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Five Themes of South Dakota

7^th Grade Geography

Lesson 1:  Location

Lesson 2:  Place

Lesson 3:  Human Environment Interaction

Lesson 4:  Movement

Lesson 5:  Region

Culminating Activity:  South Dakota Road Trip

Overview of the Unit: 

This unit was designed to introduce students to the five themes of geography and how they relate to South Dakota.  Relating the five themes to South Dakota, something that most students have some background knowledge about, will help them to have a better grasp of the concepts presented.  The five themes of geography are in integral part of the 7^th grade social studies curriculum and will be revisited and reinforced throughout the school year. 

The goal of the unit it to provide students with a solid understanding of the five themes of geography while incorporating different teaching and learning styles and the use of technology.  Special consideration is given to assure that students will have equal access to the technology used in each of the lessons.  All lessons and activities will be done in the classroom setting.  The five lessons included in this unit range in teaching and learning styles (direct instruction, exploration, hands-on activities, technology, individual work, group work). 

Becky Zebroski

August 4, 2008

CET 727

Lesson 1

Grade Level:  7^th Grade

Subject:  Geography--Location

Lesson time:  Three 43 minute class periods

Background, Context, and Purpose of the Lesson:  This lesson will be presented to a small group of students (3 males) in a self-contained classroom for students on an IEP that qualify as severe emotional disturbance.  These students also have learning disabilities in one or more areas (reading, language, and math).  The purpose of the lesson is to teach students one of the five themes of geography, location. 

Lesson Goals and Objectives: 

• 7.G.1.2—Students are able to apply location, direction, size and/or shape to maps. 
• 7.C.1.2 Students are able to identify historical events that impacted individual governments. (This standard will not be assessed during this lesson, rather introduced as a result of the subject of the Lewis and Clark activity.)

Materials:

·        PowerPoint Presentation notes for each student, atlas for each student, Yarn (variety of colors), outline map of South Dakota with lines of latitude and longitude, Lewis and Clark Trail Map and clues, pencil   

Technology:  PowerPoint Presentation on location

The Lesson:

• Introduction:  As class begins, have students list, on a piece of scratch paper, the different ways to explain their current location (in room 61, at the Middle School, next to…, in Watertown, in South Dakota).  Have them list as many as they can come up with in 2-4 minutes.  Share the different descriptions and make a master list.  Explain to the students that the examples they shared are examples of today’s lesson on location which answers the question “Where is it?” Share the learning objective with students. 

• Methods: 
  1. Direct Instruction:  Present PowerPoint Presentation on Location and give copy to each student for notes. 
  2. Activity:  Students will use yarn to create a representation of the earth marking the poles, equator, primer meridian, Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, lines of latitude, and lines of longitude.  Give students clues to remember the difference between latitude and longitude (It’s a long way from the ground to the top of the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building runs up and down, just like lines of long-itude do. Add an f to the start of the word latitude and you have a new word, flatitude. It’s not a word, but it might help some students remember that lines of latitude are the flat lines that go across the globe.) and ways to relate poles and other terms to their body (North Pole—head, Equator—stomach…)
  3. Guided Practice:  Practice locating places in the atlas when given the latitude and longitude or relative location clues. 
  4. Discussion:  Ask students what they know about Lewis and Clark.  Share information with students to fill in the gaps. 
  5. Activity:  Students will plot different locations along the Lewis and Clark Trail through South Dakota using latitude and longitude and relative location clues.  Students can compare their individual maps to others in the class, making changes as necessary. 

• Lesson Closure:  Refer back to the list created at the beginning of the lesson.  Distribute a master list to the students and have them indicate whether the description listed in an example of absolute or relative location.  This will be the “ticket” out of class. 

• Back Pocket Ideas: 
  1. Brain Pop video on longitude and latitude

http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/geography/mapskills/preview.weml

2. Share interesting information with students about stops along the Lewis and Clark Trail. 

• Assessment:  Students’ Lewis and Clark Trail Maps will be assessed for the student’s ability to use latitude and longitude to locate places on a map.  The “ticket” will assess the students’ ability to determine the difference between absolute and relative location. 

