Hometown Heroes: Honoring Our Community

By: Michael Mercanti-Anthony

School: Lindenwold HS, Lindenwold, NJ

Grade Levels: Ninth Grade Interdisciplinary Freshman Seminar

Academic Focus/

Core Curriculum Standards:

Language Arts Literacy: 3.1,3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5

Consumer, Family & Life Skills: 9.2 A, B, C, D.

Respect, responsibility, empathy, civic-mindedness,

Students, grouped generally in teams of three or four, identify an active member of the Lindenwold community whom they believe to be a hero. The group brainstorms a list of questions to be asked of the individual in a personal, phone or e-mail interview. Each student is responsible for recording the responses, and, following the steps of the writing process, must submit a 2-3 paged reflection paper that answers the prompt: How is this person a hero, and how can you apply the lessons learned from his (her) life to yours?

The group then creates a PowerPoint presentation that tells the story of the hero. The individual is honored at a special celebratory luncheon in which the group makes the presentation and thanks the hero.

The latter part of the second marking period, usually 2-3 weeks. The assignment counts for 75% of the midterm grade.

Teacher-generated assignment sheets, computers for PowerPoint.

Food and decorations for luncheon provided by the administration in conjunction with some local businesses.

Health & Physical Education: Students learn how to be leaders in a community.

Language Arts Literacy: Students practice the skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening and demonstrate media literacy in the various stages of the project. Rigorous following of the writing process develops their writing and editing skills.

Social Studies: Students become aware of civic responsibility and recognize the qualities of a leader as a public servant.

Technology: Students demonstrate technological expertise through the PowerPoint presentation.

Consumer, Family & Life Skills: Students hone skills cooperation, teamwork, self-management as well as demonstrate respect, responsibility and civic engagement.

Hurdles Encountered:

Hurdles: Since the luncheon takes place in January, the weather had to be taken into consideration.

Solution: An alternate date was planned, with contingencies about food .

Performance-based Education: Students are engaged in a meaningful activity with a clear goal that has a correlation to life.

Cooperative Learning: Students work together in choosing the hero, in brainstorming questions, in designing the PowerPoint presentation and in making the presentation. 

Interdisciplinary Approach: Multiple disciplines are involved in the project that strongly reinforces language arts skills while teaching a valuable lesson in social studies.

Student reflections reveal the impact of the project on their lives. Many students found out that the “hero” had the ability to pick themselves up from failure. Others saw that one need not have an impressive title to be a hero. For example, one group honored a school crossing guard who had contributed many years of “anonymous” service to Lindenwold students.

Recognition: Media coverage of the Luncheon; personal statements of appreciation from the selected heroes.

Key Findings: Students became totally involved in this project. Marks and attendance improved.

Many businesses contributed food for the event; many members of the community attended.

The reflection piece is the real core of the project because it prompts the students to correlate the lessons learned from examining the life of the individual with his (her) own life.

Specific guidelines and due dates are given for each stage of the project. Reflection paper marked as a major paper adhering to steps in the writing process. Entire project = 75% of midterm grade.