Minnesota Alliance for Geographic Education

2003 AUTHENTIC PEDAGOGY: GEOGRAPHY & READING LESSON INDEX
A Land of Different Lands Overview: Student will identify Landforms in the United States. Student will complete a anticipation guide, predict and clarify chart, silent read, discuss landform pictures, make a raised relief map of landforms in the United States and compare and contrast canyons, basins, plateaus and mountains in a written essay.	Institute Highlights
Judaism Sub-unit Overview: The activities in this lesson plan comprise a sub-unit about Judaism in a World Religion unit. In this sub-unit, the students will be introduced to general background information about Judaism, learn about beliefs and traditions by examining Jewish scripture and map Jewish populations around the world. Boundaries of a Region Overview: This is one piece of a unit on the Five Themes of Geography	Climate and the Five Themes Overview: In this lesson, students will analyze the five climate regions and apply to them the five themes. Once this is done, students will evaluate the five regions, basing their decisions on survival criteria. Finally, students will recommend a new location for the CBS series, “Survivor”. [Climgraph 1] [Climgraph 2] [Climgraph 3] [5 Themes Web] [Pre- and Post- Assessments]
Natural Forces--Living in Danger Zones Overview: This lesson is an introduction to forces and is part of a larger unit in science on physics. However, this lesson could be part of a geography or earth science course, as well. Students will be engaged in activities to enhance their knowledge of the natural forces (earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes) impacting the United States and gain insight into why people live in danger zones. This will be accomplished by tapping previous knowledge, through small group activities researching one natural resource and sharing this information through a large group presentation. Students will analyze a U.S. city to live in to determine which natural forces may impact that city, examine the positive and negative factors, and defend that choice based on what they have learned.	Economic Conditions and Development in China Overview: This lesson and associated activities are the culmination of our China Unit. As such we have already covered other aspects of human and physical geography. The lesson examines economic development and change in China particularly over the last fifty years and possible future development activities and the potential global impact. This should be a topic of interest for students as our community has already lost jobs to plant relocation in China. In the lesson we look at economics in conjunction with physical geography, history and population distribution. Though we are using a specific text piece this lesson could be modified for use with other textbooks or some of the alternative readings listed as supplemental materials. The underlying activities could be used to address some of the other economic concerns with regard to China today. I have included a list of some of the articles a teacher could use as teacher background information, or alternate or additional student readings for extension or enrichment activities.
Geography of Ancient China: Interaction of Population and Topography Overview: The students will examine current population trends in China and the United States. Through their examination they will recognize the importance of landforms and water sources on where people live. This lesson will in part be an extended pre-reading activity for a section of their text book, the text will be read after two map activities. [Venn Diagram - China and US]	Water allocation and the Colorado River in Nevada Overview: In this unit the students will discuss the push-pull factors that encourage people to move to Nevada, the economic factors that encourage farming in Nevada, the absolute and relative location of fresh water, and the political issues surrounding control of the Colorado Water. Students will also examine the economic factors that favor continued growth of Las Vegas and the impact this is having on farmers in Northern Nevada.
Five Themes of Geography Lesson: Movement Overview: The lesson’s focus is on the geographic theme of movement. Since our school’s World Geography course spans two years (seventh and eighth grades), students will have been introduced to the Five Themes of Geography prior to this lesson. Even if a student did not attend our school in seventh grade, the general review of the Five Themes, completed in the days before this lesson, hopefully will have provided enough information for those students to understand the concepts. Students will examine issues surrounding immigration as it applies to the theme of movement. After a teacher-led introduction on the topic of immigration, students will read and discuss a text piece dealing with illegal border crossings along the U.S./Mexico border. Students will engage in before, during, and after reading strategies that will give them practice at constructing knowledge, developing thoughtful questions, and gaining meaning beyond the lesson and the classroom.	Geography Lesson: Introduction to the Five Themes of Geography Overview: This lesson is intended as an introduction to the Five Themes of Geography for middle school or high school students. Makeup Work/ Homebound/Independent Study Packet for Introduction to Geography: The Five Themes of Geography, Chapter One of World Geography and Cultures Overview: This packet is intended for makeup, homebound, tutoring, or independent study as an introduction to Geography for a middle school or high school student.
Immigration to the United States- Past and Present Overview: ESOL students will discuss the push-pull factors that encourage people to move to the United States. They will then compare and contrast the factors of early immigrants (1700-1900s) with the immigrants of today (1960s-2003), using their text, maps, graphs, and the results of a student survey.	The Five Themes of Geography Lesson # 1 - The Earth and its Regions Lesson # 2 - Location and Place Lesson # 3 - Human Changes to the Earth Lesson # 4 - The Importance of Movement Overview: Each of the five themes gives us a special way of looking at the earth. In these introductory lessons students will learn how the themes work and how they can use them to understand the world around them.
The Black Death of the 14th Century Overview: This lesson addresses one of the major events in the history of the world. As the Black Death diffused its way across Europe, it seemed no one was left untouched. The impact of the disease would change Europe forever. The disease would return periodically throughout history, but the first bout was the most devastating.
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