H.S. Social Studies teacher needs help ?

Question

Many of my students have trouble labeling map correctly. I wonder what happens in the early years that they do not have this primary skill, especially since they have geography in middle school. What suggestions do you have that I can use to help my high school students label a map?

Answer 1

What happens is that there is no standardized test on geography, so it isn't taught.  Very sad.

Anyway, depending upon the level of your students there is a book you can use called Geography Coloring Book.  It is for high school students.  

You can do the same thing with regular blank maps.

Answer 2

Use it as a class starter exercise.  While you are taking attendance, have a SIMPLE exercise on the overhead, one that everyone will get.  When attendance is done, take 1 minute to go over the answer, then move on to your regular lesson.  The next day, have the same activity, but make it a little harder.  Do this for a month, (or for the whole year), until they get it.

If you start small and build on this daily, they will have success with it early and feel confident about it.  1 minute a day won't derail your normal lessons, and it will utilize time that is normally wasted, as well as get them in the working mindset even before the bell rings.  By the end ot the month/(year), they will be masters at it.

Answer 3

What do you mean...they don't know HOW? or they don't know WHAT GOES WHERE?

I had a college level History class & he gave us a semester long project. There were probably 10 or 15 blank maps, a huge list of countries & other geographical sites, and a bunch of historical events. In addition to needing to be able to label all the maps, we also needed to know about these events. There was a huge test at the end of the term.

It's difficult to remember every single different country in the world - I know Honduras, Nicaragua & Belize are in South America, but I don't always remember which country is which on a blank map...do I really need to?

Relating events and landmarks to maps helps bring more significance to places. (I can label Panama because I think of the canal.)

Rather than just having a map of "places" - try a map of "history" - social history that they might be interested in...Where the Chinese threatened students with tanks, Where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, Where Benito Butto fled... Or environmental history: Where the Exxon Valdez crashed, nuclear disasters...or all the places the Olympics have been...Make it interesting.

Answer 4

the previous poster has a wonderful suggestion about relating places to events/history for good association & recall.

Besides, start off with small sections/regions at a time. eg, cover only the east coast of the continent [you can choose any categorization depending on various factors] first, rather than the entire continent. Once they've learnt & remember the countries there, go to the next region.

you can even give them some cues initially, by filling in a couple of names so that they can work around them.

divide the class into groups. convert it into a sort of game where each group wins points or incentives. and if cues/hints have to be provided [such as historical fact/event, main economic acitivity, political structure, tourism attraction, main agricultural produce, popular culture, world celebrity....], they get fewer points.

this activity will make it more interesting & motivate students. once you are satisfied, go back to individuals.

hope this helps

all the best