Cool website for learning US geography

Hello colleagues, I love LINCS because I always learn so much from the resources colleagues share. I want to share a useful website I discovered recently which focuses on learning US geography.

In preparation for the upcoming election, I'm focused on supporting learners to understand the electoral college. I learned that even the advanced learners I'm working with don't know the location of the various US states. The Seterra site offers an elegant tool for doing just that.

The map on the site can be explored in various ways to learn the location of various states and to quiz one's self. Enhancing digital literacy skills is a bonus.

Check out the site and let us know how you might integrate it into your class. 

And please share the digital tools you are finding useful!

Take care, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

Comments

I found the Seterra website interesting! It has information about all countries in the world, individually and by continent. One activity in adult ESOL classes is that students prepare a presentation about their country for the class. Seterra would be a good resource for students to use in preparing their presentations. Your post about geography reminded me how closely food is associated with countries. At the Florida DOE, where I work, a local ESOL class, the Adult and Community Education Program of Leon County came to visit us at the state adult education office. The teachers had the students prepare a presentation on foods from their country for the 100+ staff of the DOE Division of Career and Adult Education. The teachers had the students present by answering a pre-planned set of questions: what is your favorite food from your country, when and where did the food originate, what part of the day or year is the food eaten, and what is it made of? The lesson combined the "wh" questions to tell about favorite foods. This was the first time that an adult ESOL class was held in the DOE building and it was a delicious experience! The best part was when one student said a food originated in their country and another student said, no, it had originated in their country! The first student said no, you borrowed it from us! One student from Haiti said his favorite food was macaroni and cheese! By the end of all the stories, everyone was laughing and happy, and hungry too!

Thanks for sharing this experience with us, Phil. These learners had a wonderful opportunity to practice English while sharing aspects of their culture. The bonus was they also informed government officials about the value of their English classes and learned something about their state government.

I'm sure many of our members have similar stories to tell. Please share your stories, friends!

In this morning's class during a student-led presentation on the electoral college, learners used the Seterra site to show their classmates where their assigned states were located. They also learned the abbreviation and population for each state,  as well as the number of US representatives and the number of electors for each state. Finally, they reported on whether the state was in the red or blue column in the 2016 election. The students did an outstanding job gathering and reporting on their assigned states. After we know the results of this year's election, students will again collaborate to report on the results.

I've done this lesson a few times with different groups of students including beginners.  Here's a link to the document the students used to conduct their research and report to the class. Please let me know if you have any questions.

I will be explorig the Seterra website a bit more myself. It's incredibly useful when focused on geography and -- as Phil notes-- culture.

Take care, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP