nurturing+the+land.

Students will make a tangible change in their own communities by bringing people together to build a neighborhood garden. Students will understand the significance of a group of people working together from different backgrounds to create something for the good of all. A text set will be available for students throughout this unit.
 * Goal:**

For the purposes of this Unit Plan we will act as if the students chose to create a community garden. This is only an example of one avenue they could follow. Other possibilities (it is key the students decide and own this project!) could be creating a mural among the buildings in their city, making an ordinance at their school that all trash and litter must be picked up and forming a group or raffle to decide which students (revolving so all students in school will participate at some point) will be the nature guards, creating a recycling system in their school system and/or city if possible, where all classrooms, hallways, and local businesses team with the sanitation department to promote recycling, or rejuvenating a section of their city, be it a park, a fountain, or a community center. These are all applicable, and by letting your students create their own project they will own it, and it will truly be community led and driven. Because of the differences between communities, a timeline for this unit is flexible. This unit could take anywhere from a month to a semester. Variables include, your class, your school, and your community.
 * Objectives:**
 * (1)** Students will study what defines a dystopia. Through discovery of the characteristics of a dystopia, my students will make connections to similarities between our world and a dystopia.
 * (2)** Students will work as a class to name some of the environmental issues facing our world, country, state, and community. By starting large and then narrowing it down, I hope to give the students a big picture view, and show them that by attending to our community they are helping a piece of the world. Step by step change.
 * (3)** Students will research the ways in which the destruction of the natural environment effects society. I will highlight the influence of a populace whose environment has been harmed, and the way most dystopias exist in an overly industrialized society, or a wasteland.
 * (4)** At this point I will ask the students what they think we could do to improve our community’s environment? Students will throw ideas out onto the board and we will discuss them, their practicality, lasting effects on the community, and finally we will vote on which we will make a reality.
 * (5)** Groups must now be formed to attend to the different aspects of creating a community garden. Students will again as a class seek to name all of the elements that we must cover for the garden to not only be a success but also to reach its full potential. Anything the students miss will be suggested and explained by the teacher. (Example: Making a relationship with local tradesmen or artisans to gain their support with making the necessary fencing, raised boxes, etc.)

This unit can be used for K6-12, but adaptations to the text set would make it just as accessible to younger grades. The text set has a broad range that fits with any and all reading levels.
 * Grade Level:**

The students will have access to over 100 books ranging in genres and content, but gravitating around the subject of gardening and community. (These can include your own personal library, donated books, or library books from both your school library and the public library.) These books will be available for research and can be cited when reasoning for decisions within the group dynamics are called into question. A text set gives the students multiple means of discovery through the written word and illustrations. [|Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer]
 * Text Set:**
 * Example Texts:**

[|Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard Into a Garden and Your Neighborhood Into a Community]

[|Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition]

[|Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale]

[|The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities]

[|Our Community Garden]

[|Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre, and the Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City]

For the creation of a community garden, the students will have several phases of group projects to complete. This not only serves to have students educate students, in a jigsaw effect, by allowing each group of students to become experts in their given area, but as a class we are learning the importance of maximizing time and effectiveness through the allocation of responsibilities. The students will be leading this unit every step of the way. The teacher serves as facilitator and while being part of the community, is only serving to help further the students' involvement and support their ownership of the project.
 * Description: including reading, writing, and research assignments**.

At every stage of the unit, the teacher will be acting as editor in chief. No decisions are acted upon without first going through him/her, but the students are running the show. The teacher will also serve to promote continuous reflection. Keep the idea what makes a dystopia and how can we counteract that in our project with the community?

