Bella Kincanon ID portfolio

This is a template for the ID portfolio page, where you will document your instructional design work in progress during this semester. This template is used to organize your own portfolio page. DO NOT EDIT the template page itself. See the video guide on how this project works and how to set up your ID portfolio page: Zoom Video If you need to see examples, see Gërt Arnold Portfolio Page; Sarah Stolberg's Portfolio Page.

Navigation links: ETAP 623 Fall 2026 | Link to my mini-course front page

About Me

My name is Bella Kincanon and I am a first year middle school social studies teacher. I graduated with my undergraduate degree in Social Studies Adolescent Education from SUNY Brockport in May of 2025. I am currently working towards my masters degree in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology at the University at Albany. I was a building substitute teacher at Frontier Middle School last school year and I am currently a 7th grade social studies teacher at a charter school in downtown Buffalo. I am a huge Buffalo Bills and Sabres fan, I enjoy reading, and I love coffee!

My Topic and Purpose

My mini-course is about teaching students geography for the first time. Geography is a complicated topic, as there are many parts to it. Reading a map is also complicated, because there are many different parts to remember. Geography is very important and useful for every day life. When you are driving or walking somewhere and have to follow directions on a map, when you are traveling somewhere and have to know the general area of where you are going, when there are world conflicts happening - knowing where these conflicts are. These are all very important reasons why geography is so important. I am doing this mini-course because I was teaching geography to my students for the first time this year. They were mostly unfamiliar with maps and did not know the difference between states, countries, and continents. Starting at scratch was very difficult, and having a mini-course to lay it our for me in order and pace me would have been very helpful.

Scope of Learning Outcomes and Content

This mini-course will address multiple areas of concern. It will cover teaching students how to read a map and the key components of a map. It will also teach the students what geography is and why it is so important in their daily lives. On top of that, students will learn about their local state geography, as well as US geography as a whole. These following questions will be addressed:

• What is geography?
• What are the key components of a map?
• How do I read a map?
• What are the main geographical features in the United States?
• What are the states in each of the 5 regions of the USA?
• Why is geography important in my every day life?

Needs Assessment

The Educational Problem

Social studies is not a required subject area in some schools, especially in elementary schools. This means that many students have not been introduced to or familiarized with social studies concepts before. Geography and map skills are very important in life, so it is imperative that we properly teach our students about it. With having little-to-no social studies or geography exposure, it is important to start with the very basics. Introducing the features of a map (ex. the title, key, scale, kinds of maps, etc.) is a good place to start. Telling students why we learn geography and why it is important not only for background knowledge, but also daily life. When students are driving and have to follow a GPS for directions, or reading the route of a bus or train, that is all mapping skills that they will need. It is also important for students to be exposed to geography in other content areas. In English class when students are reading, they should be shown a map of where the story takes place so that the students have exposure and more awareness. When future teachers are in school to teach social studies, they are learning what strategies work best for keeping students engaged and connecting them to the content, we are not usually taught how to teach students a brand new concept. English and math teachers teach brand new concepts constantly, but with social studies it is almost always new information with a previously existing concept. That is why mapping and geography can be tricky, we are not usually equipped to teach brand new concepts. According to an educational source written in similarity to this topic it says, "Knowledge of where things are in the world, whilst useful for a geographically informed citizenry, can also be seen as a part of a wider set of spatial thinking skills", (Hill & Wynn, pp. 2).

The Learners/Participants Involved

This mini-course was created for any educators that are teaching geography and mapping basics to their students for the first time, or close to their first time. It is meant to break down the small unit and help organize it and provide help for teachers struggling with this specific unit. Not only will this break the unit down for the teacher in an organized way that makes sense, but it will also provide what the teacher and student roles will be. The participants in this course will likely be middle school or upper elementary aged students. They should be either completely or mainly unfamiliar with basic geography and mapping.

Analysis of Gaps

For this specific issue of mapping and geography, the educators should move away from students memorizing all fifty states (or countries in North America, South America, etc.), and focus more on spatial thinking skills. This is important because students have to be able to determine when things are far away or close to one another. If a student is planning a day-trip out of state, they have to know that it should be a neighboring state, not one a couple states away. Spatial understanding in geography is important for daily travel, vacations, and certainly traveling overseas. Spatial understanding does not only help with social studies, but it can help in other content areas as well. When reading a book in ELA that takes place in Munich, Germany, knowing that that is a long flight away and an entirely different place than where they live. By focusing more on the spatial understanding and less on the memorization, this will make the latter come much more naturally for the students.

Existing Efforts

The lack of geographical understanding in middle school students came as a big surprise when I started teaching. I tried to teach my students about New York States geography and have them memorize the fifty states and where they are, but then realized that there may be more important geographical information for them to learn. By taking a new approach and teaching the students about directions (they have to know the North, South, East, and West for American History), and spatial understanding, this will be a much better introduction to geography than making them memorize the fifty states.

Analysis of the Learner and Context

The participants in this mini-course are current classroom educators, college students doing their student teaching requirement, or even college students completing unit planning for a course or doing their field experience. This should mainly cater to teachers that are teaching 5th or 7th grade social studies. The students they are teaching should have very little to no background knowledge of United States geography. As a spring 2025 college graduate and first-year classroom teacher for 7th grade social studies, I have noticed a major gap for some students in their geographical knowledge of the United States. Participants should be at the beginning of the school year, as an understanding of the United States geography is imperative to learning United States history. Students having this knowledge of United States geography will make the participants lives much easier when it comes to teaching the rest of their social studies units. This will prevent the need for completely reteaching, and will just require short review at the start of each unit. Participants are welcome to alter the timing of this course to fit the needs of their students and classroom, but pacing will be provided with this course as a general guideline. Students will need access to United States maps, colored pencils, pencils, and blank maps to participate in this mini-course.

Performance-Based Objectives

After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to:

• Categorize the difference between a country, state, and city, and be able to teach it in an organized way.
• Demonstrate their understanding through the creation of lesson plans that follow the curriculum map.
• Create a geography lesson plan that strategically breaks the United States into regional groups for better student understanding.

Task and Content Analysis

Prerequisites Needed:

Introduction

Course Overview and End Goal

Learners will be able to:

• Explore the course layout and expectations
• Identify the end goal
• Outline needs and goals

Unit 1

Introducing Geography: How to Read a Map

• Define geography and key terms
• Identify and use map elements
• Interpret different types of maps (political, physical, etc.)

Unit 2

Why Geography Matters: Why We Study It

• Explore the real-world importance of geography
• Connect geography to students' lives and current events
• Find strategies to build student interest and relevance

Unit 3

U.S. Geography: Places, Reigons, and Features

• Identify and locate major reigons
• Explore key physical features
• Utilize activities and maps to build student geographic knowledge and spatial skills

Unit 4

Assessment

• Evaluate practical ways to assess mapping and geographical skills
• Utilize a variety of assessment types (mapping quizzes, projects, short responses)
• Review a sample assessment and rubric you can adapt for your classroom

Curriculum Map

Bella Kincanon Mini-Course Curriculum Map