Teaching Map Skills in Middle School
It’s easy to “save” maps and graphs for your geography units, but maps and graphs can and should be tied into other concepts of social studies.
The first step in teaching map skills is to know your standards. This sounds obvious, however, in Georgia map and globe skills are intended to be taught across grades K-8. These standards are not included in the “grade level” domains because they are intended to be infused with the domain standards. Study the chart provided in the standards. You will notice that if you are teaching grades 6-8, most of the map skills should be a review for students. The only new standard is to use latitude and longitude to determine location.
Image from Georgia Standards of Excellence, 2016. Click on the image to access the Georgia Standards of Excellence.
If you’ve been teaching for even a short amount of time, you probably know that it might say review but students might not have mastered it yet. The bottom line here is to avoid assuming students are proficient at reading and interpreting maps.
Many teachers choose to have a “Map Skills” unit in the beginning of the year. Map skills are a great way to start off your curriculum because it can set some foundational background knowledge for your students. However, it is important to continue referencing these skills throughout the year - not just during your “Maps Unit” or your “Geography Units”.
Map Skills Review
This activity focuses on nations covered in 6th grade, but can be used with any 5-8 social studies classroom.
One way to frequently review and cover map skills is to add them to your spiral review. You could add one map skill prompt to every day’s warm-up/bell-ringer. You can also sprinkle them into all of your lessons’ guided practice. Avoid “reserving” these types of prompts only for your Geography Unit. Students will need lots of practice and should be exposed to maps and graphs frequently.
Sample Bell Ringer
This sample bell ringer includes one prompt in which students must use both a graph and map.
For middle grades, map skills cannot simply be memorization of locations on a specific map. Map and globe skills involve reading and interpreting maps. Further, these skills may also involve analyzing that data to make predictions or draw conclusions as they relate to the concepts you are covering.
Many times location and geography play a major role in historic events. The Cuban Missile Crisis was fueled by its proximity to the United States, for example. Further, land plays a major role in continuing conflicts in the Middle East. Across all regions, geography is a main factor in a nation’s economy and ability to trade with others. Each of these examples are great times to infuse map skills activities or map skills worksheets into the guided practice.
Currency Exchange
SS7E8c
Capital Goods & GDP
SS7E6c
German Reunification
SS6H3c
Influences on Latin America
SS6H1b
Map & Globe Skills Nonfiction Reading
12 print-and-go worksheets that cover all of your map and globe skills!
You can do a Google search and round up hundreds of map skills worksheets for lower grades, but try finding some for upper grades! Well, I am going to hook you up! I have rounded up 10 map skills resources for middle school!
Grab my FREE guide!
Stop neglecting social studies with these easy to use strategies! Teach social studies, even when you don’t have time!
