Introduction
Section 1 - Desired Results
* Essential Questions
* Enduring Understandings
* SWBAT's
* State Standards
Section 2 - Assessments
* Summary of Assessments
* Rubrics
Section 3 - Instruction
* Methods and Strategies
* Unit-at-a-glance plan
* Lesson Plans
^Day One - Mental Maps
^Push and Pull Factors - Class News Map
^Travel Writing - Compare and Share - Research for Country Profile
Section 4 - Thought Questions
* Diverse learners
* Technology
* ELL's
* Exceptional Learners
Examples of Student Work
Friday, June 5, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Thought Questions
Diverse Learners
I want to engage the minds of all of my students, and I hope that the active learning strategies used in this unit will help accomplish this. Thinking about it now, I wonder if there is anything in the unit to appeal to "naturalistic" or "bodily-kinesthetic" learners, but other than that the projects and lessons here should be adaptable to all kinds of minds. For example, if a student wanted to do a Country Profile focusing on the natural resources, parks, and environment of a country, I would see no reason to deny them.
Technology
Clearly, technology is a big part of this unit. I wrote this with a fantasy school of 1:1 laptops in mind. There are some of those, but most teachers would have to reserve computer labs forsome of these exercises. Like all endeavors involving students and computers, the teacher will have to set down ground rules and be vigilant about reinforcing them.
ELL's
There are a couple of strategies explicitly mentioned here that might help ELL's in this unit. The first is the Wordle tool used in the brainstorming activity. In addition, active learning strategies like Compare and Share will help ELL's by allowing them to share ideas with one or two partners and not the entire class.
Exceptional Learners
There will be students who, for whatever reason, are more adept at these skills than others. Many of these projects, however, put no real limit on how much work can be done. Interacting with online tools is something that cannot really be mastered; there is always something new to explore, a new skill to learn. That's a big reason why we can't keep students off the internet. Hopefully, this unit will harness that interest, and exceptional learners will be able to work up to their ability throughout.
I want to engage the minds of all of my students, and I hope that the active learning strategies used in this unit will help accomplish this. Thinking about it now, I wonder if there is anything in the unit to appeal to "naturalistic" or "bodily-kinesthetic" learners, but other than that the projects and lessons here should be adaptable to all kinds of minds. For example, if a student wanted to do a Country Profile focusing on the natural resources, parks, and environment of a country, I would see no reason to deny them.
Technology
Clearly, technology is a big part of this unit. I wrote this with a fantasy school of 1:1 laptops in mind. There are some of those, but most teachers would have to reserve computer labs forsome of these exercises. Like all endeavors involving students and computers, the teacher will have to set down ground rules and be vigilant about reinforcing them.
ELL's
There are a couple of strategies explicitly mentioned here that might help ELL's in this unit. The first is the Wordle tool used in the brainstorming activity. In addition, active learning strategies like Compare and Share will help ELL's by allowing them to share ideas with one or two partners and not the entire class.
Exceptional Learners
There will be students who, for whatever reason, are more adept at these skills than others. Many of these projects, however, put no real limit on how much work can be done. Interacting with online tools is something that cannot really be mastered; there is always something new to explore, a new skill to learn. That's a big reason why we can't keep students off the internet. Hopefully, this unit will harness that interest, and exceptional learners will be able to work up to their ability throughout.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Lesson Plan: Travel Writing and Country Profile Intro
Overview
In this lesson, our class will begin work on the final major assessment of this unit, during which they will use the tools they have used to locate and share information about one place.
Up to this point, these students have not been required to write anything longer than a short note on a map. The Country Profile assessment will require a bit longer writing, and this lesson is intended to prepare them for success.
National or State Standard(s) Addressed
Minnesota DOE, Strand III, Substrand I. The student will demonstrate knowledge of significant political and cultural developments of the late 20th century that affect global relations.
Minnesota DOE, Strand V, Substrand C. The student will understand the regional distribution of the human population at local to global scales and its patterns of change.
Lesson Outcomes/Objectives
SWBAT: give examples of the "push" and "pull" factors that cause people to leave their homes for somewhere else.
SWBAT: use Google Maps to obtain information about life in another country.
Sequence of Learning Activities
Intro/Hook (5 minutes) - I will read aloud an excerpt from the "Best American Travel Writing" series. Up to this point in the unit, the students have learned about places largely from information that can be found on maps, in pictures, and in videos. While these sources can be rich with information, I want my students to know that written material can be just as valuable. I can choose the excerpt I read based on my knowledge of the character of each particular class.
