Anthony Romeo
Fall 2008
Discovery Lesson Reflection

During the planning process I had fun thinking about how my students would work to discovery how their segmented historical map was pieced together. I hoped that they would make connections between the old, perhaps geographically inaccurate map of world and their previous impressions of their school from prior years. Perspective and change were the two ideas that I felt students would take away from this activity.
Actually creating the larger images of the historical maps was difficult, I became a little concerned that the maps would not hold up after being laminated and cut. My students needed to be able to handle them and try various arrangements of the puzzle pieces. The map pieces did stay together, and my students did better than I expected at arranging them accurately into their intended positions. Perhaps they worked so quickly that they might be as focused on the discovery process I expected to be the overall theme.
Through discussion it was clear they did find the activity fun, even if it was less challenging that I hoped. Connections were being made; one student jumped to the idea that the inclusion of clouds with faces on the map indicated it was from a time when everyone believed in multiple gods. I had to steer the discussion towards the perspective of the map makers and the perspectives of my new students. As a teacher that is not completely unexpected that my goal for the lesson is different from the reactions I get from my students. The ideas they had could have led to a much longer and wider ranging discourse on the nature of exploration and trade of map making. Despite not being able to spend hours on those subjects I was very pleased that they were on my students minds, those topics will be examined more in this year’s curriculum.
Moving from discussion to creating their own unique maps I think students found more room to develop their understanding. They could see their surroundings being mapped themselves and by their classmates. The different perspectives were obvious and I think they made the connection that different people see the world differently. As they saw the historical map pieced together they were given the opportunity to develop their understanding of how their perspective changes as the bigger picture emerges. I enjoyed intro during my class to discovery, perspective and change with an old map turned puzzle, hopefully it inspired them to continue to be engaged in their own exploration of history.