Course Description

​REAL Richmond

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This course places an emphasis on allowing students to use the city as their classroom. Providing students a clear and encompassing history of RVA, this course also takes a crucial step towards innovative pedagogy which puts learning into the hands of students through ongoing performance tasks (engaging, hands-on experiences) and place-based learning so that they develop a burning desire to know more while refining the historical research and writing skills needed for critical thinking and application. At the end of the course, as a final assessment, students will complete a capstone project including specific elements from the course which impacted their understanding of music, politics, faith, family, economy etc. The “REAL” in this course title refers to a commitment of the course designers, community partners and teachers of the course to ensure it is Relevant, Engaging, Active and Living.
Teacher Training
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THE 9 Theme Buckets of REAL Richmond

Focusing on Richmond
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Historic homes, churches and roadways of Richmond: 1st & East Broad​ Historic District
Top left:  former Jefferson Davis Monument, Bottom left: Belle Isle Park, Right: the River/Canal walk
Left: Broad Street Commercial Historic District, Top Right: James River View, Bottom Right: Seal of Virginia

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Capstone Projects

​PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Capstone Projects are completed as a final culmination in the form of a rubric-based presentation, for teachers to display the work they have accomplished in the REAL Richmond Course. 


Capstone Projects are completed in the following formats:
Representation Formats – responds to a historical question
○ Paper responding to a historical question
○ Video/podcast: oral history of a member of the community, responds to a historical question
○ Artwork: mural, comic book, music
○ Curating a collection of historical traces mini-museum (i.e. neighborhood of choice).


Some of the requirements for the REAL Richmond Course include:
○ All performance and visual projects will require a process paper with the exception of a research
paper as their project
○ Get releases for all oral histories, photographs and video
○ Must reference in paper multiple historical traces (source documents, imagery, community input)
that the student has interpreted.
○ Must locate and incorporate a geographical space in Richmond relevant to the research.

Capstone Showcase
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​Students are able to showcase their work for well-known universities:

**For the 2021 Capstone Showcase on June 10th, 2021 there were several capstone sites where students
presented their research. These sites included Columbia University, Hampton University, Hampton
Redevelopment and Housing Authority, the Center for Women and Food Security-Ghana, the City of
Richmond Office of Community Wealth Building, and Create One, LLC. Other colleges and universities were
also invited within the Richmond Metro area, as well as VSU, W&M, Norfolk State, UVA, and others.
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