three, the students will work together in teams to create a short (5 minute) presentation. They will be supplied with a PowerPoint template that guides how their incorporate their documentation. In the final class of unit, class four, the teams will share out their presentations. The unit will culminate with an in-class reflection and a related homework reflection. For homework, students will also select a signature artifact from a cultural group in their home neighborhood. In the following class, the class will play a game to deduce the artifact and, in the process, may become more aware of individual presumptions. For courses with a semester-long focus on place-based learning, this unit prepares students to continue the iterative work of synthesizing close observation and research. Students would return to the neighborhood to develop and deepen the observation and research connection, moving towards and into a substantial research question.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

Class 1: In the Wikipedia exercise, the students will be introduced to domain knowledge about the neighborhood. The structure of the article will help students begin to see how a topic is structured and give them a frame for future research. The exercise will also incorporate many facets of information literacy including documentation, attribution and bibliographic references to published/library resources. Students will learn how to find books and other materials including newspaper articles. There will be a brief activity where they find the call number of location of the books in our library. Time will also be given to reading the Encyclopedia of New York City article on Sunset Park. The class will end with a group think-pair-share activity where students compare and contrast Wikipedia to library resources. Homework will require students to find an article in a local newspaper or magazine related to Sunset Park and write a 75-word blog post on OpenLab summarizing the article. Every article must be unique.

Class 2: The exploration: students will learn how to observe visually and aurally and record key facets of a neighborhood and its people through a series of prompts related to the intercultural knowledge and place-based learning. Students will practice utilizing non-text documentation to capture their observations.

Class 3: Preparing the presentation: Students will practice group work and learn how to incorporate their findings into a template that makes the observation coherent. Students reflect on what they observed about ethnic and immigrant culture(s) in a specific neighborhood. Did they see relationships between the culture of a specific group and the culture of their neighborhood-as-place? They will be guided by the affective aspects of the experience.

Class 4: Sharing the presentation. Students will practice oral presentation skills and reflect in class on the unit’s overall learning goal. They will journal to this prompt: How did this activity help you see relationships between a specific cultural group and place (how ethnic groups situate themselves in a neighborhood)? The homework will generate an explicit learning experience where students relate the unit back to their own neighborhood (and self). The homework incorporates metacognition since the students will be “teaching” (explaining to another person) what they learned in a new context. Homework will also involve selection of an artifact for a game for the next class. This little game will also help students to become more self-aware of their own intercultural knowledge.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

Between weeks 4 and 8. Provided this unit will be used in LIB/ARCH2205 which has longer class sessions, the entire class time will be used for all four sessions although the first class could be compressed into a shorter session of about 60-75 minutes. The other three classes will require the full two hours normally scheduled for this class. Time for assignments: Out of class time for class one: about 30 minutes; class four: about 30-60 minutes.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Class one: no preparation. Tablets are needed for student work. For the two activities the instructions will be given on the worksheet and orally (see activity as attachment). For the homework, the instructions will be on OpenLab. Low stakes.

Class two: Observation prompt instructions will be given onsite to the students as a handout that will also have instructions for the production in class three. All instructions will also be added to the course site on OpenLab. Students need to shoot at least three photos but sketches are also permissible as a substitute. Students should record an audio note about why they shot the photograph and how it addresses the supplied prompts. They will also record at least two signature sounds of the neighborhood. We probably will lead the students all together initially for the first 30-60 minutes and then break them up into teams of three to explore on their own. Whether or not we’ll subdivide the neighborhood into discrete physical units for exploration will be determined.

Students should use their phones to record their observations as much as possible since written note taking is difficult in the field. Students are also reminded to be sensitive to anyone they are photographing or recording and to avoid any situation that might be construed as invasive. The activity is the high-stakes activity for the unit. Homework incorporates parts of the Learning Places site visit template and will be emailed to the instructor to avoid plagiarism. See Class Two details for instructions.

Class three: Instructions will be given in class on the white board. Students will break into teams of three where one student each is responsible for photos, audio, and artifacts. Students will copy their images and recordings to their laptops or tablets to integrate them into the PowerPoint template supplied by the instructors. Homework requires the students to work together to finalize their presentations.

