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Frameworks |
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Frameworks |
Teaching
Geography through the Massachusetts
History & Social Science
Framework
In fall 2003 ,the Massachusetts Board of Education, approved a revised curriculum framework for the social sciences, namely history, geography, economics, and civics. There is more geography included in this version than in the earlier two.
MGA is actively involved in ensuring that teachers are equipped with the knowledge and the skills to effectively teach this curriculum.
We do this by conducting in-service teacher workshops and also through Saturday programs.
For further information on in-service workshops, contact
Prof.
Vernon
Domingo at SEMAGNET, Earth Sciences & Geography Department,
Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater, MA 02325; phone (508)531-2101 .
While geography is presented as one of the four subjects, there are significant areas where the teaching and learning of geography can and should be emphasized.
The core notion of a geography framework is:
to enable students by systematic study to acquire the knowledge,
skills, and judgment to continue to learn for themselves; to participate
intelligently, justly, and responsibly in civic life, and in deliberation
about local, national, and international issues ..."
As we teach with the new framework, we should bear in mind the basic
questions of geography:
* Where are things?
* Why are they there?
* How does that location influence human activity?
We should understand that a geographically informed person is defined
as someone who can - "understand, and appreciate the web of relationships
between people, places and environments". Further, that geography is a
way of looking as the world through two distinct perspectives:
1. The Spatial Perspective -- the
idea that location matters, that distance and relative location are important
to our understanding of the world around us (e.g. how do roads systems
connect places?).
2. The Ecological Perspective -- the interaction of the physical and human dimensions (e.g. how have rivers influenced settlement patterns?).
By consciously building these perspectives into our lesson plans, we
can use geography in an effective teacher-and-student friendly manner to
integrate a wide variety of themes and topics. Here are some teaching ideas
that can be used to implement both the Geography and the History components
of the state Social Sciences framework.
Strategies to combine Geography and History in the our teaching
While the state curriculum framework is history-driven, there are opportunities
for geography to be taught and to in fact enhance social studies learning.
Here are some History strands and entry points for good geography teaching
and learning at three selected grades - 1, 5 , and 10.
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GRADE 1
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| 1. Chronology | Chronological order | Make pictorial line of when student's homes were built and pin it up on town map. |
| 2. Historical understanding | Understanding change in the community. | Invite grandparents or older residents into class to discuss physical changes in the community over time. |
| 3. Point of view | Historical evidence | Use the themes in Matthew Wheelock's "Wall" to create a geographic setting for evidence. |
| 4. Society-diversity | Cultural mosaic | Use "A country far away" "All in day" or "Just like me" and have students quilt a panel representing their heritage. |
| 5. Interdisciplinary (I) | Literature and beliefs | Use stories from around the world such as "Aesops Fables" and "Anansi the spider" and have students locate these diverse places on a map. |
| 6. Interdisciplinary (II) | Physical geography | Students graph temperatures daily to understand the yearly cycle. |
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| 1. Chronology | Louisiana Purchase | Students read selections from Lewis and Clark journals and discuss the physical obstacles faced by the expedition. |
| 2. Historical understanding | Colonial labor and slavery | Students compare slave population and cotton production in the U.S. states using data from the 1770 census. |
| 3. Point of view | First encounters | Use art work, logs , and diaries comparing European views of the environment with those of Native Americans. |
| 4. Society-diversity | Place names | Analyze map of Massachusetts for foreign origin of place names. |
| 5. Interdisciplinary (I) | Religion and land use | Use "Brother Eagle, Sister Sky" to understand Native American beliefs about the land. |
| 6. Interdisciplinary (II) | Inventions that have revolutionized exploration. | Students build simple astrolabes to measure latitude and to determine relationships between latitude and the North Star. |
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| 1. Chronological | Assassination at Sarajevo | Students locate the nations comprising the European Alliance system prior to 1914. |
| 2. Historical understanding | Western imperialism in Africa | Students compare maps of Western imperialism in Africa over the following time periods: 1914, 1950, 1995. |
| 3. Point of view | The Cold War | Students use a geographic perspective to look at the effort to isolate Communism (domino theory, containment). |
| 4. Society-diversity | Democracy and human rights | Using demographic data on a scale of 1-5, students compare the degree
of democratic practices and human rights in 3 case studies
-U.S., India, South Africa. |
| 5. Interdisciplinary (I) | History and religion in the Middle East | Identify sacred places in Jerusalem and how they have been a source of religious and cultural conflict. |
| 6. Interdisciplinary (II) | Changing world economy | Trace the deforestation of the Amazon and whether efforts to prevent further destruction have been successful. |
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