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#2643. Newsmap

Geography, level: Middle
Posted Fri Aug 23 07:53:37 PDT 2002 by Nora Austin (njaustin@ireland.com).
Chestnut Hill School, Belchertown, MA 01007
Materials Required: daily newspapers, printed world map with national borders
Activity Time: 3 weeks every month
Concepts Taught: developing a world view

Help your students develop a world view and become interested in current events with a Newsmap. Students look for news articles or cartoons in the papers from that month with place names from the seven continents and the region of Oceania.(Don't allow on line printouts or xeroxes). One paragraph of the article, containing the place name is glued on the corresponding region of the map, dated, with the place name highlighted or circled. Students should not be allowed to use weather reports, sports articles, currency exchanges, etc. Because it may be impossible to find every region in one month, offer alternates (3 or 4) that correspond with the concepts you are teaching that month or holidays or historic events from that month. For example, when you are teaching the 5 themes, offer an alternate "A cartoon that shows movement of ideas". Repeat the Newsmap every month. As the year goes on, decrease the number of alternates and increase the difficulty. You should plan to bring your own newspapers to school for students to use - many families do not get one regularly. Local and regional newspapers often have deals for school systems. Businesses and nursing homes will often give you their outdated papers.