For this week’s blog post, I visited the website of National Geographic and looked at their project of Out of Eden Walk. I was able to dive deeper into three areas, Out of Africa, Autumn Wars, and the Riverlands.

The first subtopic is Out of Africa. There is a map that details the trail that was taken and the stops along the way. There are also multiple articles on each milestone, day, and adventure. To incorporate this into my classroom, I would have the students visit the website and read each individual article. I would then have them complete an assignment where they are to write their own narrative story of what their walk-through Africa would look like. They would have to draw a map, then write a story that follows that journey. What did they see? Where did they stop? All these questions can be answered by reading the articles and using them as inspiration for their own narratives.

In Autumn Wars, there is an article called Ghost City. It talks about a fence that is a green line that separates northern and southern Cyprus. Throughout the article, Paul Salopek describes the town and how it looks. He also gives examples of what is on each side. For this assignment, I would have the students read the article and research Ghost City. I would then have them draw their own Ghost City and what they think it would look like using this article and research as their inspiration. I could use this activity as an introduction to a novel we are reading in class if the two ideas were similar. For example, maybe I could use this as an introduction to World War II as they share similar ideas like isolation and ghost towns.

Lastly, we reach the Riverlands. In this subtopic, there is an article called My Path, My Journey, My Experience: A Chicago Artist Brings Home a Global Walk’s Mission of Connecting. In this article, Haman Cross III reflects on his journey and how he brought it home to educate people in Chicago. He reflects on how his journey changes his perspectives and helped him discover who he is truly is. For this assignment, I would have students read this article, then reflect on one experience that they had in their owns lives that makes them who they are today. I think this would be a great closing project because it allows the students to reflect on their readings as well as their own personal lives. It creates a deeper connection with the content and gets them thinking of how they can make changes in their own lives to benefit themselves and the people around them.