Geography SOL 3.5 the Student Will Develop Map Skills By

Caitlin Mewborn

Fall 2013

Geography Lesson

Purpose:

-The focus of this lesson is to review the seven continents, the five oceans, the prime meridian, the equator, and the four hemispheres.

-Geography SOL 3.5 The student will develop map skills by

a) positioning and labeling the seven continents and five oceans to create a world map;

b) using the equator and prime meridian to identify the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Hemispheres;

c) locating the countries of Spain, England, and France;

d) locating the regions in the Americas explored by Christopher Columbus (San Salvador in the Bahamas), Juan Ponce de León (near St. Augustine, Florida), Jacques Cartier (near Québec, Canada), and Christopher Newport (Jamestown, Virginia);

e) locating specific places, using a simple letter-number grid system.

Objectives:

-TSWBAT label the seven continents, five oceans, prime meridian, equator, and four hemispheres, given a blank world map, earning 15/18 or higher.

-TSWBAT locate the countries of the United States, Spain, England, and France on a blank world map with 3/4 correct or higher.

-TSWBAT write a summary of what they learned during the lesson, using three or more vocabulary words, on an “exit ticket”/note card.

Procedure:
-Introduction
-The teacher will initiate a class discussion (auditory) about what they have learned so far in Social Studies about world maps and the regions of the world. (5 min)
-TTW explain that we will go on a “tour” (visual), flying over the continents and oceans and showcase a few specific countries (US, Greece, Italy, England, Spain, and France). Discuss the hemispheres and how to describe specific locations (using the prime meridian and equator). Ask students what they know about longitude (N-S) and latitude (E-W).

- Give each student the world map handout and go over the directions. The students should fill out the map as we go along the tour.

-Vocabulary Words (to keep in mind during the tour):
Continent: One of the principal land masses of the earth.

(Interesting note: Students in other countries learn the continents differently; they’re sometimes taught five or six (the Americas or Eurasia). Most educators take geography, politics and history into account when deciding how to split our world up into continents.)

Country: a nation with its own government, occupying a particular territory (called a “state” in other countries)
Ocean: a very large expanse of sea, in particular, each of the main areas into which the sea is divided geographically
Hemisphere: Half of a sphere (globe); created by the prime meridian or the equator

Equator: An imaginary line around the middle of the Earth that divides it into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

Prime Meridian: An imaginary line that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres
-Development
-Seat the students so everyone can see the projector.
-Google Earth Activity
-auditory (explanation of the activity) and visual
-The teacher will ask questions during the activity to activate student knowledge and aid in making connections. Encourage students to ask questions as well.

-The students should fill in their world maps as we go through the tour.

Harvie Road / Where is your school located? How do you describe its location?The address is the absolute location. You could also describe a place’s relative location by saying what it is near (for example, the school is down the street from a Wendy’s).
Harvie Elementary School / Bird’s Eye or Areal view of the school. When was Harvie built? What was here before the built the school? Let’s “go back in time” to see.
Henrico Country, Virginia.
Virginia / Can anyone name the explorer who landed in what is now Virginia? (Christopher Newport) Where did he land? (Jamestown) You heard about this during the play we saw a couple weeks ago.
United States / What continent are we on?
North America / What hemisphere is North America in? Is there another way to say it? (Northern and Western Hemispheres or North Western Hemisphere)
How can you tell?(above the equator and on the west side of the prime meridian)
Does anyone know the name of another explorer who landed in North America? (Christopher Columbus- Bahamas, Juan Ponce de Leon- Florida, Jacques Cartier- Canada) Where were the explorers sailing from?
Northern Hemisphere / What other countries are in the Northern Hemisphere? (show map picture)
Northern Hemisphere / View of the “top” of the earth
U.S. / Let’s go back to the US
Atlantic Ocean / Which ocean would we cross to get to Europe by the shortest distance? Did we move into a new hemisphere? How do you know?
Europe / This is the second continent we are visiting.Who can name a country on this continent?
What countrieswill you be learning about on your field trip to the VMFA tomorrow? (Greece and Rome, Italy) Can anyone come up and point to Greece’s location in Europe?
Greece / Circle the country of Greece on your map
Parthenon / Does anyone recognize the landmark in Athens, Greece? Who knows what this structure is?
Rome, Italy / What else will you be studying at the museum tomorrow? (Rome, Italy)
Colosseum / Who knows what this famous structure is? (click on link to pics of art at VMFA)
England / What imaginary line is running through England? That line signifies that England is in which two hemispheres? (Western and Eastern) Color England purple on your map.
Big Ben / Landmark of England
France / Did we move to a different continent or to a different hemisphere? (still in Europe, still in both Western and Eastern Hemispheres, still in Northern Hemisphere). Color France green on your map.
Eiffel Tower / Landmark in Paris, France
Spain / What hemisphere is the majority of Spain in? What continent is south of Spain? (Africa) What continent is east of Spain? (Asia) Color Spain yellow on your map.
Temple of Sagrada Familia / Landmark of Spain
Asia / Now we are over another continent, Asia. What are the biggest countries in Asia? Is all of Asia in the same hemisphere(s)? (Eastern and almost all in Northern)
Arctic Ocean / What ocean is north of Asia?
Indian Ocean / Which ocean is south of Asia? (picture of map)
Australia / This is the only continent that has just one country. What is it?
Antarctica / This continent is in all of the hemispheres except for the northern hemisphere, what is it?(picture of map)
Southern Ocean / Which ocean is near Antarctica? (picture of map)
South America / The equator runs through this continent, and it is located south of North America, what is it? What hemispheres is it in?
Equator / Which direction does the equator go in? (E-W) What two hemispheres does it separate?(Northern and Southern)
Africa / What continent is this?
Equator x Prime Meridian / Where do the Prime Meridian and the Equator cross? (In the pacific ocean next to Africa)
North Pole
South Pole / Which continent is this?
United States / As we travel back to school, think about which ocean we missed talking about. Let’s visit one of America’s landmarks that overlooks this ocean.
Golden Gate Bridge / Who has been to this famous bridge? Where is it?
Pacific Ocean / Find the pacific ocean on your map worksheet. Are there two pacific oceans? Why is it shown as being on both sides of the map? Think about the globe being flattened out into a map. Where would you cut the sphere? Why is the pacific ocean a good (or bad) place to make the “cut” for a map?
Harvie / This is the end of our tour, let’s head back to school.

