LESSON/UNIT TITLE: The Greatest Places - Before and After the Film
TEACHER: Marcia Lile
TEACHER INFORMATION: Middle School Geography Teacher
Jefferson County Public Schools
Louisville, Kentucky 40218
e-mail address: mlile12@jefferson.k12.ky.us
Phone: 1-502-485-6298
OVERVIEW: This is a series of lessons to be used before and after viewing The Greatest Places . The film will be shown in Fall 1998 in Louisville so these lessons will be used early in the school year.
- The first lesson is related to the theme of Location and will be used before viewing the film.
- The second lesson is a follow-up for discussion, analysis, and reflective writing.
- The third lesson challenges students to examine the physical systems at work in the creation and existence of the Greatest Places and to pose questions for their personal research.
GRADE LEVEL: 4 - 8
GREATEST PLACES THEMES: Diversity
GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS ALIGNMENT:
- Standard 1
- Standard 4
- Standard 7
TIME NEEDED: 10 days
OBJECTIVES
- To use maps and atlases to identify relative and absolute location for the Greatest Places
- To observe physical characteristics of the Greatest Places, identifying differences and commonalties
- To pose geographic questions for research, analysis, and answering
MATERIALS:
Atlases
- Research materials for student use (library books, internet, reference books)
- Animatic or slides from Greatest Places if available
ACTIVITIES:
- Lesson 1 - Prior to Viewing the Film
Day 1 - Lead students in a discussion of the word great and the phrase, the Greatest Places, and what it means. Ask students to brainstorm what they think the criteria would be for a great place...in Louisville, in Kentucky, in the U.S, in the world. Show photographs, slides or the animatic of the places shown in the film, and ask students to identify what they think the producers of the IMAX film had as their criteria. List criteria on chart paper for later reference.
- Lesson 2 - Prior to Viewing the Film
Day 2 - Provide students with a work sheet/map. On one side provide a chart with three columns: one for the name of the place, one labeled Relative Location, one labeled Absolute Location. On the reverse side, provide an outline map of world. Using atlases, students should fill in the chart, giving 3 statements of relative location, the latitude and longitude under Absolute Location. On the reverse map, students should label important bodies of water, continents, and the greatest places locations. Maps must have T.O.D.A.L. (title, orientation symbol, date, author, legend)
Viewing the Film
Day 3 - Students go to the Science Center to view the IMAX films and participate in the program provided by the museum. Their other task is to consider as they watch the film how the places match the criteria we chose for what makes a greatest place.
- Lesson 3 - Following the Film: Reflecting and Writing
Lead the students in a discussion about their impressions of the film and how the places chosen by the producers match the criteria they had predicted the producers would use. Students will write an entry in their learning logs about what greatness means when we study places. Another option would be for students to write a review of the film for submission to the team newspaper or for the Courier Journal's Kids Info page.
- Lesson 4 - Following the Film: Comparing and Contrasting
Working with a partner, students will select at random two of the greatest places from the film and find similarities and differences using research materials and information from the film. They will prepare a Venn diagram to display the comparisons and contrasts. Students will present their diagrams to the rest of the class.
- Lesson 5 - Following the Film: Asking Geographic Questions
Show students a slide or picture of a scene from one of the greatest places. Going around the room, each student will pose a question that comes to mind as he looks at the picture. Show the students another slide or picture, but this time I will ask them to make sure the question fits in one of the categories of physical systems: the atmosphere (i.e. weather and meteorology), lithosphere (e.g. plate tectonics, erosion, soil formation), the hydrosphere (e.g. the circulation of the oceans and the hydrologic cycle) or the biosphere ( e.g. plant and animal communities and ecosystems). Finally, each student will need to submit one question about one of the greatest places that fits into one of the physical system categories.
The next day students will begin doing the research to answer the question. The answer which will be submitted in writing and presented to the class should be:
- .essentially correct
- logically organized in its written form
- accompanied by a visual aid
- presented to the class in a concise and interesting way
The amount of time for research, organization of research, preparation of the presentations and the presentations will vary according to the length of class periods and skill of students.
ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES:
For the most part the assessment strategies are imbedded in the lesson. Within this series of lessons are opportunities to provide students with rubrics or scoring guides for written work (i.e. newspaper review), mapping skills, research-based presentations.