Travel through Literature with Google Lit Trips

Submitted 10 years ago

Community Review for Google Lit Trips

Cathy M.
Cathy M.
Instructional Technology Integrator
K–12 school
My Rating
Pedagogy
Supports

My Take

There are a variety of lit trips that can be downloaded from the Google Lit Trip website. Some trips may be more in-depth that others, depending on the book. As of this time most lit trips from the website have to be downloaded to open in Google Earth. As the site is being updated, some of the books can now be accessed through Google Tour Builder. It is only recently that Tour Builder is now able to open these files in Chrome and on a Chromebook in 2D. For a teacher, creating a lit trip does require skills in using Google Earth or Google Tour Builder. For student creators, you should allow instructional time for students to learn the software or web application. Build in time for the creation of a lit trip or for students using a lit trip as part of their instructional learning time.

How I Use It

My Google Lit Trip was used in conjunction with a book that students were reading. The purpose of the lit trip was allow students to make connections to the characters in the book as well as the place settings geographically, which allowed students to "travel" along with the book. Additional resources such as websites, video, and images we added to the place-marks that supplemented student learning and facilitated engagement.

More community reviews for Google Lit Trips

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Allison L.
Allison L. Teacher Belle Vernon Area School District Rostraver Township, PA
June 15, 2016

Helps to further engage students in knowledge pertaining to characters and setting

This is a great resource for literature. In my 8th grade classroom many of the students have a limited knowledge of geography as it pertains to the literature they are reading. In most cases this app lets them explore the setting and click on links to extend their knowledge of the area being referred to in the setting of a novel. The only disadvantage is the amount of information for each novel in not consistent, so if it a novel students chose independently some students may have more information available to them than others in the classroom.
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Cara B.
Cara B. Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk (Rcs) Middle School Ravena, NY
October 20, 2015

Travel Through Literature with Google Lit Trips

This resource will grab students attention and bring the book to life. One of the downfalls I found is using Google Lit Trips for a story set is back in history. The path students take and actual locations show how they look today, not back during the time the story took place. Some students will have a hard time picturing how the setting would have looked in the past. The resource itself is easy to use and contain common core questions to incorporate into your discussion or activity. This is a great background activity at the start of the story; or culminating activity for the end of a book.
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