Lesson Plan #2:Grade: 4thSocial Studies Strand: Geography

Submitted By: Corrina Spidell

EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social ScienceNevada State College – Spring 2014Instructor: Karen Powell

MAPS

Lesson Plan for Tuesday GEOGRAPHY submitted by: Corrina Spidell

Summary of the Lesson Plan: This social studies lesson is designed for 4th grade students to learn how to read and create their own maps. This lesson uses the Houghton Mifflin Social Studies Textbook “State & Regions” (p. 12-13).

B. Basic Information: Grade Level: 4th grade Time to Complete this Lesson: approximately 50 minutes Groupings: whole group reading; partners for activity; individual assessment

C. Materials: Textbook - Houghton Mifflin Social Studies Textbook “State & Regions”

(p. 12-13) for each student.Different maps; City Maps, State Maps, Country MapsConstruction PaperDrawing/Coloring suppliesVocabulary (p. 15, R81)

D. Objectives: o NV State Social Studies Standards G5.4.1 Identify and use intermediate directions on a compass rose to locate

places on a map of Nevada. o Student-Friendly Standards

I can read maps and locate places on them.

E. Vocabulary Maps – a drawing of Earth’s surface. (p. R81) Compass Rose – shows direction. (p. 15) Scale – allows you to measure distances on a map. (p. 15) Legend – tells what different symbols on the map mean. (p. 15)

F. Procedure: 1. Engage students by drawing their attention to the different maps on the board.2. Create a KWL Chart with the students, it should concentrate on maps and things

they know, and want to learn about them.Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 2

Lesson Plan for Tuesday GEOGRAPHY submitted by: Corrina Spidell

3. As a class Read: Read pages 12 and 13 and take a close look at the maps on the page, taking care to notice the Legend. Next go to pages 14 and 15 where students will focus on the parts that make up a good map.

4. Introduce: the vocabulary. (Maps, Compass Rose, Scale, Legend)

5. Challenge the students to create their own maps of the school, include a legend. Instructions for this activity can be found on page 12. Students will partner up for this activity and use the supplies available in class.

6. Clean Up supplies and turn in maps.

G. Assessment: What will you use to measure student understanding?

Have students take out a sheet of paper and answer the questions on page 15 of their book individually: Practice The Skill #’s 1 and 2. Once the questions have been answered students must hand in their maps and their answers to the questions. The map is the only partner activity, not the questions. The map should be turned in with each student’s name on it.

Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson. I chose these two questions because they require the students to use the maps and the new skills they have acquired to answer them. I feel that if the students are able to answer correctly, I will be certain they will understand how to read maps on a basic level.

H. Closure: Call the students attention back to the board and together fill in the L of our KWL

chart with our new understanding of maps. Reflection: 1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach?

I think that the KWL chart will be the easiest because I believe students will be enthusiastic to share what they know with me.

2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach?

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3

Lesson Plan for Tuesday GEOGRAPHY submitted by: Corrina Spidell

The most challenging part for me I feel will be keeping the students on task, I will have to make sure that I rotate around the room to make sure that every student is participating and understanding concepts not just letting their partners work for them.

3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson?This lesson can be extended with a look at science and we can take a look at some of the different kinds of maps used in Earth Science. I think it would be interesting to show students all the different kinds of maps we rely on.

4. What can you do for students who don’t grasp the concepts?Having the students work in groups will allow them to see different points of view and bounce ideas off of each other. I feel that this lesson plan has very minimal reading, besides the definitions of the words, so students will be able to focus more on the task at hand.

5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change?I am not sure if this lesson is long enough, I feel that students might try to rush through the drawing of the maps and not put in as much detail and care as I would like them too. But it will be up to me to ensure they are on task and focused.

6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part?The most difficult part was trying to make sure that I covered what was in the text and related it back to the correct standard. I am trying to come up with as many different ways for students to use their text. And I wanted to do that without making them read a whole lot. I hope I was able to accomplish that.

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 4