Activity: Reflecting Neighborhoods

Lisa Garrone, ABCD’s (Action Boston Community Development)
Southside Head Start Adult ESOL Program, Roslindale, MA

Instructions

To begin the lesson, broaden the concept of home to include neighborhood. Then emphasize the difference between “neighbor” and “neighborhood,” as many students confuse the two. Next, ask the class, “What’s in a neighborhood?” Write their responses on an easel or the blackboard.

Ask students to choose the 15 most important items (from the student-generated list) to have in a neighborhood (in the example, these items are in bold). Of course, everyone will not agree, and some interesting arguments will begin.

In our class discussion, for example, the Haitian, Latin, and Lebanese students felt that it was very important to have a church in the neighborhood. This met strong opposition from an Albanian student, who said she didn’t care about having a church because she is from a communist country. A Haitian man responded, “It’s very important. Sometimes when you have a problem and you can go to the church, it helps you to change your mind.”

Each of the chosen neighborhood elements reveals something about the person who selects it. Within the sample list, a man chose yards and trees because he had been a farmer and now finds it important to have enough land to grow some tomatoes. A couple chose dry cleaner because they both worked as pressers at a dry cleaner. When asked why it was important to have houses and not apartments in a neighborhood, a student explained that there are too many people living in apartment buildings, which would make the neighborhood crowded.

You can ask your students what people (neighbors) they want living near them. This can reveal what types of neighbors your students have had in the past. In our discussion, a few students had lived next door to or downstairs from neighbors who were constantly fighting and had police called on them nearly every night. All students agreed on the importance of having good neighbors.

Our list is below, with the students’ choices in bold type.

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