Preservice Teachers Map Compassion: Connecting Social Studiesand Literacy Through Nonfictional Animal Stories
Audrey C. Rule • Sarah E. Montgomery •
Sarah M. Vander Zanden
� Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Nonfiction stories of animal compassion were
used in this literacy-social studies integrated lesson to
address both efferent and aesthetic stances in transmediation
of text from picture books to maps. Preservice early child-
hood and elementary teachers chose places from the nine
recent children’s stories, symbolizing them on a map while
completing other map elements such as legend, index, title,
and compass rose. Compassion and social-emotional skills
were woven into the project by representing the affective
tone of story events at various places through choice of place
name adjectives. A social studies extension included analy-
sis of how the five themes of geography were depicted on the
map. Synopses of the books, one map made by first graders,
and three preservice teacher-made maps, along with efferent
and aesthetic elements and examples of geography themes
from the maps are included. Suggestions for implementation
and extension of the lesson with early elementary students
are provided.
Keywords Compassion � Map skills � Literacy
integration � Reading response � Social-emotional skills
Introduction
This article presents an activity using true stories of kind-
ness between animals or between humans and animals in
integrating literacy and social studies to develop young
children’s compassion. An excerpt from Tarra & Bella:
The Elephant and Dog Who became best friends (Buckley
2009), one of the picture books used in the activity, shows
how a retired circus elephant stood by her injured dog
friend at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.
For a long time, Tarra remained standing in the same
spot, so the caregivers thought that Bella must be
close by. But still, they couldn’t see or hear her. After
a big search around the area, they finally found Bella
lying in a shallow ditch, almost completely hidden by
tall grass. She was clearly hurt and could not walk,
but Tarra never left Bella’s side the whole time they
were waiting for help. (p. 16)
Similarly, this section from Owen & Mzee: The true
story of a remarkable friendship (Hatkoff et al. 2006) tells
how a baby hippo named Owen, rescued from being
stranded alone on a reef after a tsunami, began a friendship
with a 130-year old tortoise named Mzee at a wildlife park.
As soon as the ropes that held him were untied, Owen
scrambled from the truck directly to Mzee, resting in a
corner of the enclosure. Owen crouched behind Mzee,
the way baby hippos often hide behind their mothers
for protection. At first Mzee wasn’t happy about this
attention. He hissed at Owen and crawled away. But
Owen, who could easily keep up with the old tortoise,
did not give up… …When the park workers checked on
them in the morning, Owen was snuggled up against
Mzee. And Mzee didn’t seem to mind at all. (p. 16)
Compassion
The animal stories on which this article focuses all show
caring of one animal for another or caring between animals
and humans. Daniel Goleman (2005) defines compassion
A. C. Rule (&) � S. E. Montgomery � S. M. Vander Zanden
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, 618 Schindler
Education Center, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls,
IA 50614-0606, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
123
Early Childhood Educ J
DOI 10.1007/s10643-013-0597-2
as ‘‘a benevolent attitude, a predisposition to help others.
Compassion lifts us out of the small-minded worries that
center on ourselves and expands our world by putting our
focus on others’’ (p. x). Compassion is an important skill
for developing a sense of unity with others in a diverse
society. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the
Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (2013) explained:
The more we care for the happiness of others, the
greater our own sense of well-being becomes. Culti-
vating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others auto-
matically puts the mind at ease. This helps remove
whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives
us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encoun-
ter. It is the ultimate source of success in life.
There is a growing interest, reflected in educational
policies in many countries, including the United States, in
the development of social and emotional skills of students
as a way of improving their well-being, adjustment, and
academic performance (Humphrey et al. 2011). These skills
include such competencies as self-awareness involving
understanding one’s own emotions, self-management of
emotions or behaviors, social awareness of the emotions of
others and empathy/sympathy for others—compassion
(Denham 2005). Important relational skills identified by
Denham include social problem solving, cooperation, lis-
tening, turn-taking, and seeking help. Students’ early years
are an important time for growth of these skills, which if not
developed, may result in discipline problems and poor
academic performance (McClelland 2006) leading to
increased risk of dropping out of school, substance abuse,
delinquency, and violence (Richardson 2000). Learning
how to use social skills to engage in democratic discussion
to negotiate exclusion and explore multiple perspectives
can be an integral part of an early childhood curriculum
(Paley 1992; Vasquez 2004). Implementing a program that
addresses social-emotional skills during a child’s early
years has been shown to reduce aggression and increase
desirable social behaviors (Schultz et al. 2011). Promoting
social-emotional skills is also important within teacher
education given that preservice teachers can also change
their attitudes regarding the treatment of others if they
undergo methods courses that provide new experiences and
expose them to diverse perspectives with group support
(Garmon 2005). Integration of social-emotional skills with
literacy-social studies lessons in methods courses, as
described in this article, may lead to their meaningful
application and practice in classrooms.
