Essential Question:
How does a city change over time?

Focus Questions:
How can a neighborhood walk be used as a tool to increase our knowledge of people, places, and events that shaped
the history of our city, state, and nation?
What strategies can we use to learn about a neighborhood, past and present?

A. Warm-up:
Identify and give the location of the school and come up with one word that best describes the
school neighborhood. Record answers on a large chart ( “busy” to “serene,” “residential” to “commercial,"
“boring” to “exciting,” and “homogeneous” to “multi-ethnic,” etc.)

Pre-Walk Preparation
Maps:
Compare historic and current maps of your neighborhood to identify changes in the neighborhood from farmland to city,
i.e., hills, forest, and cultivated land to the street grid. Examine how neighborhood boundaries were defined.

Materials:
• Photocopies of primary source documents
and historic photos relating to a
particular neighborhood
• Clipboards
• Street maps
• Blank white paper
• Chart paper
• Transparent tape
• Marker pens
• Pencils
• Cameras (optional)

Workshop: The Walk
Try to devise a route that, if possible, would include:
1) a diversity of buildings: old and new, small and large, commercial, residential, religious, cultural, civic, etc.;
2) a mix of stores, businesses, and restaurants from individually- or family-owned to large retail chains;
3) a lively street life with people of different ages, ethnicities, and occupations represented.

Before You Go:
Give to students a sheet that contains architectural terms and some background information on the history of the neighborhood along with simple street maps so they can plot the walk and note their observations of specific buildings. Briefly review new terms and outline the tasks students are to complete while on the walk. Also review sidewalk courtesy and safety (group to the side to allow others to pass, stay together, cross at the light, etc.).

Activities
Look for plaques that give historical or other interesting information.

Street signs can often be clues to the history of the neighborhood. Numbered streets and avenues resulted from the Commissioners grid plan of 1811 for example.

Mapping: Throughout the walk, have students trace the route and mark locations on their individual maps.

Observations: Have students take notes on their impressions of the streetscape: size and use of buildings; comparisons between older and newer structures, types of businesses, government, and commercial signs, as well as street life, etc.

Sketching and photography: You may want to choose an interesting building or other structure where students can analyze the building by looking at materials, design and ornament. They can sketch and photograph architectural elements like doors, windows, and roofs.

Reflection: After the walk ask students to share their impressions of the character of the neighborhood, what they have learned about its development and its connection to larger historic themes, and any questions they have. (These questions may be turned into independent research).

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