Communities are not built of friends or of

Communities are not built of friends, or of groups with similar styles and tastes, or even of people who like and understand each other. They are built of people who feel they are part of something that is bigger than themselves: a shared goal or enterprise, like righting a wrong, or building a road, or raising children, or living honorably, or worshipping a god. To build community requires only the ability to see value in others, to look at them and see a potential partner in one’s enterprise -From A City Year, by Suzanne Goldsmith

Your group is in charge of one chunk of the quotation. Write down your group’s interpretation and main idea(s) of that section. The following steps can help you: Ø Read the passage aloud. Read it several times. What is the authors message? Ø Circle words that are unfamiliar Ø Use context clues to help you define those words. Ø Write synonyms for these new words in the text.

Quotation chunk Communities are not built of friends, or of groups with similar styles and tastes, or even of people who like and understand each other. They are built of people who feel they are part of something that is bigger than themselves… Main idea(s)/Interpretation Communities are diverse Community members need to be caring, modest, and selfless …a shared goal or enterprise, like righting Community members participate in common a wrong, or building a road, or raising interests children, or living honorably, or worshipping a god. In order to build a strong community, you need to be able To build community requires only the to understand respect people in the community ability to see value in others… … to look at them and see a potential partner in one’s enterprise Community members look at the similarities in interests to achieve goals.

The United States has chosen to organize itself as a democracy, because the United States is large, direct democracy, in which people make the decisions directly through voting or consensus building (like a town meeting) on every issue, is not practical. The United States has a representative democracy, one which the people delegate some of their power to officials whom they select to represent them and make decisions. How could direct democracy and representative democracy work in our classroom? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of each?

ØReexamine the definition of democracy in Visualizing Democracy, Power, and Participation handout ØAt this time revise, refine, and/or expand based on what you have learned in this lesson