The Affinity of Children for Animals
The nine picture books selected for this activity featured
animals. Synopses of the books are provided in Table 1.
These picture books were selected because children have a
natural attraction to animals; animal compassion stories
can be emotionally compelling for children. Animals fill
most children’s worlds via real pets (three-fourths of
American children own pets) and true or fictional animal
characters in books, videos, toys, and games. Children’s
innate interest in animals is shaped by their home and
school experiences, influencing the kind of persons into
which they develop (Melson 2005). Interactions with ani-
mals such as classroom pets can even have an impact on
children, for, according to Bartlett (2006), the presence of
these animals allowed students to soften harsh behaviors, to
take academic risks in return for the chance to cuddle a
furry creature, and to turn attention from watching wist-
fully out the window to observing the indoor animals.
Using stories of animal compassion to promote social-
emotional skills among children is relevant given the sci-
entific evidence that animals experience compassion.
Family dogs have been shown to display consolatory
behaviors toward distressed children in experiments (Zahn-
Waxler et al. 1984). Laboratory rats and pigeons exhibit
strong emotional responses to the suffering of others of
their species, acting to stop the source of misery through
pressing a bar in the cage. Experiments indicate that
monkeys will even starve themselves when they know
taking food will result in a shock being administered to
another nearby monkey (Preston and de Waal 2002). Such
findings provide support for the use of non-fiction chil-
dren’s literature about animal compassion in classrooms.
The stories on which this project focused are particularly
powerful because they are true, providing satisfying proof
of animals caring for each other and for humans, and
affording the opportunity to consider questions of how we
treat others. Nonfiction animal stories can also teach
humane education, an area of growing interest because of
its positive impact (Ascione 1992) not only on treatment of
animals, but on students’ attitudes toward each other. Faver
(2010) found that children’s aggressive behavior caused by
exposure to family violence was prevented or interrupted
by animal-related humane education lessons that taught
respect, kindness, and compassion. Humane education
programs have been shown to positively impact student
behaviors such as reduction in school suspensions through
violence-prevention lessons that featured a shelter dog
(Sprinkle 2008) and an Australian humane education pro-
gram ending with a visit to an animal shelter, which
improved boys’ attitudes toward other people (Arbour et al.
2009). A study (Esteves and Stokes 2008) focused on
observations of social interactions of three elementary aged
children with developmental disabilities with their teacher
during the presence of an obedience-trained dog indicated
an increase in overall positive initiated behavior toward
both the dog and the teacher. Similarly, another
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investigation (Anderson and Olson 2006) documented the
positive effects of promotion of emotional stability,
improved school attitude, and facilitation of learning about
responsibility, respect and empathy when a dog was pres-
ent in a self-contained classroom of six children diagnosed
with severe emotional disorders. Additionally, Prokop and
Tunnicliffe’s study (2010) showed that long-term contact
with animals through pet ownership improved children’s
attitudes toward unpopular animals, such as crop pests
(potato beetle), predators (wolf), and potential disease
carriers (mice), along with children’s knowledge of ani-
mals in general. Responding to non-fiction animal com-
passion stories may, therefore, positively impact student
development of social-emotional skills.
