Teaching Activities
Day 1: Mapping Home
I will introduce the unit by helping students conceptualize and define the features that make a map. I will begin by showing students a wide array of maps ranging from traditional Mercator projections to personal geographies mapped on bodies and ask students to define the features of a map. Through class discussion and strategic prompting, we will create a class definition of a map. While definitions will vary, I will prompt students to identify traditional map features that represent information such as a key or legend, symbols, scale, title and/or date, and color.
I will then ask students to define the concept of home. We will discuss the concept of home as a class and create a concept map related to the idea of home. Finally, students will apply our class definition of home to draw map of “home” and write a short reflection describing their definition of home.
Day 2: Mapping Colonial Wilmington
In the second day of this unit, I will introduce students to visual map analysis skills: observe, inquire, contextualize, analyze. We will complete the first analysis of a map as a class and students will gradually analyze maps more independently throughout the course of the unit.
Students will view their own copies the colonial-era map of Wilmington and observe its parts, taking notes of specific map features outlined in our class definition. Then, I will model questions for students to ask about the map:
- Who created the map?
- Who is the map for?
- What information does the map illustrate? What information does the map not illustrate?
- What is the purpose of the map?
I expect students to note when the map was published and how small and rural Wilmington is in 1772. I also expect students to take note of the waterways that bear similar names to current waterways that run through the city. I also expect students to make note of the “Indian Trails” demarcated on the map.
We will then read a short passage about the history of Wilmington’s growth as a colony after European contact and I will ask students to determine the purpose of the map.
Finally, I will model a claim, evidence, reasoning (CER) response that asks students to use evidence they gathered from the map to make a claim about the map’s purpose. I will prompt students to provide input as we write a response together. I expect the example CER response to resemble something like the following: This map shows who owned the land in Wilmington after Europeans arrived. I know this because there are European names on areas separated by lines on the map. The map also shows paths that are labeled “Old Indian Trails.” The “Old Indian Trails” show that indigenous people owned the land before Europeans arrived. After Europeans arrived, they took ownership of the land to build a place called Wilmington.
Day 3: Mapping Industrialized Wilmington
On the third day of the unit, I will review our map analysis process (observe, inquire, contextualize, analyze) and inquiry questions from the previous lesson that we will apply to a new map of Wilmington.
Before introducing the new map, we will work as a class to identify landmarks from the 1772 colonial era map that they still recognize today. I expect students to identify the following locations: the Christina River, Brandywine River, Shellpot Creek, the Swedish Church (later the Old Swedes Church), and Union Street.
I will then provide copies of the 1874 panoramic map of Wilmington to students. They will work in pairs to identify the same landmarks from the 1772 map on the 1874 map. I will ask students to mark these landmarks on the colonial and industrial maps of Wilmington as a way of orienting themselves on more contemporary maps of Wilmington.
Next, students will work in small groups to make observations about the map and infer the purpose of the map based on evidence they collected. I will circulate around the classroom as students work to encourage them to observe and inquire about different parts of the map, including the title, the main map projection, the map key, and the cartouche. Students will keep track of their observations on a worksheet. Students will then contextualize their observations of the map by watching a short video or reading a short article on American industrialization.
I will then display the example CER response from the previous class period. Students will write collaborative CER responses determining the purpose of the 1874 map. I anticipate students will produce responses that may look like the following: This map shows new industry and progress in Wilmington. I know this because there are many ships and buildings on the map. There is also an image of old Wilmington at the bottom of the map that does not have many buildings. Also, there are hundreds of manufacturing businesses listed on the bottom of the map. This shows that Wilmington changed from 1772 to 1874 because of new technology and industry.
Days 4 - 5: Mapping Housing Discrimination in Wilmington
On days four and five of this unit, students will begin gathering evidence they will use to form a claim for the larger unit’s culminating argument essay. Students will begin by defining the following vocabulary words: mortgage, loan, segregation, racial covenant, racial steering, redlining, suburbs.
Next, students will read an excerpt or view and discuss a graphic novel about The Great Migration in 1910 and 1970 and track major events of The Great Migration on a timeline.
