LearnEX

PART TWO – Be Prepared

To organize your geography studies you must be prepared. You will need to have on hand: atlases, almanac, outline maps, and appropriate writing utensils. For any specific area of focus perhaps add a book or two from the library, travel videos, or National Geographic videos.

Atlases
If you don’t have an updated student atlas yet, it is important to get one soon. A good research atlas includes more than just maps that name the places. There are other types of maps that are helpful to learn more about a place. Physical or relief maps show the terrain of the place and thematic maps can depict the climate, population, vegetation, land usage, and more of the same region each with its own map. Discovering Maps provides a basic atlas coupled with lessons on how to read maps and is a good resource to have handy if you need help directing your students on map usage.

Select the atlas appropriate to the student’s need. There are several factors to consider when selecting an atlas that is appropriate to your need or to the level of your student.

1. Detail. Look at the map art. Is there enough detail for older students who are looking closely at the terrain and need to find less known places? Is too much detail included for the younger students who are just learning about other nations beyond their own? Younger children can be overwhelmed by too much detail. They enjoy using brightly colored maps with basic map art.

2. Map scale. Some atlases have each continent take the space of one page. This is okay as a basic map for those who are just beginning to learn about continents and about well-known places. If you’re beyond the basic stage, look for atlases that use several pages to represent each continent. That way the scale of the physical maps will be big enough to show more of what places really look like. There’s also more room to label more places without the maps becoming too cluttered with typed words.

3. Font size. Very detailed atlases may use a small font in order to fit in the many places they wish to name. Too small of font will be difficult for younger students to read.

4. Type style. Notice the choice of type, as well. Some atlases use all caps to indicate capital cities while others use all caps to label countries. Capital cities can be underlined, bold typed, labeled with a star, or even with a star in a circle. Some publishers use a variety of font sizes to label cities according to their population. Once you recognize the style of the publisher it is easier to determine if this is a country labeled or the name of the city and easier to identify which city is the capital.

5. Index. If you will be assigning a lot of labeling of outline maps or will be using the atlas to find many places for which you have no clue where they are located, a good index (gazetteer) is essential. Check out how much space is devoted to having an index. Some indexes will even provide the longitude and latitude of the places in addition to the page number and grid location on that page.

6. Thematic maps. These maps are color-coded to represent population density, climate and etc. They are a great benefit to increased understanding of the places you are studying or researching.

Almanacs
Why would I need an almanac? They are full of geographic and historical information from all over the world. This is where you will find out facts such as the longest river, the tallest mountain, populations, state and country statistics, and more. You’ll find highlights of world history (often country by country) and dates of importance as well. Also included may be world flags; country area, language, currency, capitals and much more; inventions; holidays; solar system…. getting the picture?

Don’t be intimidated by the size of the book. Students in 6th grade and up can make effective use of an almanac if given sufficient guidance. Not familiar with using an almanac yourself? Learn along with your child as you have been since you started home schooling.

As with atlases, choose the appropriate almanac for the level of the student. There are kid’s almanacs that select the facts of interest to elementary age kids in addition to a basic almanac. They are published yearly to include the most updated accurate facts. For elementary age students, check out the World Almanac for Kids or Facts Plus, by Susan C. Anthony.

Outline Maps
If you plan to include more geography activities in your school schedule this year you need a good selection of outline maps. I have been frustrated in the past at outline maps that depict the country (or state) floating in the center of the page as if it were an island. I prefer to see the surrounding countries or states for reference points and to see places in context. When we first started doing outline map activities my perfectionist child was quite frustrated at trying to draw the river exactly as it looked in the atlas. Now we use outline maps that show rivers. This way students can locate the river of interest, trace over it, label it, and move on. I want the mapping activity to be fun, not frustrating.

My husband and middle daughter designed a book of reproducible outline maps that include features found lacking in most all outlines. It is called, Uncle Josh’s Outline Map Book and is available from this web site.

Again, have your outline maps handy and ready to use to take advantage of the teachable moments. Going on a search for the right map will hinder the enthusiasm for the project, and delays often end up thwarting the whole project altogether.

