Make Me A Map

David Bills 3/10/08 1. Title: Make Me a Map 2. Grade Level: High School (9th grade) 3. Standards Addressed: Level IV [Grade 9-12] Benchmark 7. Writes expository compositions (e.g., synthesizes and organizes information from first- and second-hand sources, including books, magazines, computer data banks, and the community; uses a variety of techniques to develop the main idea [names, describes, or differentiates parts; compares or contrasts; examines the history of a subject; cites an anecdote to provide an example; illustrates through a scenario; provides interesting facts about the subject]; distinguishes relative importance of facts, data, and ideas; uses appropriate technical terms and notations). (NCREL) http://www.mcrel.org/compendium/SubjectTopics.asp?SubjectID=7 Standard 3.2,5 (Michigan Curriculum Framework) Student will focus on meaning and communication as they speak, listen, view read, and write personal, social and occupational writing. 2. Designing a communication environment for maximum impact on the reader. 5. Deciding How to represent content through analyzing, clustering and mapping. 4. Specific Objectives (learning outcomes): make connections between the text and your own personal writing. Being able to describe what you have read about to someone as if they have never read the book themselves. The student becomes the expert, teaching others what they have read. This is a first step kind of exercise. The goal is to get students thinking about how they would explain what the island looks like. In this case, we are using drawings with a short description. I hope to bridge this so that students will get the pictures in their minds and be able to use more words to explain what they are seeing in their minds.

5. Duration (try to limit demonstration to 313 class time): A few days of prep maybe but only about one class period to do and one night to complete.

6. Materials: paper, pencil, markers, colored pencils, paint any drawing or art tools.

7. Procedures Step-by-step: 1. read the text (throughout the unit) 2. Introduce the project 3. draw the outline of the area 4. label any landmarks on a key that describes briefly what happened there 5. color appropriately (This is a project that students will have nearly full control over. They will be told a certain number of landmarks that they need to identify and they will go back through their books and find the descriptions of the area to appropriately recreate it. It shouldn’t take too long so they will have one class period and one night to do this assignment at home.) 8. Assessment based on objectives: In order to know that the student has made connections there will first need to be an element of accuracy to their work. I will need to see specific land marks and anything that was actually written to be described in their work. Next I will need an element of artistic license to be taken. This means that if the text does not address something or describe something I will look to see what they have done to overcome this, what have they created for themselves. I will look for color and clarity in their work also. Their key must accurately describe what has happened in those areas. For all intensive purposes, though it is a drawing, this will be graded as if it were a paper.

9. Adaptations (for student’s w/learning differences/disabilities): A possible drawing of the area with little to no connection depending on ability

10. Extensions (for advanced students): go straight into an expository assignment. A drawing might be a secondary thought to add to an actual paper they might write describing the area using the same skills that they would use if they were to draw the area.

11. Possible connections to other subjects (math, science, history etc): This connects to all subjects because it contains an element of reading comprehension. Creativity is a skill one would hope also transcends all subject areas. Descriptive abilities etc. Note connecting to readings: I connected the idea of using drawings to begin thinking about expository writing to Dornan’s idea of multiple literacy’s (Dornan, 12). Also,

Dornan’s idea of low stakes assessment to gain confidence and to bridge literacy’s (Dornan, 207). And lastly, Most of the authors made some reference to active learning and student facilitated learning. When the student creates the knowledge for themselves and they are actively engaged in the process, it becomes more meaningful for them.