Frame (5 minutes) - I will ask my students if they have questions or comments about the reading. How did the author use language to describe the place? Were metaphors used? What other descriptive language was used. How was this means of conveying information about a place better than the tools we have used so far?
Activity 1 (15 minutes) - Travel Writing Compare And Share
I will select short pieces of travel writing or take excerpts from longer ones. Compare and Share is a variation on the classic Pair and Share activity, where students pair up and discuss a piece of writing and then share it with the class. In Compare and Share, each student in a pair reads a different piece of writing individually. The students then compare what they read with their partner using a simple Venn Diagram (perhaps something like the one pictured below). Once this is done, students share their thoughts with the entire class.
(Photo Courtesy of Flickr User Sizemore. "Diagram of the Living Dead.")
Activity 2 (25 minutes) - Country Profile Intro
I will take a few minutes to (first) tell my students about the Country Profile assignment in broad strokes. I will tell them what kind of information they will need to find, what kind of maps skills they will need to demonstrate, what kind of writing they will do, and what the final product will look like. Only after I've done that will I hand out the assignment sheet with a rubric. I will allow time for questions.
Next, I will have them choose a country for their profile. This will be an individual project, but I suppose I don't mind collaboration outside of class, so if more than one student wants to choose the same country, I don't mind.
The students will have the rest of the class period to do some preliminary research on their country. By now, they know what kind of information (pictures, satellite images, videos, basic info) they can find using internet geography tools - they can browse these tools and bookmark pages that might be useful later.
The only structure I will apply to this research is another Venn Diagram. I will ask them to use the diagram to compare their Profile country to The United States. We automatically compare the unfamiliar to the unfamiliar, and I want to guide this process to the extent possible, and give them something they can refer back to. The diagram will be due on the next day of class.
Assessments: There will be numerous opportunities for assessment during this lesson, mostly during discussion. After the excerpt I read in the intro, I will have some idea how receptive these students are to prose as a means of conveying information about a place. I will learn what they find useful or unhelpful about such writing.
I will also learn much from the Compare and Share exercise. I can review the pairs' Venn Diagrams and listen to what they share to get a grasp of how well they are able to compare different places.
Finally, I will have the students' individual Venn Diagrams to help me assess what help they might need in understanding a new country for their profile.
In this lesson, our class will begin work on the final major assessment of this unit, during which they will use the tools they have used to locate and share information about one place.
Up to this point, these students have not been required to write anything longer than a short note on a map. The Country Profile assessment will require a bit longer writing, and this lesson is intended to prepare them for success.
National or State Standard(s) Addressed
Minnesota DOE, Strand III, Substrand I. The student will demonstrate knowledge of significant political and cultural developments of the late 20th century that affect global relations.
Minnesota DOE, Strand V, Substrand C. The student will understand the regional distribution of the human population at local to global scales and its patterns of change.
Lesson Outcomes/Objectives
SWBAT: give examples of the "push" and "pull" factors that cause people to leave their homes for somewhere else.
SWBAT: use Google Maps to obtain information about life in another country.
Sequence of Learning Activities
Intro/Hook (5 minutes) - I will read aloud an excerpt from the "Best American Travel Writing" series. Up to this point in the unit, the students have learned about places largely from information that can be found on maps, in pictures, and in videos. While these sources can be rich with information, I want my students to know that written material can be just as valuable. I can choose the excerpt I read based on my knowledge of the character of each particular class.
Frame (5 minutes) - I will ask my students if they have questions or comments about the reading. How did the author use language to describe the place? Were metaphors used? What other descriptive language was used. How was this means of conveying information about a place better than the tools we have used so far?
Activity 1 (15 minutes) - Travel Writing Compare And Share
I will select short pieces of travel writing or take excerpts from longer ones. Compare and Share is a variation on the classic Pair and Share activity, where students pair up and discuss a piece of writing and then share it with the class. In Compare and Share, each student in a pair reads a different piece of writing individually. The students then compare what they read with their partner using a simple Venn Diagram (perhaps something like the one pictured below). Once this is done, students share their thoughts with the entire class.
(Photo Courtesy of Flickr User Sizemore. "Diagram of the Living Dead.")Activity 2 (25 minutes) - Country Profile Intro
I will take a few minutes to (first) tell my students about the Country Profile assignment in broad strokes. I will tell them what kind of information they will need to find, what kind of maps skills they will need to demonstrate, what kind of writing they will do, and what the final product will look like. Only after I've done that will I hand out the assignment sheet with a rubric. I will allow time for questions.
Next, I will have them choose a country for their profile. This will be an individual project, but I suppose I don't mind collaboration outside of class, so if more than one student wants to choose the same country, I don't mind.
