Overview of Lesson		Activity One and Student Assessment
Connection to the Curriculum,Standards and Skills		Activity Two and Student Assessment
Grade Level		Activity Three and Student Assessment
Purpose of Lesson		Activity Four and Student Assessment
Primary Geographic Question		Assessment of Lesson
Secondary Questions		Extending the Lesson
Materials		References
Body of Lesson - Procedure & Assessment

Overview of the Lesson

People have used names to describe, to locate, to relate to, and to assign value/recognition to the places being named for centuries.  It is through the political and cultural aspects that these places were named.

Geography Standards

Standard 6:  How culture and experience influence peoples perception of places and regions.

Standard 10:  The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.

Alabama Course of Study:  Social Studies Content Standards (Grade 7)

Standard 9:  Relate place names with cultural and/or political perspectives.

Standard 16:  Identify ways in which communities reflect the cultural background of their inhabitants.

Geographic Skills

Acquiring geographic information:  analyzing maps, analyzing and organizing information from the Internet, student textbooks, the encyclopedia, and other reference books to determine how town and city names are influenced by cultural and political perspectives.

Organizing geographic information:  organize the materials acquired above into webs, charts, paragraphs, and a Venn diagram.

Analyzing geographic information:  analyze the material through a written paragraph.

Grade 7

To analyze material gathered from maps, the Internet, student textbooks, the encyclopedia, and other reference books to determine how four major cities were named and to determine how local towns are named.

How did the ancient cities of Florence, Italy; Rome, Italy; Athens, Greece; and Alexandria, Egypt receive their names, and what importance did political and cultural aspects play in the naming of these cities and various other cities with the same names around the world?

Of what importance are names of cities and what mental pictures do they evoke?

How did political and cultural aspects of life play a role in the naming of the ancient cities of Florence, Italy; Rome, Italy; Athens, Greece; and Alexandria, Egypt?

How did your local town receive its name, and what political and cultural aspects influenced the naming?

How is the naming process between the ancient cities and the local town in which you live similar?  How is it different?

• Pencil
• Paper
• World Atlas
• Atlas of the United States
• Chart tablets/paper
• Markers
• Encyclopedias (On-line or regular)
• Place name books
• Student text books
• Chalkboard or white board

Activity One

Secondary Question # 1:  Of what importance are names of cities and what mental pictures do they evoke?

Introduce the lesson by presenting a whole group activity on toponomy.  Explain to the class that places are usually named for four reasons.  These reasons are descriptive, commemorative, for people, and for other places.  On one side of the board, ask the children to name some places of the world.  On the other side of the board, ask them to name some local places.  Guiding the children, allow them to brainstorm and think about how these places received their names.  Discuss what mental pictures the names of the places form.  Ask the children to web their ideas on a sheet of paper.

Assessing Student Learning: Activity One

Have the children discuss their ideas and share their webs with the class.  Students should be able to explain their brainstorming ideas based on the ways that places are named.

Activity Two

• Secondary Question # 2:  How did political and cultural aspects of life play a role in the naming of the ancient cities of Florence, Italy; Rome, Italy; Athens, Greece; and Alexandria, Egypt?
• Group the children into four small groups. Give each group chart paper, markers, a map of the world, and a reference book on place names (preferably the book called Place Names of the World:  Origins and Meanings).  Assign each group a city from the above mentioned cities.
• Tell the students to locate the city that they're assigned on the map.  Tell them to draw the country and the city on the chart paper.
• Ask the children to use the reference book to discover how the city received its name.  Ask them to illustrate on the chart paper how the city received it's name.
• Instruct the children to check the encyclopedias (whether On-line or regular) to confirm that the name was received as the reference book indicated.  Allow them to check their textbooks also for additional information on the city.  Tell the students to illustrate any additional information they discovered on the chart paper.
• Ask the students to refer back to their predictions page.  Do they see any predictions about the names that were confirmed?  Ask them to write or check off any confirmed predictions on the chart paper.

Assessing Student Learning: Activity Two

Have the students present their group activities to the class. The students should have the country and the city drawn on the map.  The students should have information written or illustrated on the map to identify how the city was named.  The students should be able to explain their work.

Activity Three

• Secondary Question #3:  How did your local town (and other well-known towns with same names) receive its name, and what political and cultural aspects influenced the naming?
• Instruct the children to go home and interview parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.. and ask them how the town/community in which they live received its name.  Instruct the children to write down any information they learn from their sources.
• Web any information on the board that the children discovered in their interviews.
• Place the children in groups (group them according to where they live), and allow them to research the place name assigned to them by using the Internet, encyclopedias, dictionaries, local and state maps, or place name books such as American Place Names or The United States Dictionary of Places.
• Ask the students to write a paragraph about how their community/city was named by combining the information they learned through the interviews and the information they gained through the above sources.  Ask them to include any cultural or political influences they might have discovered in their research.

Assessing Student Learning: Activity Three

Ask the students to share their feelings with the class.  Each group member should be able to explain their paragraph to the class.  Make connections from group to group as to similarities and contrasts between areas.

Activity Four

• Secondary Question #4:  How is the naming process between the ancient cities and the local town in which you live similar?  How is it different?
• Ask the students in each group to prepare a Venn diagram to chart the similarities and differences between the names and locations of global towns and local ones.  (Each group will be assigned a city to chart.)  The information they use to complete these diagrams can come from the webs completed in activity one, the charts completed in activity tow, and the paragraphs completed in activity three.  They may also use the reference material presented to them from the Internet and the Britannica On-line encyclopedia.

Assessing Student Learning: Activity Four

Ask the students to present the Venn diagrams to the class.  did they note similarities and differences?  Ask them to explain their diagrams.  Allow the groups to discuss, compare and contrast their diagrams.

Based on the above activities, ask the students to write a paragraph in response to the primary question.

• Invite your local Archives Director to come and speak to the class about the history of your community, city, county, and state.  Ask that he or she make global connections so the children understand how their heritage relates to that of the world.
• Invite your children and your parents to participate in a "Cultural Fair".  Research in depth the cities that the children have been studying.  Allow the students to decorate a portion of the room to resemble the city.  Ask that they prepare food that a person would eat in that city for sampling.  Then on "Culture Night", allow the children to be guides in the city.  Encourage them to dress and talk (or use appropriate phrases) as they would in the city.  Ask that they explain to the parents the connections that these cities have to our American cities.

Room, A. (1997). Place Names of the World: Origins and Meanings. Jefferson, NC:  McFarland & Company, Inc.

Stewart, G. (1970). American Place Names. New York, NY: Oxford Press.

The United States Dictionary of Places. (1988). First edition.  New York, NY:  Somerset Publishers, Inc.

Travel Europe Turismon Telemactico

Historical Italy

Britannica On-Line