Class four: Student teams will each have five minutes to present. After the presentation, each table of students not presenting will be prompted to ask the team who presented a good question. This will take at least 1 hour. [whether or not to have students use a rubric to grade each other is a big question]. The instructor will then discuss the student homework from the fieldtrip for 10 minutes followed by 5 minutes to discuss the upcoming homework. Next, students will spend 10 minutes on a journal reflection (see class description for details). Remaining class time can be spent in lecture preparing students for the next unit of the course.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Parts of the INTERCULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCE VALUE rubric will be used for student work in classes 2-4, particularly the student presentations. Additionally, for the student presentations, elements of the VALUE rubric for INQUIRY AND ANALYSIS and ORAL COMMUNICATION will be selected, modified and simplified. Class one’s homework is too simple to apply the VALUE rubric for information literacy. It will relate to other assignments and products in LIB/ARCH2205.

No, this course is not part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

I can only speak to the Wikipedia module I teach to English 1101 and 1121. Students enjoy it but I haven’t yet turned it into an active-learning experience since 50 minutes is very brief. I will move this forward over the summer as I flesh out the teaching material for class one of this unit. The site observation, using a very different theme and template, was challenging for logistical reasons because students often were late and got lost. Students generally enjoy any place-based learning but ideally it needs foregrounding, repetition, and scaffolding to be truly robust.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Teaching outlines and materials for classes one and two are attached.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

Class One: Wikipedia for Learning Places (70-90 minutes)
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mberger-portfolio/files/2019/06/wikipedia-for-learning-places-for-L4-deposit.pdf

CLASS 2 INTERCULTURAL PLACE-BASED LEARNING investigation / observation https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/mberger-portfolio/files/2019/06/CLASS-2-INTERCULTURAL-PLACE.pdf

Posted on May 25, 2018

Wikipedia

Wikipedia

Anne Leonard

Library

LIB/ARCH 2205ID Learning Places

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Guidelines for Wikipedia Assignment: Creating and editing Wikipedia content, including media in Wikimedia Commons, is an essential part of our class and is 15% of your grade. The Wikipedia assignment is evaluated through our course dashboard. You’ll need to create a Wikipedia account and use it every time you complete a training module, make edits to Wikipedia, or contribute media to Wikimedia Commons. Individual and group Wikipedia contributions & edits and Wikimedia Commons contributions are due by <date>.

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

The assignment helps meet several learning outcomes:

Gen Ed LOs: Demonstrate and apply information literacy aptitude by gathering, interpreting, evaluating and applying information discerningly from a variety of sources

Interdisciplinary LOs: Synthesize and transfer knowledge across disciplinary boundaries; Think critically, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively

Course LOs: Develop, document, catalogue, and organize information to make it accessible to the public.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

One 2 hour workshop facilitated by a Wikipedia expert* that covers Wikipedia writing, editing, and documenting; part or all of an additional class period to review research strategies, topics and articles to write and edit, the 5 pillars of Wikipedia that guide the process of contributing, writing, and editing.

*Wikiedu.org and the local Wikimedia NYC chapter can help with this

Students should be able to complete the assignment in about 1-2 hours of time outside of class

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Students need to have a topic to write about and the ability to do research to document information they write about. The assignment is 15% of the final grade, so a medium-to-low stakes assignment. See assignment guidelines on course OpenLab site for instructions given to students.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

Please see the assignment guidelines link for the rubric and self-assessment checklist

Assignments

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

Students were thrilled to write and publish for a wide audience, yet were disappointed when the active community of Wikipedia writers overwrote their contributions. Students were encouraged to make use of the Talk page to discuss their contributions with other Wikipedia editors. The Wikiedu dashboard (dashboard.wikiedu.org) helps the instructor keep track of students' contributions, even if they don't persist in the final article.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

Assignments

Posted on April 27, 2017January 4, 2018

Grand Army Plaza observation exercise

Grand Army Plaza observation excercise

Keith Muchowski

Library Department; School of Arts and Sciences

LIB/ARCH 2205: Learning Places: Understanding the City

Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity

Task:
Next class we will visit Grand Army Plaza where you will select a monument or memorial within the public space. Your memorial might include Bailey Fountain; the statues of Gouverneur Kemble Warren, Henry Henry Slocum, James S.T. Stranahan, Henry W. Maxwell, John F. Kennedy, Alexander J.C. Skene; or the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch.

