Jenny Jankowski

SSC 3070
October 23, 2012
History Grade Level: 2
nd
Grade
Lesson: Where Am I?
Grade Level: 4
th
Grade
Time Needed: Two Hours
Materials:
Books about each state in the United States.
Blank sheets of white paper
Crayons and markers
Large Classroom Map of the United States.
Prior Knowledge Needed:
Students should have previously learned about maps and their functions. Students should also
be familiar with different regions and cardinal directions on a map.
Summary:
Students will go over the different states in the United States as a group.
Students will pick a state that they would like to do their assignment on.
Students will be able to describe their state to their classmates by using physical characteristics
of their specific state.
Lesson Objective:
4-GI.0.1: Students will be able to identify questions geographers ask in examining the United
States (Where it is? What is it like there? How is it connected to other places?)
4-GI.0.2: Students will be able to use cardinal and intermediate directions to describe the
relative location of significant places in the United States.
Students will also learn about the different states that we have in the United States and some of
their characteristics.
Anticipatory Set:
I would first start off by showing a map of our state, Michigan.
As a group I would ask children what characteristics we see on the map.
I would write these characteristics on a large sheet of white paper for all of the students to see.
After we have our characteristics I would ask the children what five characteristics they think
mean the most in describing our state.
I would then use these five characteristics and draw the state of Michigan on my white paper.
Teaching Instruction/Process:
Students will work individually in finding important characteristics of a state located in the
United States.
Each student will have a book about a specific state and will be able to find five characteristics
that describe their state.
Students will draw a picture of their state (without the name) and list the five characteristics
below, like I showed in group.
Monitoring:
The teacher would walk around the room and give feedback on the characteristics children
picked.
The teacher can help guide the students in finding specific characteristics that make their state
unique.
The teacher can guide students on the classroom computer if they need further information
about their state.
Students will be assessed on this assignment based off of a rubric that was discussed as a class
and given to each student before they begin the assignment.
Closure:
After students have drawn their pictures and wrote their characteristics we will come together
as a class.
Each student will show their picture and read their characteristics to the class.
Other students will try and guess what state they are describing by using prior knowledge and
the large map that will be in the classroom.
When all students have presented, as a class we will compare and contrast the different states.
We will then hang these states up in our classroom.
**We may do this assignment more than once to make sure we are able to cover all of the states in the
United States.
This lesson ties into Blooms Taxonomy because it has students compare and contrast the different
states in the United States. Students are also producing a product about a specific state to their
classmates and checking to see if their characteristics make sense while doing their assignment. All
students will be analyzing their classmates work to determine what state they have done for the
assignment.

State Rubric
Your Assignment Points Earned (1=not included. 2=included)
Your drawing of your state resembles the real
picture of the state.

What is your state known for?
What states border your state?
What are the major industries in your state?
What is the largest city in your state?
Another fact about your state that you thought
was interesting.

Your assignment is neat and colorful


Teacher Comments: -
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