Exploring Map Skills

Today was the first day that our colleagues were teaching in the classroom.  The first group had the topic of map skills and how they are important and relate to the rest of the unit.  The teachers started the lesson by showing the students how to use Google Maps and they located their school on there.  I liked how the teachers introduced the lesson by connecting what they were going to be teaching about to something that the students use on a daily basis. The teachers then went into talking about the different parts of the globe and the different lines on the globe.  The teachers had a fun way for the students to remember latitude and longitude using their arms, this helped the students to not get the two confused!  The teachers did a good job of engaging the students throughout the lesson and they got all of the students involved in the lesson.  The students created a word wall with all of vocabulary from the lesson, through this activity the students were able to get a good understanding of the vocabulary from the lesson.  The final activity that the teachers had for the students to do was a crossword puzzle that would really show if the students understood the vocabulary that was taught in the lesson.

After the teachers taught the students the main information it was time for the students to apply that information to a fun activity.  For their inquiry lesson the teachers had the students work in groups to find different coordinates of places on the map.  The students had to use their knowledge of latitude and longitude that they learned in the previous lesson in this lesson.  After the students had found their coordinates with their group members each group shared their findings with the rest of the class.  Since the students were already in groups the teachers kept the students in the same groups for their cooperative learning lesson.  During this lesson the students were working together to create a poem, song, or story about latitude and longitude.  During cooperative learning the students are working on their social skills and interacting with one another to complete the task.  The students were given time to work on their projects and then they presented them in front of the class.

Overall the first group did a really good job teaching!  They were really knowledgeable about their topic and they kept the students engaged in the lesson!