Download 5 Themes Of Geography

Unit Topic: 5 Themes Of Geography
Grade 11
Matthew S. Gardiner
80-minute block
Items Addressed in this Lesson:
The students will be able to identify and explain the importance of the five themes
of Geography. This will develop their spatial awareness necessary to have success in US
History and Government.
New York State Standards:
Standard 1: History of the United States and New York
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of
major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United
States and New York.
Standard 2: World History
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of
major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine
the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.
Standard 3: Geography
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the
geography of the interdependent world in which we live—local, national, and global—
including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth’s surface.
Standard 4: Economics
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of how
the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated
institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the
United States and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity
problem through market and nonmarket mechanisms.
Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government
Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the
necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and
other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American
constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship,
including avenues of participation.
(Note: All of these will be used to some degree throughout the lesson, this is not always
the case in more specific topics and lessons.)
Materials:
1. Open and eager minds
2. Notebooks or what the student takes notes on.
3. Blank maps for identifying particular things (North, South, etc.)
4. Vocabulary for Geography
Lesson Objectives:
 Students will be able to identify and explain the five themes of geography.
 Students will be able to give examples of each of the five themes of geography.
 Students will be able to identify the four main directions. (North, South, East and
West) as well as secondary directions (NE, SE, NW, SW)
 Students will be able to identify the fifty states and some major landforms on a
map.
 Students will be able to identify and explain important terms related to the five
themes and geography on the whole.
Procedure:
 Introduce the need for having the 5 Themes of Geography
 Have the students copy down the definitions for the 5 themes of geography
 They need to as they are copying the definitions down, think of examples that
further explain each definition. The students will also be asked randomly to give
their examples. (Since this lesson is usually done near the beginning of the year it
is a way to get to know the students better.)
 Then each student will get a map and they need to determine where they are with
regards to their map skills. The assignment will not be graded just checked over
for accuracy.
They need to find the following:
The map work is done for the
1. Draw two lines that show North/ South/ East and West
students to identify where they 2. Identify the four regions of the US (Example: Northeast)
perhaps need to work a little
3. Find and abbreviate 5 different states at random.
more, on as far as a skill base
4. Find and identify 3 different significant landforms (Ex.
in Geography goes. This will
Appalachian Mountains)
be a precursor to a graded
5. They finally need to identify and explain what a scale is.
quiz, after the lesson.
 The next step is that the students will work on vocabulary connected to the lesson
and geography.
 The can work on the vocabulary with one other person, this gives me a chance to
also talk to them individually and get to know them more. I will also have them
use the word in a sentence to show their understanding of it.
Assessment:
 The students will be unofficially graded by their participation.
 The students will be graded on their vocabulary and sentences next class because
what ever is not done, is for homework. The assignment is geared for two things,
one to do a basic assignment and two it is to see how serious they take an
assignment and how much work is put forth.
 Next class they would have a quiz on the 5 themes of Geography that covers what
we went over for the day and their homework will also be collected.
Sources:
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NYS Standards
Good Social Studies basics site
Good map examples to download and use for Lesson
United States History.... Mr. Gardiner's site
CIA - The World Fact book