Table 1 Synopses of Books
Book Brief synopsis of compassionate event(s)
Tarra & Bella: The elephant and dog who became best
friends (Buckley 2009)
Tarra, a roller-skating elephant who has retired from the circus, lives at the
Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Tarra made friends with a stray dog named
Bella. When Bella was injured outdoors, Tarra stood by her for hours, waiting for
help. After Bella was taken to the animal hospital, Tarra visited her and helped in
her recovery so that they could return to playing and roaming together in the
sanctuary
Nubs: The true story of a mutt, a marine, and a miracle
(Dennis et al. 2009)
A small mixed breed stray dog whose ears had been clipped, ‘‘Nubs,’’ led a pack of
wild dogs in the desert of Iraq. Nubs developed a friendship with Brian, an
American soldier, who fed him scraps. When Nubs was wounded, Brian nursed
him back to health, rubbed his belly, and allowed him to accompany him as he
kept watch. When Brian moved 70 miles away, Nubs followed, walking alone
over the cold desert. Brian and his friends raised money to fly Nubs to a safe
home in San Diego with Brian
Winter’s tail: How one little dolphin learned to swim
(Hatkoff et al. 2009)
A young dolphin became entangled in a crab trap, causing ropes to strangle her tail.
A fisherman released her from the ropes, but she was too exhausted and wounded
to swim away. The dolphin was taken to an aquarium where her damaged tail fell
off. She slowly recovered, learning to swim with a prosthetic tail and
encouraging children with prosthetic limbs who visit her
Owen & Mzee: The true story of a remarkable friendship
(Hatkoff et al. 2006)
On the coast of Kenya, some river hippos were feeding close to the sea when a
tsunami wave stranded a young hippo on a reef. People rescued the hippo, but
could not locate his hippo family. The hippo, Owen, was taken to a wildlife park
where he met a 130 year old tortoise named Mzee. The two developed a strong
friendship, swimming and eating together along with sleeping next to each other
at night
Molly the pony: A true story (Kastor 2008) A pony was left alone in a barn for 2 weeks during Hurricane Katrina. The pony
was rescued and taken to a pasture, but a vicious dog bit the pony’s leg, inflicting
deep injury. Luckily, the pony received a prosthetic leg and learned to walk and
trot with it. Molly the pony visits children’s hospitals and retirement homes,
making new friends
Two Bobbies: A true story of Hurricane Katrina,
friendship, and survival (Larson and Nethery 2008)
A dog and a cat, each with bobbed tails, were left behind during Hurricane Katrina.
They wandered around New Orleans for 4 months until being taken to an animal
shelter. The dog and cat were placed in separate pens, but the dog howled and
barked until the cat was allowed to sleep next to her. It was discovered the cat
was blind and the dog had been taking care of her. They were adopted together by
a new owner
Dewey: There’s a cat in the library! (Myron and Witter
2009)
A tiny kitten was left in the library’s return box and was adopted by the librarians
to live at the library. The kitten, named Dewey Readmore Books, helped out by
entertaining and comforting library patrons
And Tango makes three (Richardson and Parnell 2005) In Central Park Zoo, two boy penguins did everything together, including sitting on
a rock in a nest they made because they could not lay a real egg. The zoo-keeper
had an egg that needed care and substituted it for the rock. The penguins hatched
the egg and raised the chick named Tango, becoming a family with two daddies
Hachiko: The true story of a loyal dog (Turner and
Nascimbene 2004)
Hachiko the dog waited for Professor Ueno every day to return from the university
on the train. One day the old man died at work, but Hachiko continued to wait
faithfully for him at the same place every day for 7 years, searching the
passenger’s faces as they exited the train, looking for his master. The people of
the town raised money to make a brass statue at the train station in his honor for
his loyalty
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Social Studies Integration with Literacy
At a time when social studies education is being marginal-
ized in classrooms across the nation, using children’s liter-
ature about animal compassion is a timely, practical
approach to subject integration (Boyle-Baise et al. 2011). In
reading and responding to these high-interest texts, educa-
tors can support students’ social-emotional skills and inte-
grate the citizenship aims of social studies education into
their literacy teaching. Educators can use these texts not only
to engage student interest while promoting reading com-
prehension, but also to cultivate compassion and promote
tolerance within and beyond their classrooms.
While there are many ways that educators could have
students respond to and make deeper meaning of these texts,
this paper describes how map creation was used to expand
preservice teacher comprehension, promote social-emo-
tional development, and practice social studies mapping
skills of using coordinates, showing items in plan view, and
creating a legend. In the examples we explore here, preser-
vice early childhood and elementary teachers created maps
in response to these animal compassion stories, demon-
strating their comprehension and interpretation of the stories.
