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- Teacher-prepared directions to specific places in the local area
- Large map of the local area
- Review information from previous sessions.
- Instruct students to close their eyes and visualize the drive from their home to school.
- Ask students to write the directions from their home to school for someone who is unfamiliar with the area.
- After a few minutes, select students to share their directions with the class. As the students share their directions, instruct the class to make notes of questions that need to be answered in order to follow the directions from the student’s home to the school.
- Explain that we use mental maps every day to go about our normal routines. We also use mental maps to give directions to others. Mental maps are also used when we hear about world events and try to place locations mentioned in the news in their proper context. Explain that the students are going to begin working with mental maps of local areas and then expand to global locations.
- Instruct the students to write down a set of verbal directions to a local destination as you give them. Explain that when you have finished giving the directions, they are to write down where they would end up if they were to follow the directions. Select a location in the local area that all students are familiar with, and give them verbal directions from a well-known starting location to that destination. Read the directions clearly, and repeat them only once. Allow a few minutes for students to record their response, and then have students share their response with the class. Repeat this exercise a few times, using different destinations and increasing the difficulty of the directions (i.e., their length, their degree of detail) as students become more proficient with the process. Display a local map once students have identified a specific destination, and trace the given directions on it.
- Assign a teacher-selected reading, worksheet, or other reinforcement activity, using available teacher resources.
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