Tasks for the Geographer: To Kill a Mockingbird

Tasks for the Geographer — To Kill a Mockingbird

PRESENTATION #1: Questions

To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is fictional, but the author, Harper Lee, grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. Find it on a map of Alabama.

What is the longitude and latitude of Monroeville?

What city in Japan is about the same latitude?

What is the climate like, including precipitation and temperature, in Alabama?

  Season

Average Temperature

Precipitation

  Summer

  Fall

  Winter

  Spring

Useful website: Clickable Map of the U.S.

What crops are grown in Alabama?

What other industries are there in Alabama?

What is the state flower of Alabama?

What is the state bird of Alabama?

Find a flag of Alabama and copy or draw it to show to your group.

Useful websites:

Alabama

Alabama History On-Line

PRESENTATION #1

Write or circle the following states, counties, and cities on a map of the United States to show to your classmates:

  Alabama

  Mobile (the state capital)

  Auburn (has an engineering school) (p. 10) [p. 13}

  Abbottsville (where the Cunninghams go on Sundays) (p. 10) [p. 12]

  Tuscaloosa

  Winton County (where Scout's teacher is from) (p. 16) [p. 21]

  Mississippi

  Meridian (where Dill lives)

  Florida

  Pensacola (where Mr. Nathan Radley lived) (p. 12) [p. 14]

  Pennsylvania

  Philadelphia

  Virginia

  Appomattox

Useful websites:

Clickable Map of the U.S.

The Fifty States

PRESENTATION #1: Vocabulary

Are the following plants or animals? Find a description and, if possible, picture for each. For birds, find the song of the bird on the Internet, if possible.

  azalea

  bluejay

  bob-white

  camellia

  cannas

  chinaberries

  gardenia

  geranium

  kudzu

  martins

  mimosa

  night-crawlers

  oak

  pecan

  roly-poly

  whippoorwill

Alabama State Flower

Where do camellias come from originally?

PRESENTATION #2: Water and Transportation

There are many words in the novel about places with water, such as Finch's Landing in Chapter 13. Find the meaning of the following geographical words and explain them to your classmates.

  landing (pp. 4, 79) [pp. 4, 106]

  bluff (p. 79) [p. 106]

  jetty (p. 79) [p. 106]

How were goods transported to Finch's landing? (p. 4) [p. 4]

Name five goods the family could not make or grow themselves. (pp. 4, 79-80) [p. 4, p. 106]

BONUS: Internet Task

Click on http://wheeling.weirton.lib.wv.us/history/bus/river/boatdex.htm. (Click to see a larger photograph.) and find Photo Gallery of Boats on the Ohio River for the 1930s. Choose the two photographs that are the most interesting to you and copy or print them to show to your classmates.

PRESENTATION #2: Drought「干害」

Go to Farming in the 1930s and look at the map about drought. Click on the different years.

Which year was the drought in the U.S. the worst?

Which years was there drought in Alabama?

BONUS: Read some Tall Tales「駄法螺」 about the drought. Choose one you think is funny to tell your classmates.

(Which of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird tells "tall tales"?)

Created by CA Edington, Spring, 2005; revised Spring, 2012

Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

Season	*Average Temperature*	*Precipitation*
Summer
Fall
Winter
Spring

Alabama	Mobile (the state capital)
	Auburn (has an engineering school) (p. 10) [p. 13}
	Abbottsville (where the Cunninghams go on Sundays) (p. 10) [p. 12]
	Tuscaloosa
	Winton County (where Scout's teacher is from) (p. 16) [p. 21]
Mississippi	Meridian (where Dill lives)
Florida	Pensacola (where Mr. Nathan Radley lived) (p. 12) [p. 14]
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia
Virginia	Appomattox

azalea
bluejay
bob-white
camellia
cannas
chinaberries
gardenia
geranium
kudzu
martins
mimosa
night-crawlers
oak
pecan
roly-poly
whippoorwill

landing (pp. 4, 79) [pp. 4, 106]
bluff (p. 79) [p. 106]
jetty (p. 79) [p. 106]