How Do You Get There?

Giving and receiving directions is a task that comes up often in everyday activities. The website www.mapblast.com takes all of the guesswork out of this task by providing roadmaps and written directions for travelling between any two addresses. The “LineDrive” step by step driving directions that accompany each map are surprisingly accurate and easy to read.

Literacy Objective: Students will be able to read and write simple directions.

Computer Objective: Students will be able to find and print directions using the website www.mapblast.com.

Material: A computer with Internet access, a local map

Level: Beginner/Intermediate

Preparation:
Before beginning this lesson students should have had some practice reading cardinal directions and other related vocabulary such as turn left, turn right, bear right, bear left, begin, continue, exit, and ramp. Students should also have access to a local road map and be familiar with the names of local streets and cities.

Introduction:
As an introduction to the website, have students look up directions from their home to the school.

1. Run Netscape.
2. Go to www.mapblast.com.
3. Click on Directions.
4. In the From section, type your address.
5. In the To section, type your school’s address.
6. Click on Get Directions.

They could read through the directions and compare them to the route that they normally take to school. They could also answer questions like:

Is this the way you come to school?

How many kilometers is it from your home to school?

Does it take you more or less time to get to school than the travelling time shown on the website?

Procedure:
The next part of the lesson will provide students with additional practice reading directions. This activity should be completed in pairs or small groups. Each group will need a local map. Give each student the name of a different neighbouring city. Have them use the mapblast.com website to look up and print out directions from your city to this neighbouring city. The students will then take turns reading their directions to the group. The other students will try to follow the directions on a map and then guess the destination.

Adaptation/Extensions:
This site could be used with literacy students in numerous ways. After they’ve had ample practice reading directions on the website, students could then use the site to practice writing directions. You could provide students with a direction map from Mapblast and ask them to write the different steps involved in the trip. They could then compare their directions with the ones on the computer. Along with the obvious practice reading and writing directions, the distances mentioned on this website could also be used in a numeracy lesson to reinforce decimals and metric.