Map Making

By: Carole Cox

Students often have difficulty understanding abstract map symbols. Learn how to introduce
map skills with literature that contextualizes mapping in a narrative, can be related to where
in the world each student lives, and engages students by actively "doing geography."
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RELATED

Mapmaker
How to Read Nonfiction Text
Gordon was learning about maps in his kindergarten class. His teacher read a beginning book
about maps to the class, As the Crow Flies: A First Book of Maps(Hartman, 1993), and asked
students to paint a map of anything they wanted. The image below is Gordon's map of the
world.

Rationale
Children's ability to read maps was one of the many things investigated by Jean Piaget as he
built his theories about child development (Piaget & Inhelder, 1969). As he frequently did,
Piaget described the stages children go through as they learn to see things from different
perspectives, a necessary skill in learning to read and understand maps. The three stages are
as follows:

Topographical: Children are able to use directional labels such as north, south, east,
and west

Projective: Children are able to use their own position to determine a location, such as
knowing what is in front, back, left, or right of them

Euclidian: Children can accurately perceive spatial relationships such as those that are
used on a map

Piaget's stage theory can provide a teacher with a general framework in thinking about
developmentally appropriate practices for different ages and grades, and students probably
move through these stages in the same order, if not all at the same age.
Research on learning and teaching geography has further explored this relationship between
the development of thinking and map reading skills (Forsythe, 1995; Gregg & Leinhardt,
1994; Stoltman, 1991). Findings show that children are able to understand map symbols and
that they represent places and things on a map, but it is more difficult for them to read and
interpret more abstract symbols and to understand the relationships between the symbols.
Scale, measurement, and the frame of reference for maps can also be difficult for children.
Instruction in map skills should therefore be clear, structured, and developmentally
appropriate. It's important to note in addition that Trifonoff's (1997) research revealed that
even young children demonstrate the ability to use advanced mapping skills with appropriate
instruction.
To address the difficulty that research shows students may have with more abstract map
symbols and the relationship among these symbols on a map, introduce map skills with
literature that contextualizes mapping in a narrative, can be related to where in the world
each student lives, and engages students by "doing geography." Recommended best practices
today reflect this constructivist approach to teaching geography, particularly the value of
hands-on, active learning and inquiry approaches, such as activities and projects (Bednarz,
2003 ). For example, relating new concepts to locations in the students' world and using
visualizations, demonstrations, and student-created models, charts, and graphs enhanced
student learning (Hickey & Bein, 1996); map-makers learned more than map-readers (Gregg,
1999), and students making maps in groups had a better understanding of map concepts than
those who worked individually (Leinhardt, Stainton, & Merriman Bausmith, 1998).

Social studies standards

Strand 1: Culture

Strand 3: People, Places, and Environments

Strand 9: Global Connections

Strategy
Choose and read a book appropriate for the grade level that introduces key concepts and
terms in either a narrative book of fiction or an engaging informational book. After reading
and discussing the book, and encouraging students to relate the terms and concepts to their
own experience through reader response questions and prompts, students can learn to both
read and make maps that show the spatial relationships among people, places, and
environments. They can use primary data to make their own maps and secondary data in the
form of maps they read.
Primary data: Students can collect the primary data necessary to create their own maps in
the classroom and school, or in the community on a field trip. They can count and measure
spaces in their own environment, such as the school, or take photographs with digital
cameras on a field trip, such as one to city hall. They can also keep records of observations in
both types of places. These data can be used to construct their own maps.
Secondary data: Students can use maps as a secondary source of information. A good way to
begin is to link their experiences to the map. Other secondary sources are online databases
and books, such as an atlas. In these sources, they can read maps, charts, tables, and graphs
with geographic information.

To provide developmentally appropriate instruction in map skills, begin with the locations most
familiar to students in Grades K through 2 such as their own rooms or houses or the
classroom, school, or community. Instruction in Grades 3 through 5 can be expanded to cities,
states, the United States, and the world; in Grades 6 through 8, a historical view can be
added through the use of maps of the ancient world and other historical periods.
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Technology
Even the youngest students can go online to Mapquest and request a map for any location,
such as their home, school, or community. Digital cameras can be used to photograph sites in
the school and community to help students create maps and use symbols to represent the
sites on maps. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) website includes numerous map collections
that students can search. Maps.com and Maps101.com offer access to thousands of maps,
mapping software, and ideas for teaching activities and lesson plans.
Geographic Information System (GIS) merge various layers of information in a computer
environment that allows for retrieval, storage, manipulation, analysis, and visualization of
geographic information. Research on GIS use in elementary schools has shown that it can
help students practice geographic skills, that it is extremely motivating, and that it enhances
student learning (Keipet; 1999).
The popular PBS television game show for children Where in the World Is Carmen
Sandiego? built knowledge of geography, taking children around the world as they searched
for the elusive Carmen. Carmen Sandiego began as a detective in a computer software game
by Broderbund Software, and animated adventures on DVD and other products areavailable
worldwide. The game can be projected from the computer onto a screen or large monitor.
Students observe and take notes, and they acquire knowledge of geography and maps as
Carmen travels worldwide.
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Grade-level modifications
K2nd Grade
Read aloud Mapping Penny's World by Laureen Leedy (1998). In the book, a young girl makes
a map of her room for a school assignment. She then becomes inspired to map all the places
that her dog Penny loves. While the book is in a narrative form, it also provides good
explanations of map vocabulary, such as compass rose, scale, lzey, and symbols. It provides
examples of the kinds of maps that young children can read, understand, and make
themselves. Ask students reader response questions and prompts: What part was the most
interesting to you? What map would you like to make?
Do a mini-lesson on map vocabulary by preparing a chart with key vocabulary, asking
students what they already know about the terms, using the book to model the meaning of
the terms, and planning how they can use each of the concepts the terms represent when
they make maps on their own:

