I’ve written a lot about my annual favorite lesson of the year for English Language Learners — students first identify what neighborhood qualities are most important to them; they then analyze their neighborhood and the wealthiest one in Sacramento (including through field trips and statistical analyses); next they decide which one they think is the best; and then they write a persuasive essay sharing their reasons. Every year, and this one has been no exception, at least ninety-percent choose our school’s neighborhood over the “Fabulous Forties.”

You can read their essays here and you can see a complete description of the unit plan at A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits.

But their essay is not the culminating task for this three-week unit.

Lastly, they have to design their own ideal neighborhood; write about what they have put in it and why, as well as who lives in it. Then, they use Fotobabble to show their design and record a summary of what they wrote about it.

Here are some examples, and you can see the rest at our class blog.

This whole lesson is just another way to reinforce that, just as our ELLs bring far more assets than deficits to the table, so do our neighborhoods….