Teaching students the science of land forms is important. It is important for students to understand how the land forms are structured, and how they relate to the functions of the world. Land forms have a big impact on certain areas, and are located all across the globe. However, it is not only important to teach the science aspects but it is also important to teach the students the history of the land forms. Students should gain an understanding of how the land forms were formed, as well as who and how they were discovered.
Land forms can become a unit the is broadened across all curriculum classrooms. It can easily be incorporated into reading, math, and history as well. Math classes can cover the heights of the different mountains and volcanoes, as well as discover the widths and depths of the water formations. Reading and history classes can cover the famous historians who discovered the land forms in our history.
This week I was able to find a website that listed many different assessments, lessons, and activities for students to work on in the classrooms. I focused on different activities for this type of unit that can be structured in a social studies, or a reading area. It allows students the opportunity to view explorers maps from the earlier centuries and also allows them to understand the age of exploration. Students can be involved in interactive maps online and can learn the goals and ideas of the different explorers. A famous explorer was Christopher Columbus. Students are able to follow his routes and maps through this website.
I think that this website would be a great resource to use in classrooms so that students can grasp a greater understanding of the explorations that were completed in history. Students learn about these in the context of different classrooms, so why not pull all the classrooms together so that students can use the many different types of explorations, and land forms in each classroom. By making this type of lesson a cross curricular unit, students will be able to understand all different aspects of this historical process.
Link: http://mrnussbaum.com/explorers/legends/
APA Reference:
Brooks, Susan. (2013, March 20). Explorers maps, activities, biographies, and more for kids. mrnussbaum.com. Retrieved April 25, 2013 from http://mrnussbaum.com/explorersflash/.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Assessment Ideas for Landforms
Today I ran across a blog by a teacher, that had an idea for assessing students understanding of different land forms. The project that this students had to construct was a flip book on 5 land forms that they had learned about. This idea for assessment really stood out to me. I have always seen assessment ideas such as students constructing life like models of these land forms but I had never really seen the idea for a flip book. I really liked this because it is simple and also allows for more explanation of the land forms. It also allows students to show their understanding of multiple land forms rather than just one. This flip book idea is also a very inexpensive project since the majority of the resources will be right in the classroom for the students.
Even though this assessment type has the students portraying 5 different land forms, it still gives the students the ability to choose which land forms they would like to explain and draw. The flip book entails that the students choose 5 land forms. The students then draw a picture of each type of land form, and give an explanation for each land form as well. Depending on the grade level, the description of the land form can be more extensive or more basic. Which brings me to another reason why I really liked this form of assessment; It can be used in any grade level, and will be a fun and engaging activity for all students. It is suitable for ESL, Struggling readers, and even talented and gifted students since the complexity of the assignment can easily be adjusted to suit the needs of the students.
Below I will list the link to the blog so that you can also see the pictures that this teacher posted. She posted pictures of an example that she made herself, which I would like to add that it is a fantastic example.
URL Link:
http://amazingclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/09/teaching-landforms.html
APA citation:
Even though this assessment type has the students portraying 5 different land forms, it still gives the students the ability to choose which land forms they would like to explain and draw. The flip book entails that the students choose 5 land forms. The students then draw a picture of each type of land form, and give an explanation for each land form as well. Depending on the grade level, the description of the land form can be more extensive or more basic. Which brings me to another reason why I really liked this form of assessment; It can be used in any grade level, and will be a fun and engaging activity for all students. It is suitable for ESL, Struggling readers, and even talented and gifted students since the complexity of the assignment can easily be adjusted to suit the needs of the students.
Below I will list the link to the blog so that you can also see the pictures that this teacher posted. She posted pictures of an example that she made herself, which I would like to add that it is a fantastic example.
URL Link:
http://amazingclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/09/teaching-landforms.html
APA citation:
Gilchrist, K.
(2011, September 8). The AmazingClassroom.com Blog: Teaching Landforms. The
AmazingClassroom.com Blog. Retrieved April 4, 2013, from
http://amazingclassroom.blogspot.com/2011/09/teaching-landforms.html
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