Lesson at a Glance: 2.4

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
America Will Be

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 2, Lesson 4: Stories Maps Tell (pp. 49-53)

The Big Idea
Framework Concepts: Continuity and Change Maps can show how places have stayed the same and how places have changed over time.

Discuss with students how maps can tell a story. Have volunteers tell what characteristics of maps give information. (Color, symbols, lines, legend, labels, compass rose, and scale.) How might each characteristic be helpful when telling a story with a map?

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Give students a historical map (or series of maps) from an atlas but do not let them see the map title. Have them work together to find the story in the map. Show them the title and discuss whether their ideas were correct. What clues about the story did the map give them? Then have students write a paragraph telling the story shown on the map.
Have students use only a map to tell a story of their own. They might tell the story of their journey to school, or a trip to a store or park. Encourage them to use colors, pictures, and lines as well as a legend, scale, and compass rose to convey their information. Allow students to exchange story maps to "read" other stories.

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