Using Maps for Writing
Tapping into the Power of an Ancient Tool
My experienceEau Claire Leader Telegram
Beloit Daily News
Carnegie (PA) Signal-Item
Maryland Gazette (Suburban Baltimore)
Madison Business First
Wisconsin State Journal
Freelancing: Isthmus, Wisconsin Trails, Madison Magazine, In Business, Wisconsin People and Ideas
Revolving door
Maps are fascinating.
Ken Jennings, Maphead (12)
“There must be something innate about maps, about this one specific way of picturing out world and our relations to it that charms us, calls to us, won’t let us look anywhere else in the room if there’s a map on the wall.”
“Most often, what we ask of a map is to help us get from here to
there.” Turchi, (82)
My question:How can I use the visual
tools of mapping to help students write better?
Is this a map?
Or this?
Imago Mundi: 600 BC
Ptolemy of Alexandria
Mappa MundiHereford’s
Mappa Mundi
c. 1290
Mappa Mundi Detail
Portolano
John Mercator: 1569
John Ogilby: 1675
John Snow: Cholera 1854
Rand McNally: 1922
Brain-mapping: Not a coincidence “The
distinctive feature of
brains such as the one we own is their
uncanny ability to
create maps.”
-Antonio Damasio
Maryanne Wolf: Proust and the Squid
Katie Wood Ray
•Reading like a writer with pictures books.•Give students choice in topics.•Creating experiences to write about•Continue reading aloud
Katy Wood RayShe asks “.. do you – their
teacher – think of them as writers as they are gathered around you What expectations do you have for them as writers?” (75)
What are the stages or steps of writing a history
essay?
Brainstorm on your own
Discuss as a table.
My process
Turchi says:
Writing can be broken in to two separate acts:
Exploration
Presentation
Purpose: To lead reader on a journey. (13)
My writing map
Back to clustering
Is anyone using maps for writing?
The Thompson Writing Program at Duke University suggests that writers use maps in these ways:
Geographic context
Help with sequencing
Visual representation
Analysis of history/anthropology of a setting
Maps have conventions
Using maps literally: The United States Before the
Civil War
Sequencing
Maps as Inspiration
Where is this?
Here be dragons
Map as metaphor
Maps and critical literacyWho made this map?
What was the political/historical/social context?
What was the purpose of this map?
What is at the center of the map?
What is and isn’t included?
What is at the center?
Who’s on top?
What does this map represent?
Distortion: Mercator
Gall-Peters Projection
How could map distortion be used in
Fiction writing
Persuasive writing
Historical writing
Science writing?
Maphead Activity
Going Forward:I will use maps more consistently in history
because I know my students need more exposure to learn geography.
I will use maps to help them write about history.
I will have student make their own writing maps.
I will have give students cluster before using or making a more traditional graphic organizer.
