Me on the Map

Title of Project: Me on the Map

Schools and Teachers

West-Schwarting Teacher: Anthony Romano and Stefanina Guttilla

ENL Proficiency Level | ENL Program | Standards | Technology

Entering, Emerging, Transitioning | Stand-Alone | 2R1, 2R9, 2W6 | Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Slides

Assessments

Each portion of this unit has built in formative and summative assessments. After learning about their addresses students will be asked to say and write where they live independently. Furthermore, when they enter class they will be asked where they live. As the unit moves forth, students will be asked questions for understanding; such as, “What state do we live in? What country do we live in? What are some things we can see in our country? What continent are we on? What country do our families come from?” Etc. Students will be assessed on the knowledge gained by creating a project which requires them to write facts about the research that they are learning.

Description

This lesson focuses on students' place in the world. It teaches students about the type of community they live in, while focusing on their address. It then expands into teaching them about their town, state, country and continents of the world. Students will use technology such as Google Maps to research their place in the world and take a virtual field trip.

Content

I can understand various grade level texts about geographical topics and how they relate to myself and where I live.

Language

I can answer questions and develop questions about my community and the world around me.

Technology

I can use technology to research information about a topic to answer questions and to build knowledge about the world around me.

Student work

Student work presentation about the countries of the world

Procedure

After students have the opportunity to view their school on Google Maps, they will learn that all of the places around them are a part of their community. Students will first learn their own addresses and be able to write them down. They will learn about urban, suburban and rural communities. Students will then have an opportunity to find their homes on Google Maps. Continuing forward, students will learn that their homes are in New York state. Students will then learn through different multimedia content about famous places and aspects of New York. As the unit progresses, they continue to research about how New York is one of fifty states, and the famous places within the United States of America. Students can then take virtual field trips to researched destinations. The unit ends after researching their own countries and famous places within them.

Resources and Other Materials

Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney
Epic books nonfiction New York state books
Youtube World Landmarks for kids
Google Docs for pictures for physical handout and work materials
Google Slides
Google Earth
Google Maps
Construction paper, glue, pencils, paper

Reflection

This unit is a great hands-on way to really teach about students’ place in the world. We have recently found that more students are moving through the grades unaware of their home addresses. This unit became a focal point for that specific issue. It pre-teaches and exposes students to the world around them and how it grows from themselves in their community to countries and continents. Students were highly engaged when allowed to manipulate the street view and view places on Google Maps and Earth. The scaffolding of the unit really emphasizes how large the world is and for some, how far away they themselves or their parents came. The constant review of the previous lesson before they moved forward to the next part of the unit enabled students to retain the information being given to them. For example, when students learned about the continents, they first had to reiterate that they live in a community in New York state, which is a part of the United States of America which is a country in the world. It was very repetitive but very productive.

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