• Reflection:  This lesson focuses on different learning styles of students (kinesthetic, oral, visual) and allows the students to practice the skills presented a variety of times in different settings.  The different activities will allow me to continually assess the students’ understanding of the concepts presented. 

Lesson 2

Grade Level:  7^th Grade

Subject:  Geography--Place

Lesson time:  Three 43 minute class periods

Background, Context, and Purpose of the Lesson:  This lesson will be presented to a small group of students (3 males) in a self-contained classroom for students on an IEP that qualify as severe emotional disturbance.  These students also have learning disabilities in one or more areas (reading, language, and math).  The purpose of the lesson is to teach students one of the five themes of geography, place. 

Lesson Goals and Objectives: 

• 7.G.1.1—Students are able to select appropriate resources, data services and geographic tools to interpret information. 
• 7.G.1.3—Students are able to identify characteristics of various locations, places, and regions. 

Materials:  PowerPoint Presentation notes for each student, Computer with Internet access and PowerPoint for students, Travel SD website: http://www.travelsd.com/

Technology:  PowerPoint Presentation on place, Computer with Internet access to research human and physical features of South Dakota and PowerPoint

The Lesson:

• Introduction: Begin the lesson by asking students what South Dakota is famous for and create a list on the board.  Explain to the students that the examples they shared are examples of today’s lesson on place which helps to answer the question “What is it like there?” Share the learning objective with students. 

• Methods: 
  1. Direct Instruction:  Present PowerPoint Presentation on Location and give copy to each student for notes. 
  2. Activity:  The class will create an ABC PowerPoint to describe their community, county, or region. Each student will be assigned letters of the alphabet to contribute to the presentation.  More difficult letters can be done as a class.  The word used for each letter might describe a unique physical feature, the weather (climate), or the people and their traditions. Students will need access to individual computers to research different human and physical features of South Dakota using the Travel SD website and to create PowerPoint pages.   When completed, the presentation should tell a reader unfamiliar with the area what life is like there.

• Lesson Closure:  Have students create a T-chart labeling one side “Human Features” and the other “Physical Features”.  Give students examples of each feature and have them put it under the appropriate heading.  This will be their “ticket” ticket out of class. 

• Back Pocket Ideas:
  1. Picture Sort—Students can work in groups to sort pictures into categories of Human Features or Physical Features.

• Assessment:  Students pages for the ABC book will be evaluated using a rubric.  The “ticket” will assess the students’ ability to determine the difference between human features and physical features.   

• Reflection:  This lesson allows the students to be creative and it a great incorporation of language arts skill and the 6+1 Writing Traits.  It reinforces the importance of word choice.  It will be important to teach about plagiarism and the use of graphics. 

Lesson 3

Grade Level:  7^th Grade

Subject:  Geography—Human Environment Interaction

Lesson time:  Three 43 minute class periods

Background, Context, and Purpose of the Lesson:  This lesson will be presented to a small group of students (3 males) in a self-contained classroom for students on an IEP that qualify as severe emotional disturbance.  These students also have learning disabilities in one or more areas (reading, language, and math).  The purpose of the lesson is to teach students one of the five themes of geography, human environment interaction. 

Lesson Goals and Objectives:

• 7.G.2.2—Students are able to identify how humans impact and are affected by the natural environment. 

