Word on the Street

Students from all walks of life may hear their community talked about in different ways - but what if this talk doesn’t match students’ own vision of their community? It was exactly this tension that high school students and their teachers explored in the “Word on the Street” project.

A community-based media project conducted by Drs. Catherine Burwell and Kimberly Lenters, along with four Grade 10 Humanities teachers, “Word on the Street” allowed students to explore the city landscape and the ‘texts’ of their own neighbourhood. Students travelled the area taking photos and notes, and eventually compiled these into documentaries that told stories of their community.

The students’ documentaries revealed how they engaged with their understandings of themselves and their community. The students recognized the impact of the signs and ‘texts’ of their community, and how these can be interpreted.

Students talked back to the stereotypes associated with living in a low-income neighbourhood, and instead identified strength in its diversity and solidarity. Through their documentaries, they were able to see and represent the social cohesion of their community, finding meaning and value beyond its economic worth.

The “Word on the Street” project brought a sense of the ‘local’ into the curriculum. By relating learning to their own lives, students and teachers drew on the kinds of everyday experiences that sometimes go unaddressed in busy high school classrooms. Developing classroom activities that spark engagement and connection with issues relevant to student experiences can be a meaningful way of developing a sense of identity and place for students within their community.

For Teachers

Addressing local contexts within the curriculum can create powerful learning opportunities for students. Given the important place of media in young people’s lives, digital media projects are an especially effective way to engage students both personally and academically. As the “Word on the Street” project demonstrated, opening a space to explore the gap between how communities are represented and how they are experienced has the potential to lead to meaningful conversations and creative responses.