Geography
There is a stereotype about Americans and geography. Basically, everyone thinks that we are geography dumb. I always sort of thought that this was just a false stereotype.
Then I gave my students a little prior knowledge quiz about countries of the Spanish-Speaking world.
According to my class:
Argentina = Russia
Venezuela = Europe
Costa Rica = A country run by Fidel Castro where there is 24 hours of sunlight. This country is actually part of the United States.
Spain = A country in South America (you know, down there near Russia...) that is most famous for sheep and eating tacos.
Ecuador = In Africa
I was amazed. These are high school students. And this is collective knowledge. They were in groups!
That very night, the Miss Teen South Carolina fiasco transpired. I would have thought that she was an isolated case, but after the day's geography activity I knew better. I vowed to launch a massive geography education plan in conjunction with the classroom language curriculum. My students may hate me for it, but they are not going to leave my class without at least learning that Argentina is not Russia.
This is what my geography plan consists of at the moment: We've labeled maps and colored them. Students have been given sticky notes with country names and been asked to post them in the correct location on a world map projected on to the wall. We are working on these two projects:
Geography and Colors
and
El Mapa Geography Project
Please leave a comment or email me and let me know if you have any other ideas!
Then I gave my students a little prior knowledge quiz about countries of the Spanish-Speaking world.
According to my class:
Argentina = Russia
Venezuela = Europe
Costa Rica = A country run by Fidel Castro where there is 24 hours of sunlight. This country is actually part of the United States.
Spain = A country in South America (you know, down there near Russia...) that is most famous for sheep and eating tacos.
Ecuador = In Africa
I was amazed. These are high school students. And this is collective knowledge. They were in groups!
That very night, the Miss Teen South Carolina fiasco transpired. I would have thought that she was an isolated case, but after the day's geography activity I knew better. I vowed to launch a massive geography education plan in conjunction with the classroom language curriculum. My students may hate me for it, but they are not going to leave my class without at least learning that Argentina is not Russia.
This is what my geography plan consists of at the moment: We've labeled maps and colored them. Students have been given sticky notes with country names and been asked to post them in the correct location on a world map projected on to the wall. We are working on these two projects:
Geography and Colors
and
El Mapa Geography Project
Please leave a comment or email me and let me know if you have any other ideas!
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