• We got to show our favorite places. • I felt like I got to participate a lot. • We all get our opinion in.

Then, Villa Academy students took digital cameras

Photographing a place in need of attention

around school grounds, photographing the places they had mapped from memory. Along the way, they looked for and documented places that were in need of atten- tion, such as the Orchard, a former fruit and vegetable garden now choked with weeds. Using cameras as tools for documentation allowed students to understand new ways of utilizing familiar media. These images became the baseline of the current status of the school community, used both to document what should be preserved as well as to highlight that which needs attention. The Villa Academy students enjoyed the opportunity to visit their favorite places and make full use of the technology, writing on their evaluations:

• It was really fun to walk around Villa and try to take the most interesting pictures possible.

• You got to go around all the Villa Campus and got to explore. • We got to go outside and see our favorite p6aces.

In the next step of their mapping project, students interviewed a cross section of the

. . . students learned to work together as they decided

whom to interview, what to ask, and

how to compile the information.

school community. Their student-written questions focused on where people liked to spend their time at Villa, what their favorite places were, and what places needed atten- tion. The experience of interviewing everyone from preschoolers to the head of the school not only broadened the focus of the final base map, but also gave the students an under- standing and appreciation of perspectives other than their own. Through this process, students learned to work together as they decided whom to interview, what to ask, and how to compile the information. They also gained confidence in their interviewing skills as they modified the tone and the content of their questions to suit their audience. Their reflections on this activity included the benefit of broadening their perspectives:

• I thought that it was fun to see what other people thought about Villa. • It was fun to learn what some of the teachers’ favorite spots were at Villa. • I got to see how different grades answer our questions.

Finally, students collected all the information mapped from memory, the photographs they took of locations important to them, and the results of their interviews, and compiled them on the base map. Students used a satellite picture of their school grounds projected onto a large piece of paper as a guide to outline buildings, roads, and natural features. To make the map easy to read and visually stimulating, they used symbols, labels, and colors to represent places of importance and areas that need attention. Students hung the base map in the hall, attached their photos to the wall, and used string to connect the photos to their mapped locations. This kind of mapping helps connect children to their

Interviewing other members of the Villa Academy community Connect

PAGE 2 •

environment and see themselves as part of the larger community. Villa Academy students were able to see the favorite places members of their community chose, as well as the cherished favorite places they had in common. The students enjoyed the ability to collaborate on such a large final project, as evidenced by their written evaluations:

©SYNERGY LEARNING • 800-769-6199 • MARCH/APRIL 2012

jenny mears

jenny mears