Geography Lesson Plan for Primary ESL Classes
Create a Cityscape Mural to Develop Content Area Vocabulary
Oct 30, 2009 Margaret M. Williams
Kindergarten, first and second grade English language learners (ELL) face the dual challenge of learning new vocabulary at the same time they are building new concepts. An interactive series of geography lessons that engages primary grade students in learning about the differences between a village, a town, and a city, can facilitate vocabulary growth in an important social studies context.
Building Geography Vocabulary and Concepts – Village, Town, City
The purpose of this primary social studies lesson is to build essential key vocabulary for the study of geography. The focus words are: village, town, city. Additional vocabulary may include neighborhoods, streets, houses, apartments, buildings, skyscrapers, etc.. Children may also encounter more abstract concept words such as few, less, least, more, small, smaller, smallest, big, bigger, biggest.
Materials Needed to Create a Cityscape Mural
This geography lessons needs only drawing paper and supplies such as scissors, markers, and tape. Teachers may want to supplement with photos, posters, or books with pictures of villages, towns, and cities.
Setting the Stage for a Study of Villages, Towns and Cities
Begin this unit of study by writing “village,” “town,” and “city” on the board or on chart paper. Ask the students to tell what they know about these places. Teachers may choose to record student responses on a KWL chart.
Helping ELLs Build Background Schema for Urban Geography Study
Teachers can help young students build background schema for describing and differentiating the characteristics of a village, a town, and a city through books, such as the classic, The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton. [Houghton Mifflin, 1942], and through more current literature. Some suggestions for books include:
- New York, New York! The Big Apple From A to Z by Laura Krauss Melmed [Collins, 2008]
- Living in Urban Communities by Kristin Sterling [Lerner Classroom, 2007]
- On the Town: A Community Adventure by Judith Caseley [Greenwillow Books, 2002]
- What is a Community From A to Z by Bobbie Kalman [Crabtree Publishing Co., 2000]
- Me On the Map by Joan Sweeney and Annette Cable [Dragonfly Books, 1998]
- My Town by Rebecca Treays [Educational Development Corp., 1998]
Videos, posters, photographs, and postcards will also help students develop visual imagery important to building background schema.
Growing a City
Begin with the concept of a village being a small community with just a few houses. Provide the students with drawing paper on which they can create houses to color and cut out. Attach the houses to a bulletin board or wall to create a small village mural. Students might wish to name their village.
During the next lesson, after more reading, study, and exploration, challenge the students to grow their village into a town. Brainstorm with the students what a larger community might have and need. Some examples are: small apartment buildings, grocery stories, other stores, schools, churches, fire stations, a police station, etc. The children will likely come up with many more ideas, including parks, lakes, a river, or other natural structures they encounter in their own community. Provide paper to create these additional buildings. Students can label the buildings or create signs for them. Add these buildings to the village display to "grow" it into a town.
During a third session students can brainstorm what it will take to grow their town into a city. The obvious choice will be “skyscrapers.” However, cities also need larger apartment buildings, malls, parking ramps, a train station, and an airport. Many cities have bridges, subway stations, and other transportation structures. The teacher will have to decide whether to limit the cityscape mural to buildings and structures, or allow trains and buses, cranes, or other transitory items.
Concluding and Evaluating the Cityscape Geography Lesson
To conclude this geography lesson, children may want to present their mural to another class. Children can take turns talking to the visitors or to their classmates about the elements of the mural and their particular contributions.
To evaluate, teachers can check to see if students are using the key vocabulary spontaneously and correctly in spoken discourse. Students who carry the vocabulary into their written work will be using it at a more sophisticated level and this should be noted.
Extensions and Follow-up Activities for the Cityscape Geography Lesson
Building background schema and illustrating their growing vocabulary by creating a class mural can be a stand-alone lesson. However, it may also be a starting point for a broader study of geography, including map studies.
Some activities that will enrich or extend this study of communities might include:
- A tour of the city, town, or neighborhood in which the school is located
- Collecting and displaying postcards of cities students and/or family members have visited
- Creating a 3D diorama of a town or city (perhaps in conjunction with an art class)
Young English language learners – and even many native English speakers – often have confusions about terms such as village, town, and city. A unit of study in which children can actively create a village, grow it into a town, and then into a city, will help ESL students to develop key vocabulary while building critical geography concepts.
For more information about working with English language learners read "Understanding ESL Students' Language Development" and "Supporting ESL Students in Inclusive Classrooms."
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