Materials

• Unlabeled outline maps that reflect the location of sites and situations identified in standard WG.11a (one for each student)
• Teacher-developed worksheet for students to locate sites and situations identified in standard WG.11a, using longitude and latitude

Instructional Activities

1. Display the terms site and situation on the board or overhead, and instruct students to write a definition for each without using any resources. They should write down what they think these terms mean from a geographical perspective.
   
   
2. Ask students to share their definitions of site. After a few minutes, display the following on the board or overhead:
   • Site is the actual location of a city.
   
   
3. Distribute the unlabeled outline maps and worksheets. Instruct students to annotate on their maps the following locations and to indicate on their worksheet the approximate longitude and latitude of each:
   • Harbor sites: New York City; Alexandria, Egypt; Istanbul, Turkey
   • Island sites: Paris (originally located on an island in the Seine River), Hong Kong, Singapore
   • Fall line sites: Richmond, Virginia
   • Confluence sites: Khartoum, Sudan; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
   • Hilltop sites: Rome, Athens, Jerusalem
   • Oasis sites: Damascus, Syria
   • Sites where rivers narrow: London, Quebec City
   
   
4. Ask students to share their definitions of situation. After a few minutes, display the following on the board or overhead:
   • Situation is another name for relative location — the location of a city with respect to other geographic features, regions, resources, and transport routes.
   
   
5. Instruct students to continue with the above activity, using the following information:
   • Baghdad — command of land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers
   • Istanbul — command of straits and land bridge to Europe
   • Mecca, Saudi Arabia; Varanasi (Benares), India — focal points of pilgrimages
   • Samarkand, Uzbekistan; Xi’an, China; Timbuktu, Mali; Singapore — cities that grew up around trade routes (the Silk Road; Trans-Sahara trade; maritime trade)
   • Capetown, South Africa — supply station for ships
   • Omaha, Nebraska; Sacramento, California — cities that grew up along the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad
   • Novosibirsk, Vladivostok — cities that grew up along the Trans-Siberian Railroad
   
   
6. Assign a teacher-selected reading, worksheet, or other reinforcement activity, using available teacher resources.