My Map!

Yet another piece of technology that I was oblivious to prior to completing an assignment for our class. This is a pretty cool tool. I would use google's editable maps for a personal narrative writing unit. One of the ways to start the unit out is for students to brainstorm places that matter to them. They list a few and then choose a place. Once students choose a place, they list several memories that they have being at that specific place("the time when..."). My map shows an example of the place that I narrowed my brainstorming down to--my grandmother's house. The specific moment, from many, that I chose was the time I almost got "jumped" or beat up by a group of teenage girls that were bored one summer. I found the location of my grandmother's neighborhood. Then I drew a line of the route that I took riding my bike that day. I attempted to draw a picture of a rather scary looking house to show the point along my route where the girls stopped me to confront me and try to get me off of my bike. Then I show the rest of the route back home to safety. My map is called Grandma's House. My students could also locate the exact places where their stories took place and plot a route. They could add pictures, shapes, home videos, etc. We always have Celebration time at the end of our writing units. This would be a way that students could create a visual to go along with their stories as they read them to the class or to their groups.

To view the parts of the map that I edited, zoom in twice. (Click on map title "Grandma's House," click the blue balloon marker on map, click "more," then click zoom.)


View Grandma's House in a larger map