Compass rose

Scale

Key

Symbols

Students can first make a map of their own room, drafting it from memory and then revising
it at home. Then make a map of the classroom with students by first measuring it and then
creating an appropriate scale to make a map. For example, one foot in the classroom could
equal one inch on the map. For the youngest students, model making a map to scale with the
measurements on a piece of chart paper or butcher paper. A more advanced project would be
for each student to use graph paper or simply measure one inch to one foot for the scale of
the map. Students can add a compass rose, scale, key, and symbols to their maps.

Recommended children's books

Where Do I Live? By Neal Chesanow

My Mapbook By Sara Fanelli

As the Crow Flies: A First Book of Maps By Gail Hartman

Mapping Penny's World By Loren Leedy

Me on the Map By Joan Sweeney

3rd5th Grade
The book People, by Peter Spier (1980), while not a book specifically about maps, takes a
global view of the world and all the people in it. It is a wonderful read aloud that tells how
people all over the world are alike and different, but that each one of us is unique in our own
way. After using reader response questions and prompts to talk about the book, such as
"What is unique about you?" and writing about their unique qualities, students can build on
this experience to learn map skills. Students can collect data that identify their own birthplace
or the birthplaces of their parents, grandparents, and other family members. Use the
following tree map template to help them collect this data.

Where in the World Are We From?

Where I was born: _______________________________
Where members of my family were born: _____________________
Mother: _____________________

Father: _____________________

Grandmother: _____________________

Grandfather: _____________________

Grandfather: _____________________

Grandmother: _____________________

Where I live now: _______________________________

On a large map of the world in the classroom, students can use sticky notes or stick pins of
one color with labels attached to show where they were born. The birthplaces of parents can
be shown with another color, and grandparents, if known, using another color. In most
classrooms in the United States, the plotting of these birthplaces would cover many parts of
the world. Each student could also connect their birthplace and that of their parents and
grandparents to show the relationship among the locations for each one of them.
Each student can identify the cities, stages, countries, continents, and hemispheres of their
birthplace and that of their parents or grandparents on the large world map, and they can
then share these with the rest of the class. On their own copy of a world map, they can then
identify the following:

Hemispheres: Northern and Southern

Continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America

Oceans: Antarctic, Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, Pacific

Recommended children's books

Maps and Globes By Jack Knowlton

Follow that Map! A First Book of Mapping Skills By Scott Ritchie

People By Peter Spier

My Town By RebeccaTreays
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Differentiated instruction
English language learners
Tapping into the background and prior knowledge of English learners is a first step in
meaningful instruction for students whose home language is other than English. This is
accomplished when students do research and create maps of their own homes, schools,
communities, and places of family origin. Other important strategies for ELLs include using
visuals such as maps and models such as a globe, which are also used in learning about
maps. Primary language support can be used with books in the home languages of ELLs. For
example, the book People (Spier, 1987) is available in Spanish.

Recommended children's books

Gente/People By Peter Spier

Struggling students
Map frames with labels can be used for students creating their own maps. For the classroom,
provide a black line outline for the room measurements to scale. Add labels for Compass
Rose, Key, and Scale, with space for the student to fill them in after the information has been
modeled for each one. Together, create a list of symbols that the students can then copy and
place on their maps.
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Assessment
The maps students create will demonstrate their understanding of mapping skills. Checklists
for different types of maps and grades can also be used not only to assess whether students
have used map making tools correctly, but also to guide them in doing it. They can use these
checklists as a to-do and self-editing list. They can also work in pairs and assess and edit each
other's maps, revising and improving as necessary. They can also include written comments
explaining how they created each item and how each one is used.

Checklist for Maps, K-2

 

Yes

No

Comments

Compass Rose

 

 

 

Scale Symbol

 

 

 

Key Symbol

 

 

 

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References
Cox, C. (2012). Literature Based Teaching in the Content Areas. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE
Publications, Inc.