Reader Response and Transmediation: Communicating
What is Understood
Louise Rosenblatt’s Reader Response Theory (1994, 1995)
remains a dominant approach to interacting with texts in
classrooms at many instructional levels. Her work chal-
lenged the idea that text holds authoritative meaning. She
demonstrated that readers transact with what they read,
producing as many interpretations as readers for a single
text (Rosenblatt 1995). Rosenblatt discussed two modes of
experiencing text, the efferent stance and the aesthetic
stance. The efferent stance involved gathering factual
information and understanding what the text is communi-
cating while the aesthetic stance is an interaction lived
through each individual’s experience (Rosenblatt 1995).
The aesthetic response is emotional and unique: no two
readers experience the text in the same manner. This per-
spective on transacting with text relates to our current work
focused on animal compassion stories. Preservice teachers
constructed unique maps with places from the books after
reading the same texts. These maps simultaneously inclu-
ded elements of an efferent and aesthetic stance, demon-
strating the complexity of human-text interactions.
Students can respond to text in a variety of ways.
Transmediation, or the transfer of meaning from one sign
system to another (such as from text to drawings, or in the
case of this project, from text to map) has long been
accepted and encouraged in language arts classrooms
(Suhor 1984). Transmediation is generative in the sense
that there is no one-to-one correspondence from one sign
system to another (Siegel 1995): new connections and
depictions of meaning are made. Learners must invent ‘‘a
way to cross this gap and in doing so they engage in both
reflective and generative thinking’’ (Siegel 1995, p. 473).
Working with a range of media and creating visual as well
as verbal texts such as making picture books or maps, web
pages, engaging in discussions, ‘‘can show children the
many decisions they need to make when producing texts in
different media for various audiences’’ (Janks and Comber
2005; Comber in Larson and Marsh 2005, p. 65). In this
project, preservice teachers moved from nonfiction picture
books to collaborative small group map constructions. Our
work focused on preservice early childhood and elemen-
tary teachers because they need to experience the decision
making required in these sorts of lessons involving trans-
mediation so that they may lead their future students.
The Literacy-Social Studies Lesson
This section provides a description of instructions given to
preservice teachers and how the classes discussed their
work as a community of learners.
Map Making
Preservice teachers in three different sections of a curriculum
class at a Midwestern United States university first examined
some large maps made by first and second graders. One map
was a full-scale replica of a zoo built with Duplo� plastic
toys (shown in Fig. 1), another showed a spooky imaginary
Halloween village (with haunted house, cemetery, and
swamp), and a third, titled, ‘‘Santaland,’’ depicted places
from several holiday-themed stories. Important map features
such as legend, grid coordinates, North arrow, index, and title
were discussed. Then, preservice teachers formed nine small
groups, one for each of the animal story books .
The following instructions describe the tasks for the
preservice teachers.
1. Read the story at your table, keeping a list of the places
described and their emotional tones. Places not directly
described but alluded to can also be included. Prepare
for retelling of the story to classmates that will occur
later when you present your map work.
2. Create places from your story on the large classroom
map with glued-on colored paper, crayons, and mark-
ers. This map has large rectangles on it that will be
used to define a grid. Each group should restrict the
total area they use to the size of one of these
rectangles, although the various places can be located
in different rectangles on the map.
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3. The way that you choose to represent your understand-
ing of the book through the map is up to you. You will
want to make sure to include key literary elements such
as: main characters (although most real maps don’t show
people or animals because their locations are transitory,
we can put them on this map), important places in the
book (setting elements), and plot elements such as
problems, solutions, key events that occur at the places.
4. Important emotional themes of the story should be
embedded in the place names given to the elements
shown on the map. Use adjectives to show the
emotional events that occurred at the various map
locations. Every item shown on the map needs to be
labeled with an emotional adjective and a noun for the
place or object.
5. Your group will also complete one of the following
map components on the classroom map: title, author,
date, legend symbols of manufactured structures,
legend symbols of natural features, compass rose,
scale, grid coordinates, and index.
Class Discussions
After the map had been completed, each group of preservice
teachers took a turn to retell the animal story to the class and
Fig. 1 Full scale zoo map made
by first graders who first
modeled the zoo with toys
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to locate the various places from the story on the map. They
noted the emotional tone of each event and the place at which
it occurred, explaining the way they named and depicted the
place on the map. Preservice teachers used the legend, index,
and map grids as they presented their information.
