Mapping History

The holocaust is something that has always been interesting to me. I have always been interested in the subject, so when the opportunity arose in college for me to take a course on the subject, I did so with no hesitation. We viewed many maps throughout the course, many of which our teacher incorporated into PowerPoint lectures. One map that I encountered during the course was an interactive map on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website. The map starts at the beginning of World War II, and gives the population of Jews in Europe, which was around 9.5 million. The map then takes the viewer on a journey from Germany’s annexation of Austria and then the invasion of Poland in 1939. The map labels the mobile killing squads, the ghettos, and then the concentration camps, and shows how Jews were being deported from all over Europe. I came across this map in my own exploration of the USHMM website. I think this map provides a great overview of the Holocaust and how it progressed throughout the WWII. I did not use the map a great deal after discovering it, but I have grown to appreciate the map much more now that I have to develop lesson plans. I have incorporated this map into a lesson plan, and I think this map would be a great way to introduce the Holocaust, or to supplement other material in a unit focusing on WWII and the Holocaust. This map represents a great deal about my historical interests. I am always interested in the things in history that we may not understand, or the most shocking events in history. The Holocaust is one of those events, and this map provides a brief history of the event, and highlights all of the things about the Holocaust that I have learned about over the years. The fact that this map is interactive also speaks to my personal interests. I like things that I can engage myself in, and I like things that help me organize the information I am taking in. This map does that, and it allows me to see the sequence of events in a clear, precise way. I can remember learning about the invasion of Poland, then the ghettos and mobile killing squads, which were mentioned in the book, Ordinary Men. This map represents the journey I took in learning about the Holocaust. At the beginning, the Jewish population was thriving in Europe, and by the end of the war, six million Jews had been annihilated. Copy and paste this url to see the map: http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005143&MediaId=3372

Lester’s work on the Waldseemuller map tells us a great deal about how people viewed the world at the time it was published. The map represented people’s world view at the time, and how their world view maybe changed because of this map. I think this map, and others like it, would be a great tool to use in a social studies class to demonstrate how people's world view changed over time. It is also a good way to talk about how exploration, the Crusades, and merchants played a role in the formation of this map, and many others. The different stories and components of this map can also encourage students to look at other maps in the same way, and help them realize that they can learn a great deal about the world when they think critically.




The map above illustrates the various battles that took place in the Pacific during World War II. This map is unique because a great deal of text is involved, which helps us understand the main purpose of the map. I think this map would be a wonderful tool to use in a 11th grade US History class. The learning objective would be that students understand the sequence of events in the Pacific, and to learn about specific battles, and their outcomes. I think the lesson itself would take 2 class periods because I am incorporating a group project into the lesson. I would use this map to introduce to war in the Pacific and I would use a PowerPoint presentation, and video clips to give them a brief overview of Pacific front during World War II. The presentation would cover any concepts are terms that would be necessary to understand before completing the project. At the end of the lesson I would assign the students to groups, and each group would be responsible for one of the battles on the map. Each group would then research the battle, and create a poster to present to the class. Each group would be responsible for assigning roles for the project, and I would have them provide me with the names of who was responsible for each part of the project. I would present the lesson on a Monday, and have the students work at home on their project and present on Friday. I would have the students present their poster, and then we would create a timeline of the events around the classroom, with each poster displayed. The project itself would assess the students learning. I would also have students fill out a questionnaire during the other groups presentations, offering feedback to the groups, as well as listing the things that they learned during the presentation. I would read over the questionnaires and then return them to each group.