District 11 Diamond Units/Lessons Overview - includes information about the purpose, goals and structure of these sample instructional units:

Lessons 1-7: Geographic Tools and Concepts 
Duration: 7 class periods
Indicator: Geography 1:  Interpret maps, globes, charts and geographic databases.
Enduring Understanding:  Maps, globes and other geographic tools are used to acquire process and report information about the past and present.
Essential Question: How can we use geographic tools, to gather and interpret information about the Western Hemisphere?
Assessment: Prompt--What are the major similarities and differences among globes, maps, and atlases? 

Activities

1. Compare a globe, map and atlas and discuss similarities and differences. Use an atlas (the one in the back of your book is good, but you might also want to look at different kinds of atlases in a library or bookstore) to identify types and uses of maps. Read a map from the atlas in your book. Discuss with a partner what the map is showing. You can remember the important details good maps should have by using this acronym:
   DOGSTAILS is an acronym that stands for:
   Date
   Orientation
   Grid
   Scale
   Title
   Author
   Index
   Legend
   Source
   The first letter of each element, when read together, spells out DOGSTAILS. Not all maps have all the elements from the DOGSTAILS acronym. Talk with your parent or partner about why some maps have only a few of the elements.      
2. Using one of the maps in your textbook, draw your own Map of the Western Hemisphere. Include these six major landforms: Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean Islands, and the United States.  
3. View the Geography of North America video (4:25) by Discovery Education.
4. Use the DOGSTAILS Lesson to check the common things all good maps contain. Open the DOGSTAILS links. Find six maps; although you might want to choose one or two from among the many listed on pages xvi-xviii in your textbook, you should find other sources as well. Perhaps there are folded maps in your family car. Some magazines like National Geographic contain folded maps as inserts. Understand that if all the maps you choose are from a single atlas, they may not have dates printed on the individual map. The date is printed on the title page of the book that contains the atlas or, in some cases (like Rand McNally's Road Atlas) on the cover of the atlas. Then look at each map carefully. Check the box on the DOGTAILS worksheet that tells which of the elements you find on each map. Not all elements will appear on all maps. As you evaluate the maps you have chosen, remember the conversation about map elements from Activity 2 above.
5. Assessment: Write a paragraph that answers this question: What are the major similarities and differences between globes, and maps?  This is a compare/contrast paragraph. Your paragraph should be at least five to eight sentences. Follow standard paragraph format which is:

   Topic/Thesis Statement: This should be an arguable statement and cannot be a statement of fact. For instance, you cannot write; Maps are flat, as your topic sentence. You can, however, write; Maps are more useful than globes because they can be folded to take with you in a backpack or car.

   The body of your paragraph should include several sentences that compare and contrast the advantages of maps and globes. Give examples from your textbook, and place them in quotes followed by the page number where you found that piece of information. For instance, you might write; Maps are handy to have if you get lost or have to take another route to your destination without advance notice, for instance if street repairs make a detour necessary. Although globes are inconvenient to carry around, they can show terrain more realistically than a map can because they do not have to be folded.

   Finally, the last sentence in your paragraph briefly restates your thesis and summarizes the points you have made in the body of your paragraph to support your thesis statement.

   Compose your paragraph in your own word-processing program. Make sure each sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with the appropriate punctuation. Correct misspelled words.

Resources: Globe, Atlas, Appropriate Maps; Textbook- Western Hemispheres, pp 16-22; Atlas; Video: Continents of the world --Earth’s Physical Features; DOGS TAILS

Differentiation
Support: Graphic organizer partially filled in with a word bank; provide an enlarged map of the world and labels that students transfer to the map.
Extension: Determine ways of illustrating similarities and differences among globes, maps, and other geographic tools, other than writing.

Lesson 8-12: Characteristics of Place   
Duration: 5 class periods                 
Indicator Geography 2: Define and identify regions by describing physical and human characteristics of places.
Enduring Understanding: Physical and human characteristics of places define regions.
Essential Question: How do physical and human characteristics define and identify region and place?
Assessment: Assign picture from text or other resource. Have students’ list physical and human characteristics. Explain whether they are harmful or helpful to the environment.

Activities

Resources: Atlas, Pictures, Computer to access pictures of various physical features. Textbooks: Western Hemisphere, Chapters 2 and 3. 

Differentiation
Support: Use pictures in text book and/or atlas to match with a limited list of physical and human characteristics. 
Extension: Find a picture that illustrate at least 3 human and 3 physical characteristics. Find pictures and explain how characteristics affect the environment. Play the Stop Disasters Simulation Game and discover human characteristics can modify physical environments to protect people and property. Stop flooding and protect the housing of a small town by changing the human characteristics of the town. 
 

Lessons 13-14: Physical Processes
Duration: 2 class periods
Indicator: Geography 3 Describe physical processes that shape the earth's surface.
Enduring Understanding: Physical processes shape the earth's surface.
Essential Question: Which physical process has had the greatest impact on shaping and continuing to shape the earth's surface?
Assessment: Using information from various resources, develop a summary statement and data to support the main topic .

Activities

• Investigate the Ring of Fire.
• Explain the Movement of the continents, (Pangaea) and Tectonics, and their impact on the earth’s surface
• Hands on - (orange peel to show flat map: Western Hemisphere Prentice Hall, pages 2-19.   
•  

Resources: Video- Continents Adrift (28719).  Textbook – Western Hemisphere, pp 33-38;  library books that show information on the continents and shifting of earth; computer-internet to research topic of Pangea.

Differentiation
Support: Work with a partner to illustrate Pangea and compare to what the world looks like now. 
Extension: Using the computer, find info about Pangea, describing how the continents were located and the effect on the earth.

Lessons 15-17: Immigration and Migration  
Duration: 3 class periods
Indicator Geography 4: Explain how migration and immigration affect the location and distribution of human activity.
Enduring Understanding: Migration and immigration affect the location and distribution of human activity.
Essential Question: How do migration and immigration affect the location and distribution of human activity?
Assessment: Using the vocabulary words (migration, immigration, population density, population distribution) develop a constructed response explaining reasons for people moving to or away from a region or place.

Activities

Resources: Textbook – Western Hemisphere, pp 67-73;    Graphic Organizer, Atlas  

Differentiation
Support: Complete a paragraph with vocabulary words are provided in a word bank. 
Extension: Using the vocabulary, provide a fictional scenario of a family moving and their reasons for doing so.

Lessons 18-20: Humans and the Environment  
Duration: 3 class periods
Indicator Geography 5: Explain how humans modify the environment and how the environment influences human activity.
Enduring Understanding: Resources impact interactions between humans and their environment
Essential Question: How have humans modified the environment? How does the environment affect human activity?
Assessment: Illustrate and or summarize three human modifications and explain how each was beneficial or harmful to the environment.

Activities

1. Look at pictures in a text book and develop a summary of human modifications of the environment shown.  Discuss how the these have been beneficial or harmful.
2. Watch the video Rise & Fall: Population, Urbanization, & Environment.
3. How do resources and humans impact the environment? Look at pictures in the text book.  Write a paragraph discussing how humans have changed the environment. 

4. Draw a map of your neighborhood. Include as many environmental and human changes as you can identify. Discuss with your parent how these are good or bad for the environment.

Resources: pictures from a calendar or identified in the text that show the environment e.g.  forest, beach, etc.; also, pictures of buildings, factories, roads

Differentiation
Support: Draw a picture showing 3 ways humans have changed your community. 
Extension: Select a familiar site; describe how it may have looked like prior to human modifications, how it has been modified, and what beneficial modifications might be made to improve it.