Standard 1: Teachers know the subjects they are teaching.
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines she or he teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils.
This lesson is for a 7th grade Spanish class to have students using Google Earth to identify and virtually visit various places in the Spanish speaking world. Students will use Google Earth to identify countries and view landforms. First, I will model and introduce students to Google Earth and the “Create a tour” feature. Then, students will divide into groups and each group will have a country to research and find the landforms that I have specified for each country. Then students will look at pictures that others have posted on Google Earth and create a tour of their country for the other students. They will then share the information about the country and landforms to the class.
I was unable to teach this lesson as we did not have time to fit identifying countries into the curriculum in 7th grade Spanish. I plan to try this lesson in the future as we try to add geography and culture into the curriculum. This lesson is important because I was collaborating with social studies teachers to focus not only on the Spanish speaking country information, but also to incorporate the landform and geography information that students learn in their class. The collaboration with other teachers was a powerful experience for me as I was able to truly see what our students are learning and was able to link that information for students. For many of my students, this will be the first time that they use Google Earth. Using the technology will be a motivating experience for them. Instead of reading a book and looking at pictures, Google Earth will give students who may not get the chance to visit a Spanish speaking country an opportunity to see life in these countries through other people’s recent pictures and descriptions.
KSD:
1.K.3 The teacher relates his/her disciplinary knowledge to other subject areas.
I know that students learn a unit about geography of countries in their social studies class. Since I teach Spanish, I was able to focus students on the geography of the Spanish speaking countries that we focus on.
1.S.6 The teacher creates an interdisciplinary learning experience, that encourages students to integrate knowledge, skills, and methods of inquiry from several subject areas.
I was able to link the Spanish speaking country identification to the geography unit that students were doing in social studies. In the questions that students answered, they needed to find the landforms, such as volcanoes, rivers, and mountains and describe how they may affect the culture of the area. This is also what they discuss in social studies.
1.D.3 The teacher has enthusiasm for the discipline(s) s/he teaches and sees connections to everyday life.
I realize that many of my students will never visit the Spanish speaking countries around the world. As I teach, I want them to experience as much as they can about life in another country so they can relate to it. This lesson gave students the opportunity to view places around the world in Google Earth and through the pictures of others using the features of Google Earth.
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Standard 1: Teachers know the subjects they are teaching.
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines she or he teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for pupils.
Evidence 1:
Lesson Plan using Google Earth to explore Spanish speaking countries
Rationale 1:
This lesson is for a 7th grade Spanish class to have students using Google Earth to identify and virtually visit various places in the Spanish speaking world. Students will use Google Earth to identify countries and view landforms. First, I will model and introduce students to Google Earth and the “Create a tour” feature. Then, students will divide into groups and each group will have a country to research and find the landforms that I have specified for each country. Then students will look at pictures that others have posted on Google Earth and create a tour of their country for the other students. They will then share the information about the country and landforms to the class.
I was unable to teach this lesson as we did not have time to fit identifying countries into the curriculum in 7th grade Spanish. I plan to try this lesson in the future as we try to add geography and culture into the curriculum. This lesson is important because I was collaborating with social studies teachers to focus not only on the Spanish speaking country information, but also to incorporate the landform and geography information that students learn in their class. The collaboration with other teachers was a powerful experience for me as I was able to truly see what our students are learning and was able to link that information for students. For many of my students, this will be the first time that they use Google Earth. Using the technology will be a motivating experience for them. Instead of reading a book and looking at pictures, Google Earth will give students who may not get the chance to visit a Spanish speaking country an opportunity to see life in these countries through other people’s recent pictures and descriptions.
KSD:
1.K.3 The teacher relates his/her disciplinary knowledge to other subject areas.
I know that students learn a unit about geography of countries in their social studies class. Since I teach Spanish, I was able to focus students on the geography of the Spanish speaking countries that we focus on.
1.S.6 The teacher creates an interdisciplinary learning experience, that encourages students to integrate knowledge, skills, and methods of inquiry from several subject areas.
I was able to link the Spanish speaking country identification to the geography unit that students were doing in social studies. In the questions that students answered, they needed to find the landforms, such as volcanoes, rivers, and mountains and describe how they may affect the culture of the area. This is also what they discuss in social studies.
1.D.3 The teacher has enthusiasm for the discipline(s) s/he teaches and sees connections to everyday life.
I realize that many of my students will never visit the Spanish speaking countries around the world. As I teach, I want them to experience as much as they can about life in another country so they can relate to it. This lesson gave students the opportunity to view places around the world in Google Earth and through the pictures of others using the features of Google Earth.