What is different about the view on google earth than how the world looks on a map or on a globe?

-Summary
TTW initiate a summary group discussion about the main points of the lesson. TTW review the five continents, seven oceans, prime meridian, equator, and the four hemispheres by creating a magnet summary/wordsplash (example below) on the whiteboard or Promethean board. (5 min) TTW ask students for the key terms of the lesson and write these up.

TTW model how to write a summary statement using the wordsplash. TSW each write their own summary on the provided notecard. (5 min)

Materials:
Computer with Google Earth
Projector
Crayons or colored pencils
World Map
Lined Paper
World Map (pull-down)

Globe

White board or Promethean board

Notecards

Evaluation Part A:
The writing prompt will be the main form of student evaluation.
I will also check for understanding during the summary discussion. Did they still have questions, misconceptions, or confusion about the topic? Are the students able to use the key terms appropriately?

Evaluation Part B:

Was the google earth tour effective for showing the continents, oceans, equator, prime meridian, and selected countries?

Were they able to completely label the world map or did they struggle to finish in the time allotted?

Did I challenge the students enough? Did I meet the needs of both struggling and advanced learners?

Did they students enjoy the lesson? Were they bored or was the activity too distracting?

What parts of the lesson went well?

What would I change about this lesson if I taught it again?

Reflection

My Social Studies Geography lesson focused on identifying the continents, oceans, prime meridian, equator, and a few key countries while touching on explorers (to be studied in the future) and Greece and Rome (relating to their recent field trip). Overall the lesson went well and the students were very receptive.

The google earth tour was effective for showing the continents, oceans, equator, prime meridian, and selected countries. I showed them each place on google earth, on their world maps, and for some locations I showed a second view and/or a picture. I think the various views helped the students gain a better overall sense of location and relative size of the continents. But, many of the students were confused about where Spain, France, England, and Greece were located on their world map handout. The world map was difficult for them to label and identify because some of the countries I asked them to color code were very small. They had a hard time transferring where a country was on google earth to where it was on their map. Ms. Mitchell, my cooperating teacher, passed out another larger and colored world map, which helped many of them. I think this lesson was challenging enough for everyone, but it might have been too much for the struggling students. They became frustrated when they colored something incorrectly and it was hard to erase. Ms. Mitchell and I walked around to help students, but that was hard to manage for every task with so many students.

The students enjoyed going through the google earth tour and I heard a lot of “oohs” and “ahhs” at certain points. A few students seemed to be lost or bored, but when I noticed that I tried to engage them by asking questions. I thought I did a good job asking lots of engaging questions and adapting my lesson based on their responses. I am still unsure of what to do when many students want to answer but they are making erroneous guesses. This only happened for a few questions though. For example, when I asked what explorers landed in North America students guessed George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Also, I moved around the room throughout the lesson, which I felt kept their attention. Another thing I thought went well was connecting multiple topics to the main focus of the lesson. For example, I added elements that related to their recent field trip. They visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to learn about Greece and Rome and I added those as locations on the tour. In a previous class I noticed several students had a misconception that there are two Pacific Oceans (because on their maps it is located on both the right and left). I made sure to ask them questions about that and show them on google earth how on a sphere and the globe you can see it is really one ocean.

If I taught this lesson again I would put a marker (such as a letter or a symbol) on the countries I wanted to focus on and identify so the students wouldn’t be so confused. I would also shorten the tour and make the topic more focused, especially if they’re going to transfer things to a map. Alternatively, I might make the map the assessment to see if they were able to transfer what they learned on google earth to a world map. I would also include more familiar landmarks for them (as opposed to Big Ben and the Spanish cathedral). I liked my teacher’s suggestion of relating the locations to movies they would know (such as Ratatouille for Italy). Lastly, I’m not sure that assigning a summary of the lesson was the best summative activity. I expected them to know how to write a summary, but almost none of them did. Only one student could describe what a summary is.

I enjoyed teaching this lesson and many of the students told me they enjoyed it too. Ms. Mitchell also thought it went well overall. I think Geography knowledge is essential for being an informed citizen and we should communicate that importance to students.

Rubric for assessing student exit ticket summaries:

Target
Includes three or more vocabulary words from the lesson / 0
Uses no vocabulary words / 1
Uses one vocabulary word / 2
Uses two vocabulary words / 3
Uses three vocabulary words
Summary relates to the google earth lesson / 0
Summary doesn’t relate to the lesson / 1
Summary only slightly relates to the lesson / 2
Majority of the summary relates to the lesson / 3
Summary relates to the lesson and includes main/important information covered
Writes in complete, coherent sentences / 0
Illegible, not full sentences / 1
Most sentences are incomplete / 2
Most sentences are complete / 3
Complete, coherent sentences
Points Earned: