Online Learning Activities, Writing Activities

Global Trek: Virtual Travel Around the World

Students can travel the world from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe without leaving the classroom, learning about the country of their choice and “meeting” the locals.

Suitable for grades 4–8, “Global Trek” offers students a unique, fun opportunity to “tour” a foreign country with help from our itineraries, which feature background information and details about the local people.

• Starting with Book Your Trip, students choose a destination and departure date/time online as if they were interacting with a travel Website. Then students can read about the history, background, and culture of their chosen country, and can “meet” locals.
• During their journey, students can write a travel journal to share what they’ve learned.
• Classport allows you to connect to other classrooms around the world and communicate with them via instant translation.
• In Join the Journey, students follow the journey of Tim Kent, who races around the world alone in sailboat. They can read his journal, ask him questions, and read his answers to other student questions. A glossary of sailing terms familiarizes students with the sport.
• Students can demonstrate their comprehension of the country they visited by creating a Global Postcard.

Learning Objectives

Scholastic's Global Trek is designed to support the teaching of standards-based skills. Depending on how much time students spend in the course of participating in Global Trek, students will:

• Investigate people, places, and environments
• Use technological resources to gather information about the country and culture that they visit
• Study global connections and interdependence by reading online text in order to meet the people of the country they visit
• Gather, evaluate, and synthesize data by participating in the Suggested Itinerary Tours
• Generate ideas and questions about issues and interests by interacting with Tim Kent in the Around Alone race
• Use Classport technology to collaborate and communicate with students around the globe
• Use written and visual language to communicate their experiences, thoughts, feelings, collect pictures and write captions about the memorable moments of their travels
• Demonstrate an understanding of the countries and people they visited by completing the Write About It and Global Postcard sections of Global Trek