Lesson
Guide:
Mapping
The Classroom
| I: Getting Started |  |
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"I learned a lot about
maps. One thing I learned is that there are hundreds of kinds of maps.
There are maps to show how deep water is, where things are, and lots of
other things." -Kathryn Lockwood, 4th grader, Wister Elementary School
Mapping The Classroom
So what's a map? Most of us take them for granted. But mapping is,
in fact a way of abstractly representing many very concrete details. It
means putting together the big picture and the little picture, and it's
not easy. It takes careful observation and thoughtful directions, and
it requires us to think about what we value. To start off the project
in a playful way, Rosenbach teachers arrived blindfolded for the first
session with the students. A 4th grader recorded in her progress journal:
"John came in with a blindfold on. We had to guide him around the room by telling him, 'One big step forward,' or, 'One step backward.' This was like making a map but with words. As we did this, Karen (another person who works at the Museum) wrote what we said on the board. Bill (who works at the museum also) went with John around the room, making sure he didn't fall or break something."
John
didn't break anything but demonstrated how important a map can be and
how it is, in a simple way, a set of directions (usually visual) to tell
where things are for a purpose. A key idea here was orientation. To get
across things to John, the class had to use terms like forward, backward,
left and right. If he didn't know those terms, it would certainly have
been a much tougher job. So on maps, we use North, South, East
and West. Where was the north side of the classroom? Where was west? The
class got to its feet and became human compasses. "OK, everyone please
point your compass to the NORTH!" the teacher calls out. Suddenly the
magnetic north pulls thirty fourth grade fingers in its direction, and
the sense of orientation starts to sink in. With this in mind, students
went home to make classroom maps including 
the
compass rose for directional orientation and including the things that
are important in the classroom. In some classes, they also did another
activity called "How do you get to your house?" They gave directions to
get from school to their house and answered a series of questions that
helped them look closely at the other building in which they spend a great
deal of time.
Project
Documents:
Greenfield
Project Goals
Wister
Project Goals
Curriculum Overview
From this point, it's valuable to step back from what happened
in the classroom and to consider how the overall project was organized.
This website contains specific information-lesson plans, student handouts
and resources-used in the Neighborhood Mapping Projects in three elementary
schools in the Philadelphia area. Each of these projects took place in
the course of about eight weeks in the spring. This website's intention
is to provide a model that may be adapted in many school settings to help
students learn essential map reading and writing skills, to become more
careful observers of their environments, and to better appreciate and
understand both the place and the time in which they live.
UP CLOSE and STEP-BACK: This project includes many different components and activities all of which are geared toward the final production of a class neighborhood map. The map consists of many graphic elements created by students (drawings, photographs, prints) and factual material learned along the way. But the process leading to this map is designed to help students observe carefully and to develop their abilities to interpret what they observed. In general, activities alternate between close observation that includes drawing or some other synthesizing activity (UP CLOSE activities), and more abstract observations of areas or existing maps (STEP-BACK activities.) Then, when students create maps either as individuals or as a class, they combine these skills. The following is a list of the general types of activities included in this project and how they fall into these categories.
You can click the activities to link to specific sections of this site.
The key to the project's success is not the particular sequence that
is used but the inclusion of a variety of activities and many opportunities
to observe and record information with visual detail. It is also deliberately
interdisciplinary in its focus and introduces elements of social studies,
language arts, visual arts, and science into the curriculum. In several
instances, the project was completed in collaboration with the Fleisher
Art Memorial, a community arts center that has provided arts instruction
to children and adults for over 100 years.
Continuity--Notebooks
and Portfolios:
Two process elements that helped connect the various pieces of the project
and assisted in the collection of work for the final product were the
use of student journals and portfolios. At the second lesson of the project,
students created their own portfolios for collecting the visual work they
would create throughout the project. This showed from the outset that
their work would be valued and treated with respect. These portfolios
were kept in the classroom throughout the project and helped organize
the work. In addition, students were given graph paper-filled notebooks
for both writing and informal sketching. Again, this provided an important
collection point for the written work and allowed students to see their
own patterns of observation. The graph paper helped some to become more
oriented toward mapping in their visual work.