Groups examined the completed maps from other clas-
ses and discussed differences in how the stories were
transmediated to the maps. Personal interpretations and
valuing of different aspects of the texts were considered.
Some of the stories addressed controversial or social-
emotionally-loaded issues. Preservice teachers were asked
to identify emotionally-sensitive issues in the books and
discuss the feelings they elicited.
Analysis and Discussion of the Lesson Results
This section provides an analysis of the different aspects of the
maps: the components of maps depicted by preservice teachers;
place names chosen for the maps; social-emotional issues that
were discussed; errors and insights made by preservice teach-
ers; and geography themes they depicted on the maps.
Fig. 2 Map of places from nine
stories titled, ‘‘The Land of
Love,’’ made by pre-service
teachers
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Map Components
The maps made by preservice early childhood and ele-
mentary teachers contained most of the components
required for an effective map: title, author, index, grid
system, and legend. The ‘‘scale’’ feature was not completed
for two of the maps because the scale of the places men-
tioned in the different stories varied greatly; there was no
easy way to assign one scale to the entire map. The authors
and date were hidden on the maps shown in the figures to
protect privacy. Map features can be seen in the three map
images, Figs. 2, 3 and 4.
Three unique maps were produced, demonstrating the
variety of ways preservice teachers responded to the readings.
They visually represented the emotional components of the
stories differently, showing their personal interpretations of
the same stories and demonstrating that mapping is a socially
constructed activity: what preservice teachers noticed as sig-
nificant in the text, they privileged by including it on the map.
Compassionate Place Names
Social interaction/emotional ideas were found in most of
the place titles used on the maps. Some of the strong
Fig. 3 Map of places from nine
stories titled, ‘‘The Journey to
Find Love,’’ Made by Pre-
service Teachers
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negative emotions elicited from the stories included these
place names: Bleak Big Easy, Broken Home, Sorrowful
Sabaki River, and Tearful Train Station. Examples of place
names conveying hope, caring, and positive change
embraced: City of Almost Joy, Compassionate Animal
Hospital, Empathetic Librarian’s House, Rescuing City of
Malindi, and Welcoming Construction Site. Several place
names suggested excitement and action: Galloping
Grasses, Hectic Penguin House, Lively Zoo, Peppy Pet
Store, and Zestful Central Park. The places where the
happy outcomes of the stories occurred were noted with
joyous place names: Best Friends Elephant Barn, Chum
Springs, Joyful Ranch, Loving Library, Merry Meeting
Place, Miraculous Malindi, Pleasant Pasture, and Sunny
San Diego.
Preservice teachers often used literary devices and
knowledge of letter sound relationships to increase the
appeal of the place names. Alliteration, repetition of con-
sonant sounds, was used to make many place names
charming and memorable. A few notable names were:
Captured Corner, Healing Homecoming, Playful Pond,
Recovery Road, Side-Kick Creek (the ending sounds) and
Fig. 4 Map of places from nine
stories titled ‘‘Kind and Friendly
Community,’’ Made by Pre-
service Teachers
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Zealous Zoo. One place name contained a rhyme: Com-
munication Station. Another place name, Unique New
York showed assonance, repetition of the long vowel
sound. Preservice teachers adhered to the instructions in
labeling places, which reflected an efferent stance,
although the literary devices they employed reflected an
aesthetic stance. Together the factual labels and their lit-
erary style heightened the viewer’s understanding of the
preservice teacher’s perceived relevance of the place in the
books he or she read. The Bleak Big Easy, for example,
connotes the severity of the situation in New Orleans
during Katrina in Two Bobbies (Larson and Nethery 2008)
but does so by drawing upon its culturally joyous history.
Social-Emotional Issues
Preservice teachers recognized several controversial issues
present in the books. The most emotionally-charged issue
mentioned by teacher candidates was the controversy
surrounding use of And Tango makes three (Richardson
and Parnell 2005) that showed two male penguins
hatching and parenting a penguin baby because gay par-
enting, which some preservice teachers feared parents
of elementary students might find objectionable, was
portrayed as naturally occurring in the non-fiction story.