__**Students will break into three groups in Phase One:**__ **Group A** will seek to gain signatures of the surrounding neighborhood community in agreement with the building of a garden, as well as signatures to volunteer for the building. This requires that they know how to lay out a signature agreement page, what to say to the people they are seeking signatures from, and have a system in place from which to utilize the data they collect. They will become familiar with matrices as a way to have a full picture of the skills people in the neighborhood have, tools they have at their disposal that they are willing to use for the garden and/or teach the students to use, as well as finding the best plot for the project to take form. Part of the data they will be collecting is a time schedule regarding what blocks of time are best for each person.
 * Group B** will locate local businesses and tradesmen and find out if they would be willing to donate their time andsome resources to the community garden project (land preparation, fence building, raised bed building, soil acquisition, and seed/seedling acquisition). This will require formal letter writing skills, some public speaking as we go and visit these places, as well as a written statement of what it is we are asking for when it comes to resources and sponsorship. Students will have time as a group to research the best means to express their needs through writing, and the teacher will go over it beforehand. The main objective of this group is to ascertain what we will need to make our garden, and the to acquire as much support from the business and professional sector of the town/city as possible.
 * Group C** is in charge of public relations and getting our message of a community garden out to the public at large.This means posters, flyers, an ad in the newspaper, a facebook page, and anything else they can think of. As our community relations group, these students are expected to visit other classes within the school, other school buildings in the area, businesses and professionals who are prominent in the community, as well as local businesses that are frequented by the very people who will gain from this garden. If there is a local food co-op or farm, these are definitely places to garner support.



Once we as a class have added all the elements together and have a viable placement, enough volunteers outside of our class, and sponsors within the business and trade community, we can begin the actual layout of the garden. This will require a first meeting of the entire class, in which we designate the responsibilities of Groups A, B, and C.
 * Phase Two:**

responsibility is now to facilitate with Group A’s plan of what plants need to be grown where, and build raised beds, and plan the walkways between them accordingly. They are to work with the tradesmen and community members in the construction of the beds, walkways, and the fence. This will require teamwork, research into the forms of the beds we’ve chosen, be they raised or otherwise, as well as cooperation with the community members who are helping us.
 * Group A** will now be in charge of our supply of seeds and seedlings, their care and ultimately – the design of what plants go where. This means they must research how certain plants grow together, if we should worry about insects, or animals munching on them, and if so, how to best to deter them. The text set resources will really come in handy here, as students must back up their plant, bed, and soil choices and placement. The importance of referencing and citing will come up here, as discussions and debates are bound to happen. This is not a bad thing, this means they are thinking, actively engaging, and owning this.
 * Group B’s**


 * Group C** students are to keep track of what and how many resources they are using, and maximization of resources is necessary. This may mean creating a spreadsheet, and having some members of the group allocated to solely administering materials. They will facilitate the etching of all of the names of those who participated in the creation of the community garden into the fence surrounding the garden, as well as helping with the end-of-garden-building party where the entire community is invited. So the data that was collected by Group A in Phase One will be used by Group C now to create a mural-like etching in the fence or some other permanent fixture of the garden.

The end result will be a force that has swept through the community of your schools, neighborhoods, businesses, and every person who was involved personally or by proxy. The garden will need to be continuously tended, and so it can never run fallow. It does not belong to any single person, but was created through the combined efforts of the community, and is owned by every single one of them. Through this project, your students have made their world a more beautiful, enjoyable, and eco-friendly place. The end party will not only serve to have all those who helped in the project see the fruits of their labors, but also is an opportunity for the students to reflect back on all the learned. There will be time set aside for each group to present what they are most proud of, or what they feel the strongest about after their creation. Too often our youth feel helpless. They feel as if they have no power. This is completely ridiculous because there is no point in a person's life where they suddenly become powerful, where they suddenly have the ability to make change. We always have that power, and through this project they will learn that they can snowball their efforts by joining together with people of like-minds. This is a piece of a community, a bridging of perspectives, and a stepping stone in their life of change.
 * Summation:**

College and Career Readiness Standards for Reading Reading Integration, all grades Responding to Reading, all grades
 * Common Core Standards:**


 * Gardening Ideas and Resources:**

[]: Has many tips and tricks for garden maintenance as well as where to plant, when to plant, and different models and ideas for garden design and beautification.

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She will offer some good details and tips, and although her supplies may be on the pricier end, it's the technique we're looking for. We all know that person who can find a bargain.

This gentlemen will show us how to buy cheap supplies and make them work in our favor. Especially helpful when on a tight budget. Who isn't?

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Don't forget a watering system! Especially for those of us on a tight schedule, harnessing rain and containing our water supply can save our garden. many supplies for this may be sitting in you or your students' garage or basment.