Source: WILD TV: "The Animals We Live With"
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
Download and ShareThe following Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions are best suited for elementary school students using this video in an English language arts or social studies lesson. Be sure to modify the questions to meet your students' instructional needs.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame(ELA) Why do you think people plant gardens? What is their reason or motivation for doing all the work it takes to plan, plant, care for, and finally harvest what has grown in the garden?
Focus (ELA) Why do the people in this neighborhood plant and care for vegetables in their community garden?
Follow Up (ELA) If you were to plan a garden, what kind would it be—flowers, vegetables, fruits? Discuss what you would want to grow and why you selected what you did. Explain two or three reasons why you would be motivated to plan the type of garden you did.
Frame (SS) We all belong to many different kinds of groups. What groups do you belong to? What do you have in common with the people in this group (i.e., classroom, group of friends, neighborhood)?
Focus (SS) How are the people in this community unified? What brings them together and how does it bring them together?
Follow Up (SS) People are unified by values, practices, and traditions. Discuss how your values, practices, and traditions make you a member of different groups. For example, what values, practices, and traditions identify you as a member of your family?
ORVILLE: Ah, a lot of people are always amazed when they walk in here because not only are we the largest community garden in Brooklyn, I think we grow more vegetables and plants and herbs than any other garden.
People always talk about improving quality of life and in the city I think a lot of people see that as you know, developing buildings or you know, introducing more services to a neighborhood as well. And that’s definitely part of it, but a huge part of it, that’s largely ignored is increasing green spaces. Because I mean, honestly, green spaces bring sanity to an insane city.
So you think about all these green trees and plants actually purifying the air, I mean, that helps for health. And also it’s also like a sanctuary, you know, for children and just for anyone in general, you know, who is out there in the neighborhood, dealing with certain strifes, knowing they can come into like, a little oasis in the middle Bed-Stuy. And there’s nothing but peace here, you know. It’s like God’s hand has just touched the green right here.
You gonna drop that in? If I’m in like, downtown Brooklyn, it’s a whole different feel – it’s folks hustling and bustling, nobody stopping to speak to each other even though you’re three feet away from them, everybody wants their personal space. Here, there’s like this cohesiveness, it’s like family.
They talk with each other, they share things – not just about gardening, but just about things in general. The politics of the neighborhood, or what’s going on with your family. An area like this can definitely be replicated all around the United States to bring people together and just to learn about each other.
In Bed-Stuy, a quarter of our population is below the age of fourteen and I could see if all of these young people would just galvanize themselves, pull themselves together for the same effort as getting more open spaces and I see almost all these vacant lots, all turning into green spaces.
FIRST MAN: You’d be surprised what grows in Brooklyn!
SECOND MAN: Plums, we have grapes, we have peaches.
FIRST WOMAN: Okra, green pepper…
FIRST MAN: Wax beans.
THIRD MAN: Oregano.
SECOND WOMAN: There’s nothing that wouldn’t grow in Brooklyn if it’s being taken care of the right way – including children and adults!
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