Activity 4: Where Has the Population Gone? (GLEs: 4, 8, 10)

Materials List: physical map of Louisiana, Where Has the Population Gone? BLM, sticky notes, colored markers/pencils

Have students view a physical map of Louisiana and label the following parishes using a sticker (e.g., sticky note): East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany.  Provide students with the Where Has the Population Gone? BLM. Explain to students how a pictograph depicts symbols (whole or portion) to represent the population as units (i.e., 50,000 people per unit).  Provide the students with the 2000 Census data regarding the populations of the selected parish groupings (i.e., East Baton Rouge – Livingston – St. Tammany @ 695,934 and Orleans -   Plaquemines – St. Bernard @ 578,660).  Have the students create basic symbols to represent every unit of 50,000 people denoted for the parish groupings (EBR-Livingston-St. Tammany with 13.9 symbols and Orleans-Plaquemines-St. Bernard with 11.5 symbols). The 2000 Census website will provide the needed figures: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22000.html.

Provide students with a description of Hurricane Katrina’s path and its devastation on Southeast Louisiana.  Provide students with the Census population estimates for 2006 of the same parish groupings (i.e., East Baton Rouge – Livingston – St. Tammany @ 774,483 and Orleans -   Plaquemines – St. Bernard @ 261,414).  Have students create a pictograph representing the post-Katrina population estimates for the parish groupings (EBR-Livingston-St. Tammany with 15.5 symbols and Orleans-Plaquemines-St. Bernard with 5.2 symbols).  Have students reflect on the results.

Have students revisit the map of Louisiana.  Students should label each parish within a grouping (i.e., EBR-Livingston-St. Tammany and New Orleans-Plaquemines-St. Bernard) with two different colors indicating which parishes experienced a population increase or decrease.  Have student reflect on the proximity of the parishes to each other and relative to the devastated areas.

Using the RAFT (view literacy strategy descriptions) writing activity, have students summarize and synthesize their reflections concerning the population shifts depicted in the pictograph. 

RAFT is an acronym in which:

            R -  stands for assuming a Role

            A -  stands for selecting an Audience to address

            F -  stands for choosing a Format in which to write

            T -  stands for a Topic

 Additional Resources

• Hurricane Katrina (Vicki Blackwell’s Extensive Hurricane Katrina Site)

The RAFT strategy integrates reading and writing in a creative way. Students take the information obtained through reading and create a new product that demonstrates their knowledge and understanding of the content.

Have students select an option from the chart below and create a basic media product regarding the effects the population shift has had on any of the following:

a) displaced population and the existing residents

b) economy of the two areas 

c) possible short term and long term effects

RAFT Options for Population Shifts

Allow time for students to share their RAFT assignments with a partner or the whole class. Students should include accurate and logical information in their RAFTs based upon the content they have learned.

• RAFT Writing  Interactive

• Raft PPT Template Option 1

• Raft PPT Template Option 2

• Raft PPT Template Option 3

• Blank Raft Template

Louisiana state map sites

2000 Census information