Other areas of social emotional concern were animal
rights issues associated with circus and performing ele-
phants in Tarra and Bella (Buckley 2009), or animal
abuse issues connected to clipping the ears of Nubs
(Dennis et al. 2009) or abandoning a small kitten like
Dewey (Myron and Witter 2009) in a frigid metal book-
drop box. Additional conversations addressed human or
environmental events that hurt the animal characters:
Winter the dolphin (Hatkoff et al. 2009) whose tail was
strangled in crab trap ropes, Owen the hippo (Hatkoff
et al. 2006) who lost his family during a tsunami, Molly
the pony (Kastor 2008) who was abandoned in a barn for
2 weeks during hurricane Katina, and the Two Bobbies
(Larson and Nethery 2008) who lost their home during
the same hurricane. Dialogue centered on the complex
issues of justice present when one has to prioritize rescue
efforts and distribute resources for helping people versus
animals during natural disasters. Last, not all discussions
had a negative tone; students mentioned the inspiration of
Hachiko’s loyalty (Turner and Nascimbene 2004) and
their satisfaction with the respect of the Japanese people
for the dog when a statue was erected to honor his
devotion.
Table 2 Examples of how the geography themes were shown on the student-made maps
Geography theme Efferent feature Aesthetic components tied to compassion
Location Map grid coordinates (Figs. 2, 3, and 4)
Identification of specific cities and countries
(Figs. 2, 3 and 4)
Peaceful Kenya in A-1 of Fig. 2 conveys protection and
friendship of the wildlife refuge in Kenya
Loving Library located at B-2 of Fig. 2 represents the caring
attitudes of personnel and patrons toward Dewey the cat
Place Waterways in C1 of Fig. 3. Galloping Grasses was
the grassland areas mentioned in Tarra and Bella.
Japanese cherry blossom trees in A-1 of Fig. 4
Tearful train station A-1 of Fig. 4
C-1 of Fig. 2 conveys peace and freedom through multiple
placements of the Tarra and Bella figures with the subdued
colors
A-2 of Fig. 3 Dry and Lonely Desert connects the isolated area
and with ensuing emotions that caused the soldier and dog to
reach out to each other
Human environmental
interaction
People’s pets made homeless by Hurricane Katrina
A-1 Fig. 3
Welcome construction site A-1 Fig. 3
Humans rescued baby hippo after tsunami in B-3 of Fig. 3 at
the Sorrowful Sabaki River
The Shading and color tones of the drawing show tragedy. B-2
of Fig. 4 shows the Happy Penguin House and Peaceful
Waters in which contented penguins glide through the pool
Movement Paw prints indicating the path of Nubs from Iraq to
California (Fig. 2, A-2 to B-3)
Brown path used to show Nubs’ journey (Fig. 3,
A-1, A-2, A-3, to B-3 and C-3)
C-3 of Fig. 3. Dolphins show sleek movement through
curvature of bodies and placements of images in relation to
each other
Detailed elephants showing zigzag movement in B-3 of Fig. 2,
indicating their freedom of roaming through terrains (Forest,
grassland, pond) and playfulness through spouting of water
Region Zestful central park in B-1 of Fig. 4 has park
boundaries that delineate this region
B-3 in Fig. 4 has a boundary between Lonely Iraq
and Merry Meeting place in Jordan
The Bleak Big Easy (C-4 of Fig. 4) used emotional labeling of
this place and dark colors (purple, brown, dark green) to
indicate stark, miserable tone
Unique New York of C-3 of Fig. 2 shows the vibrancy and
diversity of urban life with many shapes and colors
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Preservice Teacher Errors and Insights
Preservice teachers’ maps demonstrated many correct
geographic and mapping concepts, but some errors in stu-
dent thinking were evidenced on the maps and during map
interpretation tasks. Some preservice teachers struggled
with using the grid to locate items on the map, with
describing the relative cardinal directions between places,
and with depicting buildings in plan (bird’s eye) view. The
scale in Fig. 2 is an example of student error. One group of
preservice teachers assigned a scale that worked for the
parts they had placed on the map without considering its
applicability to other parts of the map. Such findings
indicate a need for increased mapping experiences in tea-
cher education courses.
Geography Themes
The maps created by the preservice teachers demonstrated
efferent and aesthetic stances that could be aligned with the
national social studies theme of People, Places, and Envi-
ronments (National Council for the Social Studies 2013)
and, specifically, the five themes of geography: Location,
Place, Human/Environment Interaction, Movement, and
Regions, (Petersen et al. 1994). Examples of these con-
nections can be found in Table 2. Identifying how the
completed maps aligned with these themes according to the
efferent or aesthetic stance helped preservice teachers think
geography education could be integrated with social-emo-
tional skills in their future classrooms through mapping
stories about compassion.
