Making Connections with MapSkip

Our latest writing assignment was to write a five paragraph essay about helping our friends from Nespelem School learn a little bit about our life in Memphis, TN. We wanted to show them around town by identifying and writing about the city's hot spots.

The writing process was used to help turn a few ideas into a well developed ESSAY. Some of the great attention getters that were used to hook the reader are as follows:

• What city has the best barbecue, is home to the king of rock-and-roll, and is always hopping?
  
• The sweet sound of Memphis blues fills the streets of Memphis.
• "Yes!" I exclaim, with a rib in my hand, while the Memphis Tigers' point guard, Tyreke Evans, makes a three pointer against Tennessee. Oh, how I adore the Memphis Tigers and ribs.
• This city is like a playground for hyper children, but even more entergetic. This awing urban area is known as the soul of the Mid-south.
• Exhilarated, enthusiastic, and fully prepared, the sightseers are eager to arrive.
• "Walkin' in Memphis" is a song of the great City of Blues.
• Get ready to “put on your blue suede shoes” and head to the “land of the Delta Blues!"
• Dismissing the powder-like snow from my mind I thought about Bar-B-Q, basketball, and blues. As I took off on a plane from Denver I wondered what it would be like to show an out of town person the sights of my hometown, Memphis.
• The birth place of the blues, the new city sensation, and the loving generations make up the great city of Memphis!
  
• Sights, sounds, and great food are all a part of one of the greatest cities in the United States.
• Rendezvous, Graceland, and Beale Street are Memphis at its finest, but the Tigers, Grizzlies, and all the Rock n' Roll are, too.
• Flashy lights and beautiful music bring the town of Memphis to life everyday. When Memphis comes to life you have no chance of stopping it.
• The sky revealed its blanket of blue over Memphis, the city of history. Over time, many things have changed in our aged city, but some have not moved on.

After putting the finishing touches to the essays, it was time to take our visitors to these locations on the map. Each student located a favorite Memphis site and added a descriptive paragraph of support from the essay. Before long, stories were present all over the city and pictures were uploaded to provide a great visual.

To complete our unfinished project, we will be adding our voices which is another great feature of MapSkip. We hope our friends from Nespelem School will enjoy learning about Memphis history and its many wonderful sites. Before long, they will have the option of listening to them as well. Click on the picture for a short cut to MapSkip.


Click here to listen to the voice recordings of the students' paragraphs.