The World is sort of FLAT & Cuba is next to Africa

4th graders had just arrived to do "research." They each had an explorer. I had created WebPages at various reading levels (3 & 4) that answered all the questions their teacher had given them. I wanted to insure their success and believed the WebPages would make their reading easier. Each page had two graphics - a portrait of the explorer and a map showing their explorations.

Admittedly, the questions they were seeking answers for were not interesting. They were things like --birth and death dates, the dates of their explorations, and locate two interesting facts. They were then to draw the explorers routes on a blank map provided by the teacher. The purpose of this was to learn material that will be covered on the TCAP tests, and to practice map skills.

Here are the results that four 4th graders came up with from my Cabot page.
http://www.westmeade.net/Library/EuropeanExplorers/Cabot.html

1. Cabot died in 1557.

2. Cabot got 10 pounds of fish for his explorations from the King of England.

3. He explored North America.

It made me aware, once again, what we understand is proscribed by experience.

The first child either read so poorly that she never saw that the ships sank on his 2nd expedition and he and his crew were never heard from again, or she apparently didn't realize that the article moved on to talk about John Cabot's son and his accomplishments.

The second child made a completely logical leap --- Cabot found an abundance of fish in the harbors of Newfoundland and the King rewarded him for his exploration with 10 pounds of fish. He had no idea that he knew so little that his assumptions would be completely false.

The third child had no ability to articulate in the specific what Cabot explored.

Adding to the problems of some of the children was the fact that the map they were using to draw the routes didn't have any of the Caribbean islands on it. This is a big problem for those who had Columbus or deSoto. I quickly penciled in Cuba.

When I returned to check on this group-- I found that one of the children had drawn deSoto's route from Madagascar to Florida. Even after a discussion of the fact that Florida was not in Africa the student still maintained that Madagascar was the only thing that look like Cuba on the map.....sigh......

Our little friends need much more exposure and much less testing for specific skills and facts over which we will judge their learning and judge the effectiveness of the teachers who teach them!