After reviewing the major events of The Great Migration, students will complete a gallery walk of primary sources that show examples of racial steering, racial covenants, and traditionally redlined maps. Students will apply their map and textual analysis skills of observation and inquiry by posting one to two questions to each visual.
As a class, we will discuss the questions, analyze the materials, and contextualize the materials as they relate to the timeline of The Great Migration and housing discrimination in northern cities.
Days 6- 7: Mapping Housing Discrimination in Wilmington (pt. 2)
In the sixth and seventh days of this unit, students will apply their knowledge of housing discrimination of the 20th century to its local impact in Wilmington. Students will first add to their timeline of The Great Migration after watching a video entitled “The Rise of Suburbanization during the 1950s” to further contextualize their understanding of white flight and the entrenchment of segregation in neighborhoods in the 1940s and 1950s.
I will distribute copies of the 1956 land-use map of a residential neighborhood in Wilmington. Students will work in pairs to make observations about the map and answer inquiry questions related to the map’s purpose. They will use the Brandywine River to orient their understanding that this neighborhood is in eastern Wilmington and borders the railroad.
Students will apply their map analysis skills to produce a CER response to determine the purpose of this map as it relates to their understanding of suburbanization and its effect on land-use in urban neighborhoods. I expect students to produce a response that looks like the following: The purpose of this map is to show changing land-use in Wilmington in 1956. I know this because each building has a different use according to its color. There are buildings in the center of the map with new colors covering old colors. These buildings are changing to public housing for poorer residents. This shows that wealthier residents are leaving this neighborhood and poorer residents are moving to the neighborhood.
It may also be helpful to juxtapose the 1956 land-use map with a modern census tract map (Fig. 5) of the same area. In the modern map, students can see how a prison, a major highway, and a sewage treatment facility have been built to the east of this neighborhood, but in closer proximity than any other Wilmington neighborhood. This may help students understand how formerly redlined neighborhoods experience more frequent land-use changes that impact health and housing value.
Day 8: Mapping Housing Discrimination in Wilmington (pt. 3)
On the eighth day of this unit, students must apply their map analysis skills carefully to uncover the purpose of the 1930s Federal Housing Authority map of Wilmington.
I will first ask students to orient their geographic understanding of the map by finding the landmarks that are noted on the colonial and industrial-era maps of Wilmington. Then, I will guide students to avoid jumping to conclusions while observing this map of Wilmington, as they may apply their understanding of traditionally redlined maps to this map. Although the purpose and nature of this map aligns with traditional redlining practices, it represents neighborhood demographics differently, and thus illustrates the geographic concentration of wealth, race, and lending risk differently.
I will distribute high quality copies of the map to each student, along with a magnifying glass. When students zoom into the data represented on each city block, they will notice the racial and income segregation in different parts of the city and the different colors that represent “good” or “bad” neighborhoods. I will then ask students to review their timelines to contextualize what they know about this time period before determining the map’s purpose.
Finally, students will write an independent CER response that determines the purpose of the map. I anticipate students will write something like the following: The purpose of this map is for banks to see the location of “good” neighborhoods and “bad” neighborhoods in Wilmington. I know this because the map shows parts of the city that are mostly white and wealthy in red and purple colors. The map also shows parts of the city that are mostly poor and non-white in yellow and green colors. Banks used this information to decide if they would give a mortgage loan to a person to buy a home. If a person lived in a yellow or green neighborhood, it was more difficult to get a mortgage loan from a bank.
Day 9: Mapping the Legacy of Housing Discrimination in Wilmington
In the final day of this unit, students will apply their knowledge of maps to create a map of a formerly redlined Wilmington community. Before students create their maps, they will compare census tract maps of two neighborhoods in Wilmington, one of which was redlined on the Federal Housing Authority map, and one that was not redlined.
Students will identify demographic census data for each community and compare the racial, socioeconomic, and homeownership of each community. Students will also gather data from the Climate and Economic Justice Screener tool that gives information on exposure to environmental hazards for every census tract in the United States. Students will choose how to represent the demographics of each community on a digital or hand-drawn map. Then, students will create a map of one of the communities that they analyzed.
Finally, students will write a short description of their maps that describe how the community’s history influences its demographic make-up and rates of homeownership.
Comments: