Teaching Geographic Literacy through Children’s Books

Ask any teacher in any discipline at any grade level and they will tell you that literacy is one of their biggest concerns and challenges.

Many students have trouble understanding the geographic context of United States history even though they can often relate the themes to their lives.

While globalization has been a relevant topic for years now, it’s not actually a new concept!  Globalization occurred in the ancient, medieval, early modern, and industrial ages.

Think back to a moment when you as a student sat in a social studies class and struggled to spit out a memorized date of an important event your teacher said would be integral to remember.

“The study of geography is about more than just memorizing places on a map.

Mental maps are representations of what a person “knows” about a place.

“History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be lived again.

Are you searching for ways to make your social studies lessons relate to the lives of your students? Make memorable connections between national trends in history, economics, culture, politics, and geography with these place-based primary sources.

My last post was about quality novels to teach in the American history classroom.