Materials:  Book:  Images of America:  Watertown and Codington County, South Dakota, Digital camera(s),

Technology:  Digital Camera(s)

The Lesson:

• Introduction:  Share the learning objective with the students. 
• Methods: 
  1. Direct Instruction:  Present PowerPoint Presentation on Human Environment Interaction and give copy to each student for notes.
  2. Activity: In order to illustrate how humans’ actions can impact the environment, present students with a short newspaper article about Watertown.  After reading the article, have students cross of all of the letter “t”s.  Can they still determine the meaning of the article with out the “t”s?  Cross off all of the “e”s.  Can they still make since of the article?  What is the impact of eliminating two letters, etc.  How many letters can you eliminate before the text is incomprehensible? Equate the elimination of letters with the elimination of species in our eco-system.
  3. Activity:  Using the book Images of America:  Watertown and Codington County, South Dakota, show students historic pictures of the Watertown area.  Then take students to visit various locations portrayed in the book.  Have students take pictures using the digital camera of the current landscape.  Upon returning to the class, have a group discussion about their observations.  (Discussion Questions:  a.  How is the town different in appearance today from the way it looked many years ago?  b.  Are there more buildings? Different kind of buildings?  c.  What are the differences in the kind of transportation?  d.  Are there as many trees in the older photographs as there are in newer ones?)

• Lesson Closure:  Remind students of the different ways we interact with the environment (adapt to, change, or depend on).  Have them list one thing they have done in their lifetime for each category.  This will serve as their “ticket” out of class. 

• Assessment:  Students will be given a short quiz which will present them with different scenarios and they will have to determine if it is adapting to, changing or depending on the environment. 

• Reflection:  This lesson will give the students the opportunity to practice using social skills taught in the classroom in a real setting.  The technology used in this lesson will extend beyond just using the computer. 

Lesson 4

Grade Level:  7^th Grade

Subject:  Geography--Movement

Lesson time:  One 43 minute class period

Background, Context, and Purpose of the Lesson:  This lesson will be presented to a small group of students (3 males) in a self-contained classroom for students on an IEP that qualify as severe emotional disturbance.  These students also have learning disabilities in one or more areas (reading, language, and math).  The purpose of the lesson is to teach students one of the five themes of geography, movement. 

Lesson Goals and Objectives:

• 7.E.1.1-Students are able to explain how the availability of resources provides for or challenges human activities.

Materials:  One copy of a Political World outline map for each student, Computers with Internet access

Technology:  Computers with Internet access

The Lesson:

• Introduction:  Ask students to imagine a week in which all the things they use, wear, and eat were limited to items produced in their state.  What items would be available? What items would not be? What would be the consequences?  Introduce the term interdependence.  Share the learning objective with the students. 

Methods:

1. Direct Instruction:  Present PowerPoint Presentation on Movement and give copy to each student for notes.

2.  Activity:  Distribute a world outline map to each student. Tell students that by the end of this activity they will better understand how dependent they are on other places in the world.

First, ask students where they think most of their clothing is made. List their responses on the board. Next, ask students to find out, with the help of a partner, where their shirts or blouses were made. If there is no label, have students check the labels on their sweaters, jackets, or other items of clothing. Have each student label that country on the world map.

Next, have students find where their shoes were manufactured.  Have students locate the country on their world maps.

Proceed with this activity, finding the origins of other items that students know about or commonly have with them in the classroom. Some items that lend themselves well to this activity are watches, sports equipment, and lunch box items (bananas, out-of-season fruits).  Use of the Internet to locate where some items originated from may be necessary. 

Lesson Closure:  Ask students these questions: Are there particular regions of the world that dominate the maps? How do events in other parts of the world affect these dominant regions? Do we live independently of other nations, or are we dependent?

Ask students to name some of the consequences that this dependency may have on technologically developed nations. How does this dependency affect foreign policy decisions in technologically developed nations? What recent world events or policy decisions might be explained by such dependency? What are the advantages and disadvantages of interdependence?

• Back Pocket Ideas:  Challenge students to go home and do a similar activity with items in their home. 

• Assessment:  Students will be given a short quiz which will present them with different scenarios and they will have to determine if it the movement of people, goods, or ideas. 