Paper or Laminated?
There are times when you may want to use laminated outline maps. Laminated maps can be used again and again and are great for short-term projects that make the point for the lesson but do not need to remain on the map during the entire school year. A large outline map of the World or USA, for instance can be used for a wide variety of purposes and historical periods. Laminated maps are also great for younger children as soils can be easily cleaned.

Writing with What?
Use color on the maps to help memory and add interest. Blue for water, red for capitals, green for land use, brown for mountains, yellow/orange/purple for historical/scientific/artistic events of interest. On laminated maps use erasable Vis-Ã -vis overhead projector pens.

NEVER use dry erase. They WILL stain.

On paper maps use erasable colored pencils for younger students (erasable to correct errors or misspelled words) and fine point colored pens for older students. I like Stabilo Sensor pens or Liquid Expresso by Sanford. They do not get mushy or bleed on the paper.

To summarize here is a list of supplies (in order of importance) you should have on hand to be effective in teaching geography:

1. Atlases
a. Appropriate Student/Classroom atlas
b. Appropriate historical atlas to map historical events.
2. Outline maps
3. Marking utensils
a. Vis-Ã -vis pens for laminated maps,
b. Erasable colored pencils for paper maps, or
c. Stabilo Sensor or Liquid Expresso pens
4. Almanac
5. Travel videos or National Geographic videos to show what places really look like.
6. Library books (with loads of pictures) about any particular place or historical period of study.

Have a good school year and remember your children and students will learn more when learning is fun. Give them a delight for learning and there is no limit to what they can do!

Part ONE

We receive lots of questions that students could answer easily for themselves if they had a basic understanding of how to select and use the appropriate atlas or almanac. How well do your students use reference materials? Since we can’t teach our children everything there is to know, our goal in education is to teach them how to learn. Geography provides a natural medium for learning to research, think for yourself, and analyze what to find where.

Here are some general guidelines for teaching geography, although very general. (For more specific age-oriented direction see The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide)

1. Locate places of study, newsworthy events, missionary outposts, and military events on a map or globe. Have students record these places for themselves on an outline map of the world.

2. Using a good student atlas look at the physical and thematic maps of the region. Become familiar with the climate, population, land usage, or whatever other information you obtain from the atlas or your study.

3. When identifying a place for inclusion on the outline map mark bodies of water or any other information of significance on the map also.

4. Learn of the culture, animal habitat, climate, national foods, and natural resources of the place of focus. See how they influence one another. (E.g. Location influences climate: climate influences flora and fauna and agriculture: which influence food and animal habitats – getting the picture?)

5. Use a 3-ring binder for organizing a geography notebook to which the student can add throughout the year. Put larger maps in pockets or slip into page protector sheets.

Activity suggestions:

* Memorize states and capitals. Use store bought flash cards or make your own. Put the shape of the state on one side, its name and capital on the other. Place a dot or star on the state to indicate the correct location of its capital.
* Memorize countries and their capitals. Know where the capital is located.
* Learn geographical terms and draw pictures of them. Place in a geography notebook.

By Don McCabe

As a rule, dyslexics tend to be highly logical. They also tend to believe what they are taught. When dyslexics apply logically what they have been taught and when it doesn’t work, they become frustrated. Normal people just don’t worry about being logical. Normal people don’t worry when the rules don’t work. They just read.

Let ‘s go through just a few of the traditional concepts that almost all reading experts will agree on.

1. We read from left to right.
2. We should teach the alphabet before we teach reading and spelling.
3. Whatever phonics is necessary to be taught should be taught in the first two grades. After that, phonics need not be taught. Children learn to read in the first two grades and then read to learn after that time.

Don’s Comments:
1. Left to right? What’s that? (/hwuts/) Our language has many sound reversals. When we say /hw/ we spell it wh. If you don’t believe us, just check your dictionary and look at the wh- words. With the exception of words like whole and who in which there is just the /h/ sound to start the word, all the words are /hw/.

Let’s demonstrate another interesting fact about the word little. Note: The first two letters and the last two letters of that sentence are LE. If our language were to consistently go left to right then they should be pronounced the same. But obviously, they’re not. Normal people don’t worry about such little things as le being pronounced as /ul/ as in nickel but spelled LE as in pickle. Dyslexics do.

