By
Barbara Swaim
B.J.Ward Middle School
200 Recreation Drive
Bolingbrook, Illinois 60440
Promoting
Geographic Knowledge Through Literature Workshop
July 7-19, 2002
Preview of Main Ideas
Amelia Earhart was the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. In 1937 she attempted a trip to navigate around the world. In reading a biography and an excerpt from her autobiography, we can trace her routes using the geographical themes of movement, place, regions and location.
Connection with the Curriculum
This activity may be used with Language Arts and Social Studies classes.
Teaching level: Grades 4-7
Objectives: The students will read a biography, an autobiography of Amelia Earhart, keep a flight journal of her experience, and trace her flights on a world map.
Connection to National Geographic Standard
Essential Element: Spatial Terms
Standard #1 How to use a map to report information from a spatial perspective.
Essential Element: Human Systems
Standard # 9 The characteristics and migration of human populations on Earth’s surface.
Materials
Sky Pioneer. A Photobiography of Amelia
Earhart by Corinne Szabo National Geographic
Society 1997 ISBNO79223737 4
The Fun of It
Autobiography
by Amelia Earhart. (McDougal-Littell 6th grade
textbook Language and Literature 2001) Brewer, Warren,Putnam 1932
World map
Colored pencils
Spiral theme book for Reading Notebook/ “flight
logs”
A Bag for storage for “In the Bag”
activity
Suggestions for Teaching the Lesson
Preview (To activate prior knowledge)
1.Think-Pair–Share
In their Reading notebooks, students will
write for one minute, recording all they know about airplanes and Amelia Earhart. Students then pair with
a partner and share orally what they wrote.
2. Read aloud to
the class from the beginning of the biography Sky Pioneer- her birth,
schooling, family. As you read, use the bag to pull out previously stored items
recalling her early life such as:
*birth certificate facsimile(She was born 6/24 1897, *a
train(her father worked for the RR),
*Red Cross (Amelia was a nurse’s aide in
WWI)
*miniature airplane (She bought her own in
1922) *compass
*flight goggles
*Pilot License (She earned it in 1923)
*convertible HotWheel car (She owned a
yellow Kissel nicknamed The Yellow Peril)
*Wedding cake (photo or BARBIE plastic
cake)
Amelia married George Putnam in 1931.
Ask students if they had written any of
those facts
Developing
1. Students will
now silently read an excerpt from her autobiography The Fun of It.
Instruct students to keep a “flight log”, as all pilots do, recalling the
sequence of events of her solo flight in 1932. They should also record specific problems
Amelia encounters, and any solutions she utilizes. The altimeter, the instrument that records
height above the ground, breaks. Ice forms on the wing. Storms, fog, and an
exhaust fire occur.
2. In a class
discussion, the students will share what they recorded in the flight log. How
did she solve the ice problem? Why did she land in Ireland?
3.Also, discuss character traits that would
describe Amelia.
Also, other items in the bag could be: a
newspaper with the headline LADY LINDY Success
*A medal (awarded by Pres. Hoover)
4. On a World map use a colored pencil to trace her route from Newfoundland to Ireland. (She landed off course: suppose to land in Wales) Make a key to denote 1932. This was a shorter route. To show a circular air flight, place a rubber band around a globe to show the natural curvature.
Concluding
1. Now finish the photobiography recalling her final trip-the attempt to fly around the world.
2. Stop often to discuss the photos of her encounters with different cultures: Ireland pg. 34, Mexico pg. 41, Africa 52,53 , Singapore p. 54, and the attempt by the ship Itasca to locate her pg.57.
3. Now use a different colored pencil to trace her route. Add to the key the year 1937. (Originally Amelia had planned to fly West from California, but because of weather she headed East from Miami to South America to Africa to Howland Islands where she vanished) Use the map progression in the book pgs 49,51,52, 54,56
Enrichment
Students
could investigate websites Earhart www.ameliaearhart.com
Encarta.msn.com
National
Women's Hall of Fame - Women of the Hall.
http://www.greatwomen.org/women.php?action=viewone&id=53
Official
Amelia Earhart Website
Amelia
Earhart Learns to Fly
Other source books
The Sound of Wings
by Mary Lovell
St. Martin’s Press
Amelia Earhart by Doris
Rich Smithsonian Press 1989
Extension Activities
Students complete a timeline of Amelia’s
life.
Students create a postcard or telegram from
Amelia announcing her successful solo flight.
Watch a video about Amelia Earhart
Invite a theater group to recreate the
actress’s life.
Class Play reenactment “Amelia Takes to
the Skies” by Navidad O’Neill MacMillan/McGraw-Hill
Communities
Adventures in
Time and Place Anthology 1997
Assessment
Classroom discussions
“Flight Logs’ completed
World map routes traced