Map Skills Lesson Plan: Geography and Migration

*Click to open and customize your own copy of the Map Skills Lesson Plan. 

This lesson accompanies the BrainPOP topic Map Skills, and supports the standard of examining and using the structural features of a map. Students demonstrate understanding through a variety of projects.

Step 1: ACTIVATE PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

Display any map you have in your classroom, or use this example:

Ask students:

• What do you notice about this map?
• What kinds of information might you learn from this map? 

Step 2: BUILD KNOWLEDGE

• Read the description on the Map Skills topic page.
• Play the Movie, pausing to check for understanding. 
• Have students read one of the following Related Reading articles: “In Depth,” “Did You Know?” or “Way Back When.” Partner them with someone who read a different article to share what they learned with each other.
  

Step 3: APPLY and ASSESS 

Students take the Map Skills Quiz, applying essential literacy skills while demonstrating what they learned about this topic.

Step 4: DEEPEN and EXTEND

Students express what they learned about map skills while practicing essential literacy skills with one or more of the following activities. Differentiate by assigning ones that meet individual student needs.

• Make-a-Movie: Create a commercial promoting a map. In your commercial, answer this question: How does each map feature benefit the user?
• Make-a-Map: Make a concept map identifying map features and the function of each. 
• Creative Coding: Code a game where players sort facts based on the type of map they describe.

More to Explore

Related BrainPOP Topics: Deepen understanding of geography with these topics: Geography Themes, Latitude and Longitude, and Map Projections. 

Teacher Support Resources:

• Pause Point Overview: Video tutorial showing how Pause Points actively engage students  to stop, think, and express ideas. 
• Learning Activities Modifications: Strategies to meet ELL and other instructional and student needs.
• Learning Activities Support: Resources for best practices using BrainPOP.