Let’s demonstrate that letters to the right of other letters often determine how they are pronounced. Concentrate on the sound the second letter (e). Say: de, dem, demo, demon, demons, demonstrate, demonstration, demonstrative. Ouch!

How about the letter c? In cat it’s hard like a /k/. In city it’s soft as an /s/. Okay, let’s play with MA, MAG, MAGI (pronounced Madge eye), MAGIC, MAGICIAN.

Does this mean that we should not teach phonics? No. It only means we should teach phonics properly. The patterns are consistent but not the single letter correspondences. Notice all one syllable words ending with the letter a rhyme. Da, fa, la, ma, pa, and spa. All one syllable words ending in -ag will rhyme, e.g., bag, rag, brag, drag, lag, flag, etc. Polysyllabic words ending with the /ik/ sound will not use the ending k. Polysyllabic /ik/ words end ic while single syllable /ik/ words are ick words. Pick Nick to run the picnic. Polysyllabic words ending -an are pronounced “un” and usually indicate a human, as in American, Canadian, Christian, Indian, and fireman. The ician words always rhyme with “ish un” and mean the human that makes the first part as in a musician makes music, and electrician makes things electrical, and a magician makes magic. Good readers and good spellers somehow learn to apply these concepts without really knowing them. They are tuned into the language and not turned off by rules that don’t apply. Dyslexics need to learn the patterns–not rules. For a listing of the phonic patterns that are not taught in any school’s curriculum check THE PHONIC PATTERNS NOT TAUGHT.

2. We should teach the alphabet before we teach reading and spelling. That’s traditional. And it works for a lot of children. But for dyslexics, that’s the beginning of their problems. If all we had to do was to learn 26 letters, that wouldn’t be much of a problem. But, as I learned when teaching one adult dyslexic who had no problem reading the word BAR but couldn’t read bar or bar or Bar or Bar or bar, the letter a takes many shapes as do all the letters of our alphabet. If a person is taught to read a word using just one set of letters, it doesn’t mean he can read the word when written in another set. The young adult dyslexic in question knew the word BAR because he loved to imbibe. What AVKO has discovered is that dyslexic children can learn to read and spell AS they learn the alphabet, not AFTER. The exact sequence of teaching the letters and the words and sounds that the letters make can be found in both Let’s Write Right and The Teaching of Reading (and Spelling): a Continuum from Kindergarten through College.

3. Whatever phonics is necessary to be taught “…should be completed by the end of the second grade for most children.” You can find this stated on p. 118 in Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading. Whether or not phonics is taught or how phonics is taught is the first two grades, there is no way for a logical person to make the leaps from the simple patterns of the story telling language used in these grades to the sophisticated patterns found in the curriculum from the fourth grade on up through college.

For example, how can we expect a logical person (a dyslexic) who can read the word fish be expected to read the letters fici as “fish” in the words official, beneficial, and sufficient?!?! The experts on reading just “know” that context is enough! The dyslexic who is logical knows that the letters ish are in fish, dish, and wish. But where is the ish in Commission? Miss rhymes with kiss. An ion rhymes with “eye on.” We have had dyslexics attempt to read the word commission as “Calm Miss eye on. Yet, the only way the sound “mish” is spelled in words of more than one syllable is missi as in mission, permission, submission, transmission, etc. (Okay, in Michigan, the “mish” sound is spelled MICH, but that’s the only exception I know of.)

In conclusion, traditional methods are doomed to fail the dyslexic child when they insist that:

1. We read from left to right.
That is too simplistic. Single letter/single sound left/right is not true. What is true is that Words follow one another from left to right or top to bottom.

2. We should teach the alphabet before we teach reading and spelling.
No. Dyslexics will learn better if they learn to read and spell AS not after they learn the alphabet in a very slow systematic multi-sensory manner.

3. Whatever phonics is necessary to be taught should be taught in the first two grades. After that, phonics need not be taught. Children learn to read in the first two grades and then read to learn after that time.

WRONG. Learning to read is a continuum. The phonics taught or caught in the first two grades is insufficient to allow a dyslexic in the third grade to read the word insufficient. Indeed, it is a rare third grade child who can read the words insufficiencies, cuisine, or psychiatric.
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On a related topic, Don has produced a very insightful DVD in which he tackles the issue of good vs poor spellers. Follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cIwUR5uTRE