The students will have the rest of the class period to do some preliminary research on their country. By now, they know what kind of information (pictures, satellite images, videos, basic info) they can find using internet geography tools - they can browse these tools and bookmark pages that might be useful later.
The only structure I will apply to this research is another Venn Diagram. I will ask them to use the diagram to compare their Profile country to The United States. We automatically compare the unfamiliar to the unfamiliar, and I want to guide this process to the extent possible, and give them something they can refer back to. The diagram will be due on the next day of class.
Assessments: There will be numerous opportunities for assessment during this lesson, mostly during discussion. After the excerpt I read in the intro, I will have some idea how receptive these students are to prose as a means of conveying information about a place. I will learn what they find useful or unhelpful about such writing.
I will also learn much from the Compare and Share exercise. I can review the pairs' Venn Diagrams and listen to what they share to get a grasp of how well they are able to compare different places.
Finally, I will have the students' individual Venn Diagrams to help me assess what help they might need in understanding a new country for their profile.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Introduction to Unit
Abstract
The Students
This unit is intended for a diverse class of 10th grade geography students. It should be appropriate for any group of American students in their mid-teens. Most of the students have spent plenty of time on the Internet, both in school and in their personal lives. I assume I will encounter. The class includes some English Language Learners, as well as other students who struggle with basic literacy.
The Designer
I am 28-year-old graduate student working towards my Secondary Social Studies certification at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I am the son of a high school Social Studies teacher and a technical school administrator. I have lived in South Dakota, Massachusetts, Japan, and Minnesota, and thus have a first-hand understanding of Push and Pull Factors.
Impact 1: Online Map & Internet Skills
I believe that online maps will eclipse paper maps in societal importance soon, if they have not already. As such, I believe that teaching students how to interact with maps online will make them better students, workers, and citizens in the world they will inhabit.
Impact 2: Community Building
As an introduction to my semester-long geography class, this unit is an essential opportunity for community building. The major projects in this unit are intended to build basic geographical knowledge and skill, but they are also designed to create a community of humble and motivated learners out of my students. Efforts will also be made to extend this community beyond classroom walls by involving parents and sharing student work. If I succeed in building a community during these first weeks of the year, the rest of the semester will be easier for me and more useful for the students.
Impact 3: Understanding a Diverse Society and a Shrinking World
My students live in a world that is more connected than ever before. Raindrops that fall halfway around the world cause water to lap at their front doors. The workforce they will enter will lack true borders; they will be required to interact with people in and from disparate parts of the world. A good Geography class should provide them with the tools they will need to obtain, discuss, and use information about other places and cultures. This unit will lay the foundation for those competencies.
The Students
This unit is intended for a diverse class of 10th grade geography students. It should be appropriate for any group of American students in their mid-teens. Most of the students have spent plenty of time on the Internet, both in school and in their personal lives. I assume I will encounter. The class includes some English Language Learners, as well as other students who struggle with basic literacy.
The Designer
I am 28-year-old graduate student working towards my Secondary Social Studies certification at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I am the son of a high school Social Studies teacher and a technical school administrator. I have lived in South Dakota, Massachusetts, Japan, and Minnesota, and thus have a first-hand understanding of Push and Pull Factors.
Impact 1: Online Map & Internet Skills
I believe that online maps will eclipse paper maps in societal importance soon, if they have not already. As such, I believe that teaching students how to interact with maps online will make them better students, workers, and citizens in the world they will inhabit.
Impact 2: Community Building
As an introduction to my semester-long geography class, this unit is an essential opportunity for community building. The major projects in this unit are intended to build basic geographical knowledge and skill, but they are also designed to create a community of humble and motivated learners out of my students. Efforts will also be made to extend this community beyond classroom walls by involving parents and sharing student work. If I succeed in building a community during these first weeks of the year, the rest of the semester will be easier for me and more useful for the students.
Impact 3: Understanding a Diverse Society and a Shrinking World
My students live in a world that is more connected than ever before. Raindrops that fall halfway around the world cause water to lap at their front doors. The workforce they will enter will lack true borders; they will be required to interact with people in and from disparate parts of the world. A good Geography class should provide them with the tools they will need to obtain, discuss, and use information about other places and cultures. This unit will lay the foundation for those competencies.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Desired Results: State Standards, Questions, Understandings, and Objectives
Stage 1: Identifying Desired Results
Content Standards Geography Grads 9-12
• “The student will use maps, globes, geographic information systems, and other databases to answer geographic questions at a variety of scales from local to global.”
• “The student will understand the regional distribution of the human population at local to global scales and its patterns of change.”
