Map Making and Critical Reading

Ages: 9-12

Time: 1-2 class periods 

Learning Objectives: 

• Students will use critical reading skills to create a map from details in the text

Curricular Connections:

• English, Geography, Citizenship

Materials: 

• Copies of the story included below, materials for drawing maps. 

Steps:

1. With a partner, discuss your route to school. What smells and sounds do you encounter on the way? Try to list them in order of when you hear/smell them. 

2. Read aloud or hand out the following excerpt for your students. 

3. Ask students to highlight any words they don’t understand as you read aloud. 

Sabriye Tenbarken, a young blind woman from Germany, set up a school for blind children in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet. Here, she describes the way through the city from her home to the school. (from My Path Leads to Tibet by Sabriye Tenbarken, Arcade Pub., 2004)

“I begin my journey on the edge of an open square... To my right there is a street busy with cars, which is my first landmark. I cross over the square always remembering to keep the traffic on my right at the same distance. I now head for a row of market stalls where Chinese vendors offer their fruit for sale at the tops of their voices. As soon as the smell of apples and pears in the summer, and oranges and grapefruits in the winter, reaches my nose, I cautiously turn right to avoid getting in the customers’ way... Quite close to the street, with the noises of the cars to my right again, I walk straight ahead until my cane comes up against a kind of curb that is now my new point of direction...

My journey leads me past cobblers who have set up their stalls on the roadside – I recognize them because of their constant hammering and the pungent smell of leather. Shortly after that, my route veers to the left. At this point the curb ends and I stop in the middle of the road because we are now in the old part of town. There are fewer vehicles here and they can only move at a snail’s pace. On my right there are hot food stalls; at different times of day the smell of freshly baked bread or meat and noodle dishes pervades in the air... The alleyway ends in a T-junction at which I turn left...

In front of a stone wall that blocks the way straight ahead, a street leads to the left... It’s only one and a half meters wide and about fifty meters long. Sighted people often have the impression here that the houses tilt together over their head. In the entrances to these houses sit mostly older people who greet me in a friendly way and warn me about piles of trash and puddles...The alley ends at another T-junction. I turn right. This path is wide and even. It leads to a busy road in a zigzag fashion... The traffic noises are heard only quietly at first and then louder and louder. Since local drivers have often bought their driving license without any driving experience...sometimes I ask people passing by to help me cross the ‘race track’. I then go left behind a building site onto a sandy road, to the left again after an entrance to a courtyard and then in the second courtyard on the right hand side.

POST READING

1. Together as a class, define the any unknown words, drawing on collective knowledge whenever possible. Alternatively, prepare definitions in advance for words such as vendor, cobbler, pungent, veer, pervades, etc. 

2. Ask students to make a list of the smells and sounds Sabriye uses to find her way to the school.

3. Ask students to draw a map of her route based on her description of the route.

4. SHARE: If possible, post maps around the room and have a gallery walk, asking students to note any differences. 

EXTENSION: 

Write out the directions from your house to someplace nearby (like your school, the grocery store, or a friends’ house) in a way that relies primarily on sounds and smells that occur along the way. Do you walk past a bakery? A construction site? A yard with a dog? A coffee shop? If desired, students can emulate the writing style of Sabriye Tenbarken.