Mapping the World by Heart

David J. Smith

ISBN 10: 1891405659 ISBN 13: 9781891405655

Publisher: FableVision Learning, 2010

Synopsis

If you placed blank sheets of paper in front of your students, could they draw a detailed map of the entire world? It may seem hard to believe, but after exploring the innovative Mapping the World by Heart curriculum, students have a comprehensive knowledge of geography that allows them to map the world entirely from memory!
- Teaches students to draw entirely from memory detailed world maps including the names, borders, mountain ranges, rivers, and major cities of more than 190 countries. - Gets students excited about geography and encourages them to think globally. - Promotes positive student interactions and collaboration, both in small group work and as a class. - Provides teachers with flexible lessons they can easily integrate into their existing curriculum. - Gives students a constructive goal to work towards all year long. Product Format: Designed for grades 5-12, Mapping the World by Heart includes a set of maps and a comprehensive teacher s guide that makes it easy to integrate lessons and activities into any class s existing curriculum. Combining memorization with the real use of knowledge, practice, mnemonics, large and small group activities, and games, Mapping the World by Heart inspires students to study and love geography. The award-winning curriculum is the creation of David J. Smith, a teacher with over 25 years' experience in the middle school classroom. TIME Magazine, NBC s Today Show, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Associated Press have written about David Smith and the great success his curriculum has brought to classrooms across the country. FableVision founder Peter H. Reynolds fell in love with David's breakthrough approach almost 20 years ago. He was with Tom Snyder Productions when they first published Mapping the World by Heart in 1992. At that time, Peter provided the charming illustrations for the teacher s guide, which remain with the product to this day. Recently, Peter and David connected and decided that FableVision Learning was the perfect new home for this innovative and creative geography curriculum. It is with great pleasure that FableVision Learning has added Mapping the World by Heart to its growing collection of tools for your creative classroom. When it was first released, Mapping the World by Heart was awarded the Breaking the Mold Award by the U.S. Department of Education. It has been through nine complete revisions, and is updated regularly. Includes: Comprehensive Teacher s Guide - Contains detailed lesson plans and reproducibles for students. - Three new supplements for teachers who wish to focus on a special area Mapping Canada by Heart, Mapping the U.S. by Heart, and Mapping Mexico by Heart. Reproducible desk-outline maps, 11 x 17 inches - 10 regional maps (Canada, U.S., Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, Europe, Eastern Europe and North Asia, South Asia, Oceania). - World maps blank grids and filled-in outline maps of the world in each of three projections Mercator, Robinson, and Equirectangular.

About this title

About the Author

David J. Smith has 26 years of experience teaching geography, history, and English in public and private schools. The U.S. Department of Education honored him in 1992 with their Breaking the Mold Award for this curriculum, and that, along with feature stories on The Today Show, and in Time Magazine, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, The International Educator, and other media, propelled him out of the classroom and into a full-time consulting practice. Since 1992, he has given workshops, seminars, and addresses in 30 countries and 38 states, both on Mapping The World By Heart curriculum and on geography and geographic literacy generally, focusing on what he refers to as world-mindedness across the curriculum.

Review

This program is exactly what the teacher ordered. The units are user friendly and can be easily adapted for the home school user. When teaching kids who are more advanced you can double up on the units, or space them out for those requiring a slower pace. You can tailor each section as needed. When done with this entire curriculum the children will have a more firm understanding of where in our world they are. --Dennis R. Hall's review on Amazon

I used this curriculum with a homeschool co-op. I taught twelve children ranging from grades 4-12. Our before world maps from memory hardly contained any information and very unusual continent shapes and locations, even the one done by grades 9-12. As we mapped and labeled each continent, we also did a study of the history and culture of the countries in each continent. Every week, each student researched a different area of each culture and gave oral presentations in class.(these ideas/activities are given in the curriculum.) Our end of year maps from memory are the best endorsement I could give. I wish you could see them. The continents were accurately drawn and 70 to 80 percent of the details like landforms, political divisions and capital cities were included. Our best map was completed by a 6th grader who was able to list every single item on the mapping the world by heart list given in the curriculum. There is some teacher preparation in doing extra activities recommended in the curriculum. My only complaint was that the map sheets were not available in smaller quantities so we had to come up with our own outline maps to label. I highly recommend that every student be required to complete this curriculum before reaching highschool. My history class no longer has to ask -Where is that? --Joan Brancaleone's review on Amazon

I am a 7th grade teacher from Madison Wisconsin. I have used this program for 12 years. I teach about 150 kids each school year and all of them, from the very brightest to the very lowest ability children, learn it in their own right. We practice one continent at a time and learn mnemonic devices to reinforce newly acquired knowledge. For example, the phrase -Cute James Hates Doing Puzzles represents the Caribbean Islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico in order from west to east. The word BASMOQN represents the lower Canadian provinces in order from west to east: British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland. I show the students how to draw each region and we practice, practice, practice. When I feel they're ready, I test them on each region by asking them to draw it by heart on their posters with nothing more available to them than a list of the correct spellings of the names of countries, provinces, and water bodies. The finished product-a big map of the world drawn by each student from memory, is truly breathtaking and every year parents and students who've had older siblings come through my class tell me that they still have their map. I highly recommend this program. --Colleen Reilly's review on Amazon

I used this curriculum with a homeschool co-op. I taught twelve children ranging from grades 4-12. Our before world maps from memory hardly contained any information and very unusual continent shapes and locations, even the one done by grades 9-12. As we mapped and labeled each continent, we also did a study of the history and culture of the countries in each continent. Every week, each student researched a different area of each culture and gave oral presentations in class.(these ideas/activities are given in the curriculum.) Our end of year maps from memory are the best endorsement I could give. I wish you could see them. The continents were accurately drawn and 70 to 80 percent of the details like landforms, political divisions and capital cities were included. Our best map was completed by a 6th grader who was able to list every single item on the mapping the world by heart list given in the curriculum. There is some teacher preparation in doing extra activities recommended in the curriculum. My only complaint was that the map sheets were not available in smaller quantities so we had to come up with our own outline maps to label. I highly recommend that every student be required to complete this curriculum before reaching highschool. My history class no longer has to ask -Where is that? --Joan Brancaleone's review on Amazon

I am a 7th grade teacher from Madison Wisconsin. I have used this program for 12 years. I teach about 150 kids each school year and all of them, from the very brightest to the very lowest ability children, learn it in their own right. We practice one continent at a time and learn mnemonic devices to reinforce newly acquired knowledge. For example, the phrase -Cute James Hates Doing Puzzles represents the Caribbean Islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico in order from west to east. The word BASMOQN represents the lower Canadian provinces in order from west to east: British Colombia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland. I show the students how to draw each region and we practice, practice, practice. When I feel they're ready, I test them on each region by asking them to draw it by heart on their posters with nothing more available to them than a list of the correct spellings of the names of countries, provinces, and water bodies. The finished product-a big map of the world drawn by each student from memory, is truly breathtaking and every year parents and students who've had older siblings come through my class tell me that they still have their map. I highly recommend this program. --Colleen Reilly's review on Amazon

Edition details

• Publisher: FableVision Learning
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1891405659
• ISBN 13: 9781891405655
• Binding: Ring-bound
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 188
• Editor: Julia A. Young
• Illustrator: Peter H. Reynolds