Enduring Understandings
• Maps and aerial photos are rich sources of information about the character of places and the people who inhabit them.
• People migrate to different locations because they are compelled to leave by conditions in one location or because they are enticed to leave by conditions in another.
Essential Questions
• What can we learn about a place from a map?
• How can we understand people from maps of the places they live?
• How can online mapping technology be used in everyday life?
• Why are humans always moving to different places?
Students Will Know…
• …the basic components of a map.
• …where to find mapping software online.
• …the characteristics of a geographic location determine the kind of life people live in there.
• …maps can be used to learn about people’s economic and political behavior.
• …people move to different locations for a number of reasons.
Students Will Be Able To…
• …obtain geographic information from a variety of print and electronic sources.
• ...draw conclusions about the character of places based on a comparison of maps, aerial photos, and other images.
• …make their own maps and utilize online interactive mapping software
• …use maps data to compare and contrast the characteristics of regional populations
• …explain general patterns of human movement using the concepts of push and pull factors.
Content Standards Geography Grads 9-12
• “The student will use maps, globes, geographic information systems, and other databases to answer geographic questions at a variety of scales from local to global.”
• “The student will understand the regional distribution of the human population at local to global scales and its patterns of change.”
Enduring Understandings
• Maps and aerial photos are rich sources of information about the character of places and the people who inhabit them.
• People migrate to different locations because they are compelled to leave by conditions in one location or because they are enticed to leave by conditions in another.
Essential Questions
• What can we learn about a place from a map?
• How can we understand people from maps of the places they live?
• How can online mapping technology be used in everyday life?
• Why are humans always moving to different places?
Students Will Know…
• …the basic components of a map.
• …where to find mapping software online.
• …the characteristics of a geographic location determine the kind of life people live in there.
• …maps can be used to learn about people’s economic and political behavior.
• …people move to different locations for a number of reasons.
Students Will Be Able To…
• …obtain geographic information from a variety of print and electronic sources.
• ...draw conclusions about the character of places based on a comparison of maps, aerial photos, and other images.
• …make their own maps and utilize online interactive mapping software
• …use maps data to compare and contrast the characteristics of regional populations
• …explain general patterns of human movement using the concepts of push and pull factors.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Methods and Strategies
I think that Google Maps and it's descendants are going to be vital tools in the world my students will inhabit. Chances are that these students have used such online resources to look up directions or find birds-eye-view picture of their house, but I want to show them what a powerful tool these maps can be for learning about the world and communicating with others.
I believe that the best way to learn how to do something is to actually do it. So, I have designed activities that will compel my students to interact with these maps and construct maps of their own. After all, the interactivity of these maps is the very thing that sets them apart from the maps I had at my disposal as a high school student ten years ago. I could turn pages, look at maps, and write information down in a notebook if I needed to. Students today can type in a place they're looking for, view pictures and videos of that place, and add markers and comments for anyone to see - all on the same web page.
I also want my students to actively monitor their ideas about the nature of various places and think about what they are learning. The Mental Maps activity is designed to aid in this metacognition, and students will be required to review the maps we make as a class. They will make comments on others' contributions and offer suggestions for improvement.
I am not afraid to conduct lectures, but I will attempt to make the time I spend addressing the class full of visual examples, compelling questions, and thoughtful answers. Students will know that they can always ask questions, and that they don't have to worry about being wrong or sounding stupid.
The result of all this will hopefully be students who have a more complete and nuanced understanding of the people who inhabit this world and why they do what they do. Just as importantly, they will leave this unit with a valuable set of skills involving the use of online mapping software.
I believe that the best way to learn how to do something is to actually do it. So, I have designed activities that will compel my students to interact with these maps and construct maps of their own. After all, the interactivity of these maps is the very thing that sets them apart from the maps I had at my disposal as a high school student ten years ago. I could turn pages, look at maps, and write information down in a notebook if I needed to. Students today can type in a place they're looking for, view pictures and videos of that place, and add markers and comments for anyone to see - all on the same web page.
I also want my students to actively monitor their ideas about the nature of various places and think about what they are learning. The Mental Maps activity is designed to aid in this metacognition, and students will be required to review the maps we make as a class. They will make comments on others' contributions and offer suggestions for improvement.
I am not afraid to conduct lectures, but I will attempt to make the time I spend addressing the class full of visual examples, compelling questions, and thoughtful answers. Students will know that they can always ask questions, and that they don't have to worry about being wrong or sounding stupid.
The result of all this will hopefully be students who have a more complete and nuanced understanding of the people who inhabit this world and why they do what they do. Just as importantly, they will leave this unit with a valuable set of skills involving the use of online mapping software.
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