Objective: Half of ISU's History majors wish to become secondary school teachers. Those who teach History are often expected to teach Geography as well, and because ISU has no Geography program, students are poorly prepared to apply for many positions in the region.
I take my approach to this class session and its continuation throughout the semester from an excellent paper presented last June at the annual international conference of the World History Association, University of Victoria (Canada), by my friend and colleague Deborah Smith Johnston of Lexington High School and Northeastern University in Massachusetts. She has been recognized as the outstanding Geography teacher by the National Council for Geography Education. The paper was part of a special session to evaluate the book The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography by Martin W. Lewis and Kären Wigen (University of California Press, 1997), which all of you should read.
My objective is Johnston's, which I quote: "For students to envision the historical world spatially in order to create mental geographical constructs that are useful in providing them with a framework for understanding the world through interactions across time and place."
As a non-graded pre-test, you will draw, using only materials I will provide, a "mental map" of the world. In addition to drawing materials, I will provide you with a list of historical, political, economic, and physical detail relevant to the course.
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All contents copyright © 1995-99. J. B. Owens All rights reserved.Revised: 23 August 1999
URL: http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/spemp/reading.02.html