Congratulations to Jeni Rosen for her recently published article in Ravsak (The Organization for Jewish Day Schools). Israel and Texas: A Tale of Two Topographies By Jeni Rosen, Principal, Austin Jewish Academy, Austin, TX “Before I did this project, I thought Israel was a scary place that I would never want to visit. Now I can’t wait to go there.” AJA 4th grader Teacher Kathy Rosenmann loves sharing her enthusiasm for Texas history with her students, and this year, took it a step further by comparing Israel, the Jewish homeland, with their current home, Texas. The essential question guiding this unit of study was: How does understanding geography affect people’s affinity towards a particular region? Over the course of a month, students became immersed in developing an understanding of the themes and elements of geography including human/environment interactions, movement, places/regions, physical systems and the world in spatial terms. This project-based study allowed students to draw conclusions about the similarities and differences in geographical regions and to foster an appreciation for and pride in these two special places. As their understanding grew so did students’ sense of identity, belonging and responsibility. The project was divided into five parts, and students worked in pairs. Research and Information Gathering The teacher provided special instruction in how to read expository texts to obtain critical information. Students used websites, videos, books and magazines to gather information about their assigned regions. Using graphic organizers, students took notes on a variety of topics including animals, plants, resources, climate, landforms, bodies of water and major cities. Relief Maps Students learned about scale and proportion along with the regions, landforms, bodies of water and elevations of both Israel and Texas. They then designed pizza boxes to represent each place and constructed relief maps that included surrounding states/countries, color-coded regions, major cities and rivers, a scale and a key. Expository Paragraphs Students participated in a variety of writing lessons before composing descriptive paragraphs about the geographic components of Israel and of Texas. Each student’s seven paragraphs were displayed inside his or her pizza box. Compare/Contrast Paper Synthesizing the information learned through research, students completed graphic organizers and then wrote a paper comparing and contrasting the geography of Israel and Texas. Meograph Trans-Atlantic Tour The Meograph is a multimedia program that allows users to combine maps and links and tell stories in the context of when and where. AJA students researched four interesting places to visit in both Israel and Texas. They planned, wrote and narrated a Trans-Atlantic tour highlighting their chosen places of interest. To see an example go to meograph/itay531/12554/texas-and-israel-meograph. The teacher provided daily feedback and used rubrics to evaluate final products. Students completed self-assessments and evaluated team functioning and final products, as well as the overall project. To celebrate their hard work, students created edible Texas-shaped pizzas and Israel-shaped cookie cakes that were shared with parents. As a culmination, students formally presented their projects to their parents and a panel of community members at AJA’s spring Portfolio Day. The school hopes this unit has sparked an interest in students to further build on their understanding and love for Israel and Texas and to become invested citizens.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Sep 2013 19:13:54 +0000
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