OK . . . it’s not like it’s getting a 36 on the ACT or anything, but don’t you love it when you see your students making progress? Remember back a few weeks when we were just starting our mapping unit and I asked my students to take 10 minutes to “draw the world”. It was a great way for me to see exactly where students were–and what I saw wasn’t pretty! I never posted any photos because, frankly, it was so embarrassing to see just how limited their knowledge of world geography was.
We worked and learned and worked some more and finished our unit a few weeks ago. I decided to try the same task again–2 weeks after the unit finished to see what they retained. I held my breath and . . . WOW! Such improvement! I decided THIS time to share a few of the “before” and “afters” with you. Remember, this is 2 weeks after the unit AND they were only given about 10 minutes to complete the task.
I was so impressed!
Now, don’t get me wrong–I am fully aware that none of these will be reproduced in an atlas any day soon–but these are three students who truly had almost NO understanding that we have 7 continents and 5 oceans or that we have lines on our maps/globes to help us locate places and that help us understand about climate.
OK…had to share a few more “afters”! Sorry the lighting isn’t great–those pencil lines don’t show up well!
So–I am going to enjoy the fact that they learned it and have actually retained it for a while! I think I’ll do it again later in the year to see what sticks! For those of you who missed it the first time, the resource I used to REALLY teach the concept is linked below in case you are interested!
Have a great day!
