Materials: Map of the World: Political or use link this website Map of the World Worksheet
You could start the discussion by saying that the social studies part of the GED test assumes that everyone has a basic knowledge of world geography. The test will contain maps that you have to analyze and the answers are not always directly on the map. This is one area of the test where they expect you to just know the approximate locations of countries and oceans. So we thought we would use this world map to familiarize everyone with some world geography.
Hand out the maps.
The first thing you need to do with a map is read the title so that you know what you are looking at. Ask, “What is the title of this map?” ‘Map of the World: Political”. So this map should give us information about the location of countries.
Then look to see if there is a legend or a list of symbols that explains the information shown on the map. Ask, “Is there a legend for this map/” Yes, it shows the scale of the map. You can discuss that the scale shows the relationship between distances on the map to the actual distance on the ground.
Look to see if there is anything on the map showing directions, most maps have a compass that shows east, west, north, and south. Ask, “Does this map have any symbols indicating direction?” Yes, this map has a direction compass that shows points north. Ask if students know where south, east, and west are on the map. When maps do not indicate directions, it is standard practice for north to be at the top, east to be to the right, south to be at the bottom, and west to be to the left.
Finally, skim the map to see what information it contains. If we do this, we can see that it identifies all the continents and oceans, as well as countries. This map also has two inserts – enlarged sections of the map. Ask, “What are the inserts of and where do they actually fit in the larger map?’
Use the Map of the World Worksheet to further discuss the map. You might want to add or remove questions.