Lesson 5

Grade Level:  7^th Grade

Subject:  Geography--Region

Lesson time:  Two 43 minute class periods

Background, Context, and Purpose of the Lesson:  This lesson will be presented to a small group of students (3 males) in a self-contained classroom for students on an IEP that qualify as severe emotional disturbance.  These students also have learning disabilities in one or more areas (reading, language, and math).  The purpose of the lesson is to teach students one of the five themes of geography, region. 

Lesson Goals and Objectives:

• 7.G.1.3—Students are able to identify characteristics of various locations, places and regions. 

Materials:  Computers with Internet access, Travel SD website www.travelsd.com          Blank maps of South Dakota (two for each student)

Technology:  PowerPoint Presentation

The Lesson:

• Introduction:  Present students with various maps of different regions (agricultural, cultural, economic, etc.) a map of the United State.  Ask students what they think makes an area a region.  Share the lesson objective with the students. 

• Methods: 
  1. Direct Instruction:  Present PowerPoint Presentation on Region and give copy to each student for notes.
  2. Activity:  Given the names of the different regions of South Dakota, have students draw in each area to the best of their ability and previous knowledge.  Then have students research regions of South Dakota using the Travel SD and create a new map of the regions.  Students will then list characteristics that are unique to each region. 
• Lesson Closure:  Ask students other ways that our state could be divided into regions.  Remind students the regions are areas with common characteristics. 

1. Back Pocket Ideas:  GeoNet Game—Houghton Mifflin Social Studies—online game focusing on the five themes of geography

http://www.eduplace.com/geonet/

• Assessment:  Students South Dakota Regions map will be assessed for accuracy of the regions and the list of common characteristics for each region. 

• Reflection:  This concept of region may be the hardest for students to comprehend.  Additional practice may needed to provide for students to fully grasp this theme. 

Culminating Activity:  This culminating activity is designed to help students review and show their understanding of the five themes of Geography and how they relate to the State of South Dakota. 

Students will be creating a week long vacation around the state.  Students will have to visit each region of South Dakota.  Students will write a detailed itinerary for their trip which consists of descriptions of each day's agenda including both places visited and routes traveled to get from place to place.
Students will fill in a blank map of South Dakota with the places and routes listed in their itinerary.

Travel itineraries must include visits to at least 15 different places (attractions, activities, or landmarks).   Students will be required to include at least two places from each of the regions of South Dakota. No more than six hours can be spent in the car (driving) in any one day.  Estimated travel time can be determined using www.mapquest.com . 

This lesson was adapted from: 

http://www.cloudnet.com/%7Eedrbsass/minnesotageography.htm

Conclusion: 

When designing this unit, there were several factors that I considered relating to technology, pedagogy, and multiculturalism.  I feel that incorporating technology into this unit plan was essential for a number of reasons   First, the students and I have access to resources that go beyond the textbook and can be tailored to the subject.  The lessons from this unit are strengthened because of the access to the internet.  Secondly, the technology is motivating to the students and inspires them to go beyond what they would normally produce.  Students have the ability to access resources that normally wouldn’t be readily available.  Thirdly, students need to have the access to technology to prepare them for real world applications that they will be encountering when they are finished with school. 

The lessons in this unit are limited in the amount of direct instruction, “transmission of knowledge from teacher to student through lecture” as described in our text Multicultural Education and the Internet.  The text, on pages 74-75, continues by saying that for students to be actively engaged in lessons students need to be encouraged to learn by doing, exploring, examining and experiencing.  The activities in these lessons appeal to a variety of leaning styles.  Lessons are presented with guided practice to allow students to feel comfortable with the material before moving on to unguided, independent work. 

This unit lends itself well to ensuring a multicultural approach.  By using the Internet, students will have access to a variety of resources.  Information will not necessarily be presented with one point of view and gives students the opportunity to explore.  As designed, the work will be done in the classroom so each student will have equal access to the technology incorporated into the lessons.  A student will not be at a disadvantage because they do not have a computer or internet access at home.  Lessons can be easily adapted to met the individual learning needs of the students in the room.  A scaffolding approach will be used to support students in their learning.