Unit Plan: Map Concepts and Analysis

Lesson Plan for Friday

Grade: 5
th

Social Studies Strand: Geography
Submitted By: Zachary Haro

EDEL 453: Teaching Elementary School Social Science
Nevada State College Spring 2014
Instructor: Karen Powell
Lesson Plan for Thursday Strand: Geography submitted by: Zachary Haro

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 2
B. Summary of the Lesson Plan:
This lesson will involve a quick review of map concepts and political/physical maps and
their uses. The second half of the lesson will involve different assessments that will gauge
student understanding of the map concepts covered throughout the week.
C. Basic Information:
Grade Level: 5
th
Grade
Time to Complete this Lesson: 50 min
Groupings: Whole group, individual
D. Materials:
Houghton Mifflin 5
th
Grade Social Studies Textbook Pages 12,13
Social Studies Journals
Vocabulary Cards (from earlier in the week)
Computers on
http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/social_studies/geography_map_skills/quiz708.
html
Blank Political/Physical Map test

E. Objectives:
o NV State Social Studies Standards
G5.5.1 Identify and locate major geographic features in Nevada and
the United States using maps and map elements.
G5.5.3 Describe purposes for different types of maps and globes, i.e.,
topographical, political, physical.
G5.5.5 Identify the purpose and content of various U.S. maps.
G5.5.6 Derive geographic information from photographs, maps, graphs,
books, and technological resources.
o Student-Friendly Standards
Lesson Plan for Thursday Strand: Geography submitted by: Zachary Haro

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 3
I will be able to show were major landforms and bodies of water are in
Nevada and the United States on the map.
I will be able to describe the purpose for different kinds of maps.
I will be able to describe different US maps by what their purpose is and
what they have on them.
I will be able to get geographic information from maps.
F. Vocabulary
Physical Map a map that shows the location of physical features like landforms,
bodies of water, or resources.
Political Map a map that shows cities, states, and countries.
Map Title the name of the map, usually at the top
Map Legend Table on the map that shows what the symbols on the map represent
Compass Rose A compass on a map that shows the cardinal directions; North, East,
South, & West
Inset Map A closeup view of a smaller section of a map.
Map Scale ratio of a distance on a map translated to the actual distance on the
ground.
G. Procedure:
1. Warm-up: Pass students back their physical and political maps they filled in from lessons
earlier in the week. Have a map on the SMARTboard where you can review with the
class where they labeled certain things and to help clarify anything for those who may
have labeled the wrong things.
2. After fixing the maps as a class, pull up a map on the SMARTboard with all of the
common elements of a map (title, scale, legend, etc.). List the common elements on
the side of the board and call on students to come up to the board and write on the
map to label each element that we previously covered and cross out the words as
they use them. Complete this with different kinds of physical/political maps and until
each student has labeled at least 2 elements.
3. Count the students off by 3s and separate the class into three separate groups.
4. Explain that there are three parts to their test this week; first is on the map elements and
they are going to take an online multiple choice quiz and show me their test results
when completing.
5. Part 2 will be taken on one side of the classroom where questions about physical maps
are posted and students must take a test sheet and answer/label on the physical map
side.
o Name three landforms in the United States
o Label three bodies of water that surround the United States
Lesson Plan for Thursday Strand: Geography submitted by: Zachary Haro

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 4
o Label the mountains you would have to cross to get from the East coast of the
United States to the West coast?
o Label the mountains you would have to cross to get from the East coast to the
Mississippi River.
o Put a box around the part of the United States has a lot of dry, high elevation
land.
6. Part 3 will be taken on the other side of the classroom where there will be questions
about political maps posted and they must flip their test sheet over and answer on the
political map side.
o Label the states that are represented in inset maps.
o In what direction would you travel if you were leaving from Nevada towards
Florida?
o _________is the most Northwestern state in the United States
o What is the distance between the most western part of Texas to the
southeastern tip of South Dakota?
o Draw an arrow pointing to and label the smallest state in the United States.
7. Students will have 10 minutes for each part of the test and they will have 1 minute to
rotate to the next part of the test. Tell students to go to their places based off of what
number they are given (1s to part 1, 2s to part 2, 3s to part 3.)
8. Collect scores for each student at the computers after before each rotation, collect
maps after group 1 finishes part 3.
H. Assessment:
What will you use to measure student understanding?
I will measure student understanding by reviewing the responses to the written
questions on parts 2 and 3 of the test. I will also review the labels created from parts 2
and 3 and the score they get on the computer quiz on part 1 because the test results
show which questions were answered incorrectly, what the choice was, and what the
correct answer is.
Explain how you will know students understand the concepts from the lesson.
I will know students understand the concepts from this lesson if they can accurately
label the maps based on the questions posed, give good rationale and explanation
for the written questions, and 10/10 on the computer quiz on map elements.
I. Closure:
For closure, review the map elements one more time and have students use the talking
chips strategy to talk in their groups about what they feel like they could have done
better on the test, any problems they encountered, or what they feel they did well at
during the test.
Lesson Plan for Thursday Strand: Geography submitted by: Zachary Haro

Nevada State College EDEL 453 - Spring 2014 Karen Powell- Instructor page 5
J. Reflection:
1. Which part of the lesson do you think will be the easiest for you to teach?
The easiest part to teach is going to be the review of the concepts covered earlier
in the week.
2. Which part will be most challenging for you to teach?
The most challenging part for me to teach will be the process for taking the three
part test.
3. How will you follow up or extend this lesson?
I will follow up this lesson with references back to the concepts whenever a map is
used in any of my lessons.
4. What can you do for students who dont grasp the concepts?
I can offer supplemental activities for students to practice and view at home to
solidify understanding. I can provide students with labeled maps and a list of
student-friendly definitions for each element of the map.
5. Which part of the lesson, if any, do you think might need to change?
I might need to change how I present the questions to the students, it might be
better to put them on the test paper itself so they can use the questions as context
to determine which map is which because they are unlabeled.
6. When you were writing this lesson plan, what was the most difficult part?
The most difficult part of writing the lesson was making sure I assessed every
standard covered during the week in a way that wasnt too traditional of an
assessment but at the same time accurately determines student understanding of
the content.