Lesson 5

EVALUATE:  Mobilizing the Community - Strategic Planning Part 2

About this Lesson:

Community action requires educating the public about your goals and project (s) and inviting the whole community to help.  This lesson explores several aspects of community mobilization: the use of vision, leadership, creativity, decision-making and presentation in a team setting.  Recognizing and using the skills of those around us and learning from others as they do the same is a crucial part of planning and implementing a service project.  For more information about the topics addressed in this lesson, please refer to Chapter 5 of the RYP/National Youth Service Day Tool Kit. The Appendix also provides Curriculum Connections for this lesson.

Learning Objective:

Students will develop an understanding of the benefits of working together. Students will identify community partners that can assist with their NYSD project.

Related Books:

• The Ant and The Elephant by B. Peet
• Seedfolks by Paul Fleishman

Curricular Connections:

• English/Language Arts:  Reading, writing, communication, critical thinking skills
• Social Studies:  Understanding of culture, analyze conditions to develop understanding, understand mechanisms to meet needs of citizens; manage conflict
• Visual Arts:  Understand and apply art media
• Health: Promoting healthy living.
• Mathematics:  Problem solving

"A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm."

-Henrik Ibsen, Playwright

"Build It!"

Note: This activity will take 30-60 minutes to complete.

TOWER ACTIVITY             

Materials needed for each small group:

• 2 plates and 5 cups
• 1 roll of masking tape
• 2 5x7 cards and one sheet of flipchart paper
• 2 long toothpicks and 5 regular toothpicks
• Copies of the Tower activity handout for groups (Appendix B)
• A "Task List" written on the blackboard or overhead as follows:

Facilitating the Lesson:

The skills used in this team activity transfer well to the service project planning process and encourage leadership among participants. As each group presents its tower to the class, use the opportunity to discuss public speaking skills needed to mobilize the community.

Directions:

1. Announce the activity and go over the "Task List" written on the board. Older students can manage their own time (perhaps designate a student ‘time keeper’). With younger students, you may choose to call out the steps outlined below.
2. Break students into three or more small partner groups to design their sculpture as a committee.
3. Committees construct towers within a specified time by following these simple instructions:
   • Your Task: Build the highest, free standing tower you can that will withstand a person blowing on it (it won’t fall over).
   • Time Limit: You will have 10 minutes for this task.
   • Cautions: You may NOT use the tape roll as part of the tower.
   • You may NOT attach your tower to the floor, ceiling, wall, chair or table.
   • Final NOTE: Remember, this is a team effort AND if at first you don’t succeed, please try again.
   • After the allotted time, ask committees to stop building and name their sculptures.
   • Remove left over supplies while students walk around the room and look at other committees’ towers.
4. Reconvene partner committees to plan presentations to convince the class of the durability, stability, and creativity of their tower.
5. After the class has seen the presentations, split them up into their committees again and vote on which is the highest quality sculpture, then have each committee discuss these questions:
   • Did you consider your committee "successful"?  Did you consider some committees more "successful" then others?
   • What about the process went well? What attributes made some committees more successful then others?
   • What would we do differently if we repeated the exercise?
6. After a few minutes, reconvene the groups and ask each group to share a little about the process. Ask the groups:
   • How did your group work together as a team and as partners?
   • When did cooperation start and how did it feel?
   • What lessons can we learn from this exercise to help us be successful in our service project?
7. The ability to look beyond individual success and create "win-win" situations for everyone involved is an important part of NYSD and service learning. Discuss the following ideas with students (you may prefer to draw conclusions from the group dynamic):
   • What did we learn about cooperation, partnering, and teamwork?
   • How can this exercise help us be successful in our NYSD project?
   • What kind of connections can you make from your behavior during the tower building exercise to your behavior when you start working on NYSD projects?
8. Identifying potential community partners for your NYSD project is crucial to its success.
   Partners can:
   • Teach students information or skills necessary to complete the project ( a Child Psychologist can teach students about child development to prepare them for their work at a local head start).
   • Provide materials for a project (the owner of a local nursery may donate plants for a community garden).
   • Provide a venue for completing the project (the director of a Senior Center may allow students to conduct activities there with residents)
   • Assist in completing the project (a carpenter can help the students build a ramp for local community center)
9. Focusing on the specific project you selected, allow students to brainstorm potential partners that might be valuable to your efforts. (You might want to give your students the Yellow Pages for looking up resources as well as lists of local community agencies and what they do. Be sure to think about local agencies, businesses, community groups, local colleges, civic groups, etc.) Keep this list for the next lesson.

Reflection

To accommodate multiple learning styles, select several of the following suggested reflection activities.

WRITING

• Revisit www.ReachYourPeak.org and update or fill out your personal or community goal plan.
• Respond to some of the following questions in a journal:
  • What lessons from this activity will help you be successful in your goal or service-learning project?
  • How did you feel about talking about your project in front of the class?
  • What different roles can you take in presenting your project to the city?
  • What strengths do you bring to different teams with whom you work?
• Write a radio announcement advertising your project.

READING

• Read about community stakeholders. Why might they become involved in your efforts?
• Read about service projects that involved collaboration from community partners.

TELLING

• Talk to a partner about the best ways to get community members involved in your project.
• Share a goal or volunteer experience with the class.

DOING

• Role-play project presentations to different community partners.
• Record or videotape yourself pitching the project to the community. Review the tape and access your own presentation skills.