Conclusion
In this section, we provide ideas for assisting early child-
hood students in understanding maps, along with ways to
extend the lesson into service learning inquiry.
Suggestions for Adapting this Lesson to Early
Childhood Students
These lessons were conducted during an instructional
methods course with preservice teachers who were learning
how to teach social studies and compassion to elementary
students. Practicing lessons appropriate for early elemen-
tary students allowed the preservice teachers to review
social studies mapping skill content and to become familiar
with recent children’s literature addressing compassion.
Although the lessons described in this article were carried
out with teacher candidates, they could easily be applied to
first and second graders. Recent additional children’s books
highlighting animal friendships that may be useful to early
childhood classroom teachers are listed in the Appendix.
Beginning the lessons with examination of commercially-
made or student-made maps is helpful to building skills.
While reviewing these maps, support early childhood stu-
dents in identifying the various ways map features are
depicted. The efferent and aesthetic stances may be iden-
tified for early childhood students as factual information
and aspects related to feelings.
Remind early childhood students as they prepare to
create their maps to show buildings in plan view. Standing
and looking down on toy items (or using a digital camera to
photograph them from different positions) can help stu-
dents understand how map view and front or side views of
an object differ. Showing videos of towns and countryside
shown from a helicopter or airplane can also help students
understand plan view.
Extending Compassion Mapping to Service Learning
While developing maps in response to compassion-themed
texts is a practical way to integrate literacy strategies with
map skills and geographic themes, creating these maps can
spark early childhood student interest in becoming better
informed and engaged citizens regarding issues of animal
welfare. For example, the animal compassion stories may
prompt some students to conduct additional inquiry on
animal rights or animal abuse. Other students may want to
acquire more details about how animals are being impacted
by changing habitats and human actions, such as defores-
tation or commercial fishing. Interest in policies and pro-
cedures for evacuating people and their pets during natural
disasters may be ignited through this project.
Using service learning, a teaching strategy that com-
bines the integration of academic curriculum with com-
munity service and student reflection, students can move
beyond mapping compassion to cultivating compassion
(National Youth Leadership Council 2008). Specifically,
early childhood students could inform others in their school
or community about their inquiry findings through making
bulletin boards, creating poster displays, writing scripts and
performing puppet shows, or authoring and illustrating true
animal stories themselves. The classroom teacher might
assist students in partnering with a local, national, or
international agency that addresses animal welfare issues.
Perhaps students want to raise money for the elephant
sanctuary mentioned in Tara and Bella, adopt an elephant
or other endangered animal through the World Wildlife
Fund, or gather funds for the local Humane Society or
animal shelter. Mapping compassion in response to non-
fiction texts like those mentioned in this project may
inspire learning beyond map construction. In addition to
supporting early childhood students’ reading comprehen-
sion and map literacy, this teaching approach can promote
Early Childhood Educ J
123
students’ overall social emotional development, encour-
aging them to become increasingly compassionate citizens
who advocate for change.
Appendix: Other True Stories of Animal Friendship
Antle, B. D. (2011). Suryia and Roscoe: The true story of
an unlikely friendship. New York, NY: Henry Holt and
Company.
Buchholz, R. (2013). True love: 24 surprising stories of
animal affection. Washington, DC: National Geographic
Society.
Cantrell, C. (2011). A friend for Einstein, the smallest
stallion. New York, NY: Disney-Hyperion Books.
Holland, J. S. (2012). Unlikely friendships for kids: The
leopard & the cow and four other stories of animal
friendships. New York, NY: Workman Publishing.
Holland, J. S. (2011). Unlikely friendships: 47 remark-
able stories from the animal kingdom. New York, NY:
Workman Publishing.
Holland, J. S. (2012). The dog and the piglet and four
other true stories of animal friendships. New York, NY:
Workman Publishing.
LaLand, S. (2008). Random acts of kindness by animals.
San Francisco, CA: Red Wheel/Weiser.
Thimmesh, C. (2011). Friends: True Stories of Extraor-
dinary Animal Friendships. Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt
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