This standards-based unit is a series of eight lessons, whereby a class uses historical maps, field trips, primary and secondary resources, and interviews with community elders to create a Quest capturing "hidden stories" in their town. Suitable for 4th - 8th grade

Click here to view how the village quest has been used.

Click here for another example of how the village quest has been used.

To order your copy of The Village Quest Project ($15) or other Valley Quest curriculum contact Steve Glazer at (802) 291-9100 ext 102 or steve@vitalcommunities.org.

Introduction to the Village Quest Project

     Throughout this country's rural areas lay the vestiges of villages, which once sprinkled the landscape like freckles. Each township, within its (often) rectilinear perimeters, contained several to a dozen small villages, recognizable now by perhaps a small cemetery, a group of buildings at a crossroads, an old schoolhouse or church, or simply a collection of cellar holes out in the woods.

     Students can glean much about the life of a historical community through investigating extant buildings, reading old maps to find "ghosts" sites, examining town records and tombstones, and listening to the stories related by older residents about their lives. Through gathering information, they can then answer questions. Why all of these tiny villages? Why did people settle there? How did people live and work in them? How did their cultures and habits affect their habitat-the community and place, the fields and forest? Why did this particular village bud, blossom and wilt?

     In order to help students cultivate an appreciation for and understanding of these small villages they pass through or live in, we created the Village Quest model. The unit is divided into 9 lessons, which are linked to specific Vermont and New Hampshire Standards. As written, the lesson plans are designed so they may be completed in one or two 90-minute periods. Certainly, enhancing the activities with your own extensions would increase the time of the project and, also, its depth.

     Each step of the Village Quest project contains objectives, procedures, materials needed, informal assessments and either follow-up or extension activities. Follow-ups are essential to the completion of the project, while extensions are suggestions for enrichment. A final rubric model can be used or adapted to assess student performance on the entire unit. Given the available historical sources, the interests of the students and the character of the village itself, each Quest, no matter how similar in theme, is different. The lessons plans, therefore, are meant to be guiding principals rather than prescriptive. However, they do provide the skeletal structure required to produce a Quest that fulfills the overall intent: to foster in the students an awareness of and appreciation for the environmental and cultural heritage of their communities.

What are students learning through the Village Quest Project?

Each lesson in The Village Quest Project is tied to the Vermont and New Hampshire state standards, and overall, the entire project nests under:

Standards:

Vermont
Civic / Social Responsibility Standards
Understanding Place

4.6 Understanding Place

Students demonstrate understanding of the relationship between their local environment and community heritage and how each shapes their lives.

New Hampshire
Standard 11: Social Studies

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the physical and human geographic features that define places and regions.

Service Learning:

In addition to complying with state standards, the Village Quest Project may also fulfill a Service Learning requirement for your school or classroom. For more information regarding Service Learning: Vermont Community Works, VCW 374 School Road, Guilford, VT 05301 www.vermontcommunityworks.org/cwresources/cwtools/s-ltools/s-ltools.html

In this unit, students:

1. Adopt a particular place in their community.
   
2. Connect with that place through repeated visits.
   
3. Out in the field, learn to observe detail; and take the time to discover the characters and the story that inhabit their chosen place.
   
4. Back in the classroom, use these details as a basic for integrating diverse academic disciplines: art, writing, reading, mathematics, science, social studies, technology.
   
5. Utilize community resources like the historical society, town office and library; deepen understanding through primary and secondary source investigations.
   
6. Invite the elders and specialists in their community to participate in their Quest. Make use of the content mastery that already exists within the community. Build relationships across the generations.
   
7. Publish and distribute the completed Quest, in order to share the students learning with the broader community.

1. Deepened student knowledge of and sense of connection to their communities.
   
2. Discovery and utilization of the diverse wealth of community assets: source materials, landscapes, facilities, individual skills, the expertise and resources of both citizens and civic groups.
   
3. Strengthened relationships between school and community.
   

Click here to view a sample lesson from The Village Quest

For more information contact steve@vitalcommunities.org

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- Summer Institute participant