Maine Educators Discover Connections Between Literacy and Mapmaking with Author David Sobel

Educators from across the state recently met at The Steel House in Rockland - and online via Zoom - for "Integrating Literacy through Mapmaking" with David Sobel, author of Mapmaking with Children, and Jennifer Kramer, Social Studies Coach for the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union in Brattleboro, Vermont.

During this full-day workshop, participants explored the concepts of place, belonging, and geographic representation. Sobel led the group through his research, showing that across the globe and across cultures, children develop perspectives on place and sense of area at roughly-identical age-related milestones. It's insight that has proven to be particularly illuminating, as educators work on comprehension.

"This was one of the best workshops I have ever taken!" noted Laurie Chaisson, an art teacher at Narraganset Elementary School. "I particularly appreciated David's developmental stages of mapmaking. This was the missing piece for me!"

Workshop participants also reviewed projects on sound maps, smell maps, treasure maps, and other forms of depicting space. The group worked with and created rebus puzzles, as well as treasure maps, and then they were set loose upon the outside campus of The Steel House to hide their "treasures," handing off their maps and key rebus to other teams to solve. The activity was both engaging and educational, and many commented on how it brought back the joy of learning.

"It wasn't long before I became an enthusiastic participant! It was so much fun and really inspiring," Susan Jones from RSU 40 said.

Kramer led the group through several projects she has completed with schools, both as a classroom teacher and as a curriculum coordinator. She brought forth deeper-thinking concepts while connecting them to practical, replicable classroom projects, including the creation of an "exploding map," a type of map similar to a pop-up book. It unfolds three-dimensionally to show details and information on a place-in-history map.

"What kid wouldn't want to make an 'exploding map'? Bravo! This is what learning should be!" Chaisson said.

Central to the conversation were the concepts of play in learning, cross-curricular comprehension, and the alignment in the thinking process between mapmaking and literacy skills. Inherent in each is coding, vocabulary, navigation of materials (fluency), and making meaning. Just as with mastering the skill of reading, these elements in mapmaking are co-mingled and build upon each other.

"This was a really fun and useful session," Mark Sparks, a social studies teacher at Winthrop Middle School said.

This workshop was the second in a series of four on the topic of Integrating Literacy hosted by the Maine Department of Education's (DOE) Interdisciplinary Instruction team. All four workshops are offered both in-person and online.

During workshops, participants get the opportunity to ask questions, engage with material, and share their work. In addition to the "day of" experience, recordings of the workshops are made available for later viewing on the Maine DOE's EnGiNE platform. Contact hours are available for all who participate.

Future events in this series include:

• December 12, from 8 a.m. - noon: Integrating Literacy through Background Knowledge with Josie Cameron at the University of Maine at Orono. Use this link to register.
• January 15, from 8 a.m. - noon: Integrating Literacy through Applied Science with Katie Coppens at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. Use this link to register.

If you have any questions about this workshop series, please contact Kathy Bertini at [email protected] or Heather Martin at [email protected].