Photograph your monument from different vantage points, with at least 1-2 putting it into the wider context of the surrounding community.

Find any information you can, either on the monument or on any accompanying signage, that may answer such questions as:

Who financed the monument and how much did it cost?
When was it constructed?
What is it made of? (stone? bronze? something else?)
How many people attended the dedication?
What is its condition?
How would you describe public interest in the site?
Did anyone ask you any questions while you were there?

Deliverables:
Upload at least three photographs to Open Lab and write a 250-300 word OpenLab entry based on your answers to the questions above. Your classmates are your audience. Be prepared to show the images and speak to your fellow classmates for 5-7 minutes next class. The OpenLab entry (with accompanying photographs) is 10% percent of your final grade. The presentation counts toward your class participation.

Grading rubric:
Students will be evaluated on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 5 the best) on each of the following criteria.

OpenLab entry:
Following directions (word length and proper number of images)
Relevance to the course and assignment
Accuracy of content
Punctuation and clarity
Audience appropriateness

Oral presentation:
Following directions (time length)
Relevance to the course and assignment
Accuracy of content
Diction, articulateness, audience appropriateness
Organization and ability to stay on topic

Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?

As per New York City College of Technology’s Learning Goals, students will:

Use the arts, sciences and humanities as a forum for the study of values, ethical principles, and the physical world.

Demonstrate social and civic knowledge [regarding social, political, economic, and historical issues].

Apply knowledge and analyze social, political, economic, and historical issues.

Demonstrate expanded cultural and global awareness and sensitivity.

Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?

The site visit would fall in the third week of the semester with the OpenLab entry due before the next class session. Oral presentations would be on the class day after the site visit. This assignment would thus take one week of class time.

Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?

Over the first two weeks of the semester students will have been given a general overview of course, the instructors’ expectations, and a historical overview of Grand Army Plaza itself.

This is a low stakes assignment. Over the semester students will be doing primary and secondary research on their monument in various archives, libraries, and special collections. For this early semester assignment they are using their powers of observation.

Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?

We are using the AACU’s Ethical Reasoning VALUE rubric to assess the efficacy of the assignment. We want students to understand that there are economic, social, political, and ethical reasons why the built environment that they inhabit every day exists the way it does.

Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?

We found the assignment went well and would definitely use it again with a few changes. We had the students speak six times, with accompanying OpenLab entries, in one particular semester. My colleague and I found this to be more than necessary and would scale it it back to five or even four if we taught the course again. Also we would keep tighter limits on the allotted speaking times. It was our impression that students felt the pressure to “say everything” and so spoke for significant periods of time, sometimes as much as 25-30 minutes. A time limit should be strictly enforced for the presentations.

Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.

Please note that students will eventually be working in groups based upon their statue, monument, or memorial. One student may focus on the architect, another the dedication, a third on any renovation that may have been done, and so forth. If the course focuses on a site other than Grand Army Plaza, students may study the location in small groups across a timeline, through the evolution of such things as transportation (trails turning into paved streets, ferries giving way to bridges, the automobile supplanting the carriage, horse cars being replaced by buses, and the subway system), or by geographic area within the larger space.

Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab

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The OpenLab at City Tech:A place to learn, work, and share

The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.

New York City College of Technology City University of New York

New York City College of Technology | City University of New York

Support

Help | Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Credits

Accessibility

Our goal is to make the OpenLab accessible for all users.

Learn more about accessibility on the OpenLab

Copyright

Creative Commons

  • - Attribution
  • - NonCommercial
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Creative Commons

© New York City College of Technology | City University of New York

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