Day 2:
On Day 2, the objective and purpose of the activities is to explore geographic dividers. The activities that the students engage in today build upon the features of the geography content that students explored on Day 1. Today, the students will delve more deeply into this concept and apply this knowledge to a real-world scenario.

I first share the activity with students, explaining that they will have to create a profile based on a married couple with three children who live in a region they have selected. In order to brainstorm, the students will complete two activities: (1) a Descriptive Wheels graphic organizers and (2) an outline that focuses on the geographic and cultural features that they want to include about the fictional family. . The Descriptive Wheels graphic organize is a literacy strategy that incorporates differentiated instruction, which is a new type of pedagogy we’re trying to use in New York City. Working in pairs, the students complete the graphic organizer based on the geographic area they’ve selected. This is method of brainstorming that encourages the students put down as many features as possible into the wheels. After the students complete the Descriptive Wheels in pairs, they then create an outline of how they would begin the profile. On the previous day, we had already established a variety of locations that the students in the classroom represented. We discussed China, South America, Eastern Europe, just to name a few, so the students already had some familiarity with these areas because of the class discussion.

Students then work in pairs to create the fictional profile of a married couple with three children who live in the region they have selected. After writing their profile in pairs, the students share their profile with the whole class.

We then have a discussion as a class that synthesizes all of the activities and discussions that we had done thus far. The essential question is based on analyzing which geographic and cultural features impacted their characters the most. Students share their responses with the group based on their understanding and application of the content.