Gloucester Project (part 2): research and response

(1) What does the Gloucester in your head look like?
Thursday in class make a map of Gloucester from memory. Focus on whatever details you know or think you know. Some students focus on the outer contour. Other students focus on roads. Other students focus on landmarks. Many blend all of the above. Some students begin with their own neighborhood and then build outward. Others begin at whatever they consider to be the center of the city and then build outward. Others build from the contour inward. Any approach works. It's your map.

Then compare this map with what you discover on Google Maps. Zoom in. Zoom out. Peel off the little yellow person and put her/him down somewhere. Look around. Spend some time exploring aspects of Gloucester that you were thinking about or struggling with while creating your own map. Write down some revelations and understandings and discoveries on the back of the map you made.

(2) What issues will we need to explore more deeply in order to answer the question "What is Gloucester"?
* In class on Thursday we also began exploring other ways of looking at Gloucester. First, I shared some readings with you. Then, we considered the tension between being prideful and critical toward Gloucester. We considered how ideas of heroism, perseverance, manliness, and womanliness affect us in Gloucester. We considered how ideas of tradition vs. change. (What do we call change? Disruption and decline? Or, progress and evolution?)

(3) Choose an aspect of Gloucester art and/or culture to examine more closely in relation to one of the Gloucester issues or tensions that emerged from our discussion.

Some topics from your 3-2-1s [I've grouped them a bit.]

Water culture, aquaculture, geography, ocean, coastline, estuary, marsh, beaches, etc.
Annisquam River
Ecology (turkeys, coyotes, other wildlife)
Water quality

Fishing industry
Trade with Suriname
Trade with Asia

Religion
Our Lady of Good Voyage
St. Ann's
 
Arts
painting, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, theater, music [See below for some specific possibilities]
Fitz Henry Lane
Movies filmed in Gloucester
Architecture (buildings, streets)

Wars (American Revolution, War of 1812, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Gulf)

Neighborhoods
Annisquam
East Gloucester 
Lanesville
Magnolia 
Rocky Neck
The Fort

Other Places
Dogtown
Ravenswood
Stage Fort Park
Quarries

People
"man in the woods" [I think that's the Hermit of Gloucester, Mason Walton]
 histories of families that have been in Gloucester for many years

Legends
Sea serpent
Dogtown "witches"
  
Immigration 
Portuguese culture
Irish culture

Sicilian culture

 Here are some more ideas that you maybe have not considered.

Arts:

Examples:

• poetry (Charles Olson, Vincent Ferrini, Jeremy Ingalls, T.S. Eliot, etc.)
• fiction (Peter Anastas, Jonathan Bayliss, Anita Diamant [on Dogtown], Rudyard Kipling [on Gloucester  etc.)
• non-fiction (Judith Sargent Murray [on women's rights], Mark Kurlansky, Sebatian Junger, etc.)
• music (Herb Pomeroy, Willie Alexander, etc.)
• painting (Fitz Henry Lane, Winslow Homer, Marsden Hartley, Nell Blaine, John Sloane, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, etc.)
• photography (Ernest Morin, Anne Rearick, Nubar Alexanian, Paul Cary Goldberg, Leslie Bartlett, Jason Grow, etc.)
•  sculpture (Walker Hancock, Paul Manship, etc.)
• dance (Carl Thomsen, Sarah Slifer)
• theatre (Israel Horowitz, Nan Weber)
• film (documentarian Henry Ferrini, The Perfect Storm, Captains Courageous)
• graphic narrative/comics (Greg Cook, Tony Millionaire, etc.)

Culture:

Examples:

• ethnic and religious practices and traditions (St. Peter’s Fiesta, the Portuguese Crowning Ceremony, the first Universalist Church in America),
• civic traditions (like Lanesville’s infamous parade, the Horribles Parade),
•  public art and architecture (City Hall, Dogtown rocks, the Man at the Wheel statue, the Fisherman’s Wife statue),
• civic institutions (schools, Fisherman’s Wives Association, St. Peter’s Club)
• industries (trade, fishing, tourism, quarrying)
• cultural figures (Roger Babson<<MAJOR AMERICAN CAPITALIST, Ebenezeer Babson, Howard Blackburn, Judith Sargent Murray<<ONE OF AMERICA'S FIRST FEMINISTS, A. Piatt Andrew, Ben Smith, Manuel Lewis, Newman Shea<<A MAJOR LABOR ORGANIZER, Benjamin Butler<<CIVIL WAR GENERAL, GREENBACK, POLITICIAN, QUARRY OWNER)

[You might also focus on culture in a particular section of the city.]

POST YOUR TENTATIVE TOPIC IN THE COMMENT BOX BELOW. (You do some preliminary research by referring to step #4 below.

(4) Get started with your research into your topic & question. You'll need double-entry notes (information, quotations, summaries, etc. from the source on the left and your questions, ideas, rebuttals, connections, etc. on the right) for five or more sources (ten pages or so of notes) by Monday, June 1.
 

* In class on Tuesday, May 26 write a question to guide your research by combining the topic & question (below).

Possible questions to ask about your topic while conducting research.
 How does tension between old and new ideas about heroism, perseverance, womanliness, and manliness affect the polis of Gloucester?

How does tension between change and continuity affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between what is hidden or concealed and what is open or known affect the polis of Gloucester?

 How does tension between insiders and outsiders affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between "us" and "them" affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between connectedness and isolation affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between homogeneity and heterogeneity affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between nature and industry affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between care-taking and exploitation affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between leisurely enjoyment and rugged resilience (grit) affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between civic pride and civic critique affect the polis of Gloucester?
How does tension between beauty and ugliness affect the polis of Gloucester?

I think it will be helpful to spend the first part of class on Wednesday doing a mini-lesson on what makes a good research question for this project. To create our research questions we're applying one of the big essential questions about Gloucester (see above) to a narrower aspect of Gloucester's polis. This question should be carefully crafted. Spend some time working on it. Make sure it's clear and focused. Ask a peer, is my question clear and focused enough that you could use it to guide research? If the answer is yes: dive back into researching a response to the question. If the answer is no: work on refining your question

 
* Put that question at the center of a map/web.

* Make a map of (1) the kind of information you hope to find on your question and (2) where you might go looking for that information. (See below for resources.)

Ask me lots of questions during class time.

Be resourceful. Use GHS library resources [mini-lesson on Wednesday], Sawyer Free Library resources (including the Reference Librarian and Gloucester Shelf on the second floor), living experts [mini-lesson on interviewing on Wednesday or Thursday], and reputable internet* sources [see below].
________________________________________________
*internet sources to consider
gloucestertimes.com (local daily newspaper)
ghwalk.org (Gloucester Harbor Walk website with information on 42 aspects of Gloucester art and culture)
quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25/2526150lk.html (demographic, social, economic, and housing census information)
galesites.com/menu/mlin_n_glchs (Gloucester High School Gale Resources)
books.google.com (I've found a lot of good information and many full books by searching here.)

Search for websites of organizations related to your topic (Gloucester Writers Center (this website has video and audio recordings of creative writers and researchers), St. Peter's Club, Cape Ann Museum, etc.)

Think of video too: search for your topic using youtube and vimeo (No Pretty Prayer about the Sicilian community in the Fort; Polis is This about Charles Olson, his writing, and his relationship to Gloucester; The Greasy Pole (award winning documentary)