Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks map Upper ES / Social Studies Beacon, Navigation, Landforms, Ocean Provide an experience of navigation in darkness: Set up a challenge in a place that can be fully darkened, such as an interior room within the school building. The challenge could involve crawling on the floor through obstacles (such as a maze of desks and chairs) with a goal of reaching a certain point in the room. Explain the challenge to the students, and explain that they are ships in the night, sailing a dark sea. Ask them to crawl to the destination point without colliding with any objects or other ships (people). Have them begin the challenge, and then provide a tiny light in the far corner of the room. Discuss the experience of navigation in the dark. Display the map Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks and an image of the Continental Shelf southeastern United States for a week prior to the seminar. Give students the opportunity to look at them closely as time permits. As a whole group, discuss the features of the North Carolina coast as they are seen on these maps. List them on the board. Ask students to think about their experience navigating in darkness, and to imagine they are navigating around the seacoast as 1
portrayed on the two maps. Elicit talk about their experience orienting to the tiny light in the distance. Distribute copies of the map Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks to students so that they have the opportunity to examine it in detail. Discuss information and details that can be learned from this map, and record them. Ask what questions the map makes students wonder about. Share as appropriate: The Graveyard of the Atlantic is a nickname of [the area] known for numerous shipwrecks: the treacherous waters in the Atlantic Ocean from the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay at Cape Henry south along the coastline to the Outer Banks of Virginia and North Carolina;. When the arctic Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream meet, it causes very rough waters. In some cases, it also causes thick fog which increases danger Along the Outer Banks, navigational challenges posed by the Diamond Shoals area off Cape Hatteras, caused the loss of thousands of ships and an unknown number of human lives. More than 5,000 ships have sunk in these waters since record keeping began in 1526 The Graveyard extends along the whole of the North Carolina coast Cape Hatteras has been a deadly trap for sailors that have entered for past centuries. This stretch of shore is home to more than 600 shipwrecks off the shifting sandbars of the Hatteras Islands. The sandbars shift due to rough waves and unpredictable currents The first recorded shipwreck off the coast of North Carolina was in the early 16th century In June of 1718, Edward Teach better known as Blackbeard the pirate ran his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, aground near present day Beaufort Inlet, NC. During WWII, German U-boats would sit offshore and silhouette passing freighters and tankers against the lights onshore. Dozens of ships along the North Carolina coast were torpedoed by submarines in this fashion in what became known as Torpedo Alley. The most recent ship lost was on October 29, 2012: the Bounty sank off Cape Hatteras when Hurricane Sandy passed through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/graveyard_of_the_atlantic 2
As the background is shared, and the map examined, ask students to identify words that are unfamiliar, and list them on the (interactive) white board. Include: sound, inlet, bank, island, river, estuary, navigation. Provide student-friendly explanations for these (and other) geographical terms that come up. Note the word meanings by the words for future reference. Have students look closely at the map of the eastern seaboard. Discuss as a class what students think is the single most important geographical detail on this map. What makes these details important? Then ask students to find and list what this map, Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks, reveals about the coast of North Carolina that other maps do not. 3
What detail first stands out to you when you look at the Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks? (round-robin response) What makes this detail important? (spontaneous discussion) Look at the Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks: Why do you think the Ocracoke lighthouse is located where it is? Why is the Hatteras lighthouse placed where it is? What role does the ocean play in the placement of the lighthouses? Locate the coordinates (35 15 N; 75 30 W) and (35 00 N; 76 00 W). What does the map show us about these two points? Why have there been more shipwrecks in some areas than in others? Based on the maps, where are lighthouses most needed? Based on this map and our discussion, where would you most like to visit on the North Carolina coast? Why? 4
Ask students to make notes about ideas that they heard, said or thought during seminar related to navigation off the shore of North Carolina, and to the lighthouses of the outer banks. Why are the lighthouses where they are? After examining the map Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks, and our seminar discussion, write a paragraph in which you explain why the lighthouses are located in the particular locations that they are. Support your response with evidence from the text. (LDC Task#: 14 ) Return to the list of details recorded during the Inspectional Read, to the listing of words and meanings created during the Vocabulary Development section of the lesson, to their notes from the Analytical Read and the Transition to Writing. Discuss with students the structure of a paragraph and provide them with a paragraph template which they can fill in with their thesis statement (based on a sentence starter) 5
and allows them to list the evidence from the map Ghost Fleet of the Outer Banks to support their theories. Challenge all to draft their paragraphs according to the template and outline created. Have students pair up and read their paragraphs aloud to a partner with emphasis on reader as creator and editor. Listener says back one point heard clearly and asks one question for clarification. Switch roles. Give time for full revisions resulting in a second draft. Once the second draft is complete, have participants work in pairs again and this time take turns reading each other s second drafts slowly and silently, marking spelling or grammar errors they find. Take this opportunity to clarify/reteach any specific grammar strategies you have identified your students may need to complete this specific writing task. Give time for full revisions and editing, resulting in a third and final draft. Display students final drafts along with the maps of the coast of North Carolina. Invite other classes to view the display. Wendy Ikoku and Lynn Keith Providence Spring Elementary School 6
Text: http://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/nationalgeographic/20109?$product320x320$ 7
Continental Shelf southeastern United States 8