Direct Instruction Lesson Plan Grade Level/Subject: Fourth/Social Studies Topic: 5 Themes of Geography

Rationale: Geography is more than memorizing names and places. It is concerned with asking three important questions about things in the world: Where is it?, Why is it there?, and What are the consequences of it being there?. The Five Themes of Geography help students answer these questions as they study a place, a concept, or a region. The Five Themes of Geography are the core of geography. Common Core/Essential Standards Reference: 4.G.1: Understand how human, environmental and technological factors affect the growth and development of North Carolina. 4.G.1.1: Summarize changes that have occurred in North Carolina since statehood population growth, transportation, communication and land use). 4.G.1.3: Exemplify the interactions of various peoples, places and cultures in terms of adaptation and modification of the environment. Behavioral Objective: Students are expected to review their understanding of the five themes of geography, identify each theme and be able to explain its unique characteristics and show how each theme builds upon other themes. Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills: This lesson is a review of what students learned in Third grade. 3.G.1: Understand the earths patterns by using the 5 themes of geography: (location, place, human- environment interaction, movement and regions). Materials/Resources: Each student will need one piece of construction paper and a pen/pencil, PowerPoint on Five Themes of Geography

Content and Strategies Focus/Review: Boys and girls, today we will be reviewing the 5 Themes of Geography. Who can tell me what they are and what each theme really means? Objective (as stated for students): Student will show an understanding of the Five Themes of Geography if they are able to complete the activity listed for Independent Practice- be able to write a description of themselves and their family using the Five Themes of Geography. Teacher Input: The five themes of geography help answer these questions: Location: Where is something located? Where are we located? Place: What's it like there? Human Environment Interaction: What is the interaction between humans and their environment? How and why do people use the land? What kinds of things do we get from the land? Movement: How and why are places connected with one another? How and why does

population increase and decrease? Regions: How and why is one area similar to another? (Refer to PowerPoint for this information/further information) Location: Where are we? Where is something located? Absolute: A location can be absolute (specific) as in coordinates of a map using longitude and latitude Relative: A location can be relative - examples: next door, nearby, a short drive, down the road a ways. Or, it can be in the same general location as another location - example: next to the post office. Place A place is an area that is defined by everything in it. All places have features that give them personality and distinguish them from other places. If you refer to your school as a place, then that place would include walls, windows, gym, cafeteria, classrooms, people, clothing, books, maps, mops, brooms, hallways, mice (if you have them) and everything else in the school, including the languages spoken. Region A region is an area that is defined by certain similar characteristics. Those unifying or similar characteristics can be physical, natural, human, or cultural. Movement Movement refers to the way people, products, information and ideas move from one place to another. This can be local such as how did you get to school today, or it can be global such as how did humans get to North America? Human-Environment Interaction Human-environment interaction looks at the relationships between people and their environment; how people adapt to the environment and how they change it. How do people depend on the environment? (Example: In ancient times, the annual flooding of the Nile River produced good soil for growing crops.) How to people adapt to the environment? (Example: The ancient Egyptians rebuilt their homes each year, after the annual flooding. As time went on, they built their homes above the flood plain.) How do people modify the environment? (Example: The ancient Egyptians built irrigation ditches to help water the crops. In modern times, Egypt built a dam to control the flood waters of the Nile River.)

Guided Practice: Students will be making a Mr. Help chart by folding a piece of paper 5 times, writing each theme of geography at the top of each column, and copying down the important characteristics of each theme included in the PowerPoint. (I will tell them the important information in each slide that they need to write down on their chart). Independent Practice: Students will complete the assignment included on the last slide of the PowerPoint. Each student will individually describe themselves and their family

using the 5 themes of geography, by describing characteristics of where they live and who they live with, how they move from place to place, how they interact/adapt to their environment, etc. Closure: To close, and as a quick review, I will ask the students to name the 5 themes of geography and what each really means. Evaluation: Students will be evaluated by the description they came up with for their Independent Practice activity. They will be considered to have a passing score if they were able to describe their family and home environment to me by using the Five Themes of Geography as a guide for their description. Plans for Individual Differences: For ELL students I included pictures in my PowerPoint, which described the Five Themes of Geography.