Welcome to the Real World, by David Cooper

Middle schoolers construct a brochure about their school, using the Five Themes of Geography

The cover of a completed brochure.

Geography can provide students with tools for exploring the sometimes scary world of the middle grades. At the start of the school year, my students construct a brochure about our school using the Five Themes of Geography, a set of instructional concepts developed during the 1984 Joint Committee on Geographic Education. The themes, which address the influences of our world's land masses and waterways on its diverse, evolving cultures, include "Location," "Place," "Human/Environmental Interaction," "Regions" and "Movement."

Each theme becomes a panel on the brochure. In constructing these brochures, students apply abstract concepts to personally-relevant objects and activities and gain tools to use in the examination of regions and cultures both familiar and alien to their frames of reference.

Themes and variations.
Location deals with where a person or object can be found. We discuss two types of location, "absolute," which is determined by a street address or map coordinates, and "relative," which is an informal indication of an object's or person's position in relation to a landmark. In their brochures, students gave the school's address as an example of absolute location. Their examples for relative location included descriptions such as, "Our school's relative location is northeast of the football field" and "Our school's relative location is directly across from the high school."

Place involves the description of a location in human or physical characteristics. Students used the "Place" panel of their brochures to describe our school as "large," having "lots of lockers and computers" and offering "activities like clubs, sports, TV crew and many others."

Two interior panels of a completed brochure.

Human/Environmental Interaction examines how humans have an impact on the environment and how our environment influences our behaviors. I asked students to list five examples of "Human/Environmental Interaction" on that panel of the brochures. They included everyday activities such as "use of heating and air conditioning," "buying things in the school store" and "raising your hand in class."

Regions explains how geographers use physical and human characteristics to define and compare areas of the world. The "Regions" panel of our brochures generally described our school as "a region defined by a large number of 12-14-year-old students in the seventh and eighth grades who speak primarily English." The children also described physical aspects of our region: "Our middle school is a region defined by a large number of lockers, computers and displays of student artwork."

Finally, Movement looks at how people and locations are linked through physical movement and the communication of information. I asked students to list five examples of both types of movement on that panel of their brochures. Entries for physical movement included "walking," "school buses" and "bikes," while the communication aspect yielded examples such as "e-mail," "sign language" and "loudspeakers."

Students hold their paper horizontally and fold it as shown below. Labeling the panels on the rough draft will help keep kids on track.

Stating expectations.
I begin by providing instruction sheets, a scoring rubric and a checklist. The checklist includes completion dates for every step of the project. The rubric tells students how their final products will be graded. The instruction sheets show the requirements for each page of the brochure. Providing this information early in the project helps to alleviate anxiety about grades and allows students to focus on learning.

Creating the brochures.
After discussing the checklist and rubric, we construct rough drafts together. This takes about three 40-minute class periods. Each student holds an 8 1/2 x 11" sheet of paper horizontally and folds it into thirds, with the left-hand flap over the right-hand flap. The panel that faces them is the cover, which they label as such across the top, in pencil. On the back of the cover is the inside left-hand flap, or "Location" panel. We label each panel, following the instruction sheets to make sure the drafts are set up correctly.

Next, we complete the "Regions" panel together, brainstorming the necessary information. Students then use the instruction sheets to work individually. As they write the text, they think about the artwork their brochures might need, and where on the panels they will place the artwork. You'll need to allow time for students to sketch their own art, or to find appropriate clip-art or magazine photos.

When we've finished our rough drafts, we hold peer conferences to offer advice on revisions and edits. After necessary changes are made to the drafts, students make final copies in ink on heavy paper and place the illustrations.

When the brochures are completed, my students possess a personal, practical knowledge of the Five Themes of Geography and feel a little more at home in our building.

David Cooper is a seventh grade social studies teacher at Manheim Township Middle School in Lancaster, PA.