KellyM-SGoogleEarth


 * Google Map/Earth Adventures! **

My Google Earth Creation: 

My Google Map Creation: [|Vacation]

My Google Lit Trip Review: [|Google Lit Trip] Google Lit Trip Link lesson 1 - [|The Brothers' War] Google Lit Trip Link lesson 2 - [|The Watsons Go to Birmingham]

I actually went through two of the grades 6-8 Lit Trip lessons to get an idea of how teachers are using this tool. The two lessons I chose were very different from each other, so I'm very glad I reviewed both. The lesson for The Brother's War was really all over the map, literally. It was a little overwhelming when I first pulled the lesson up on my computer. The lesson was based on a collection of poems about the Civil War. As I was clicking through the lesson, I read through some of the good content and images the teacher added based on the battles and emotions of the civil war. I wish this lesson was less busy, and had more links to click through for more reading. But I did like that there was a summary of what happened at each place.

In contrast, the second Lit Trip I took was The Watsons Go to Birmingham, a lit trip to go along with the book about a family during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. I say this in contrast because this teacher chose to use the tool in a very different way. This lit trip was very clean and clear and organized. And the teacher used it more as a read-along guide, with each stop having questions about the story for the students to answer. I really like the way the teacher applied the tool. I do wish there was more in the way of summaries and links to more information, but I liked that the teacher made the lesson even more interactive by having questions for the students to think about at each stop.

I can definitely see application of this tool in my subject area of Social Studies. Not only could I create Lit Trips for students, but I could also have my students create their own lit trips based on their reading. I can also definitely see working with other teachers (ie. language arts) on a project together.