Using picture books to develop geographical ideas

When teaching an integrated curriculum it is important to understand how the `big ideas’ from different curriculum subject or area can contribute the developing children’s understanding of the world.

Place space and interconnectedness are three of geography’s `big ideas’.  Here they are used in conjunction with `key questions’ to help you plan the geography component of a study  starting with a picture book that has a strongly geographical theme.

Using Picture Books to develop Geographical Ideas

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Using story: `One World’ by Michael Foreman

 

One World

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Starting from Picture Books – The Sea and Coast

Approaching curriculum planning with GEOGRAPHY and CREATIVITY in mind:

1. Use the books to provide you with the outline plan for a short or medium term unit. Three books that could provide a useful starting point for a KS1 & lower KS2 link ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY through GEOGRAPHY & SCIENCE.

• One World, Michael Foreman 0-09-983480-4
• High Tide, Low Tide, Mick Manning & Brita Grandström 0-7496-4181-9
• The Rockpool, David Bellamy & Jill Dow 0-7112-1386-0

1. Use the book in conjunction with an outline planning frame to identify key learning concepts that will be the focus of work with your class. An exemplar frame has been provided for `What if? (Mick Manning & Brita Grandström)

1. Decide which are the two/ three most important geographical concepts listed on the frame. These will form the basis of the children’s learning so highlight them. Do the same for other subjects. The time that you are able to devote to this unit/project will influence your choice.

1. Identify additional resources that will help you provide more in-depth learning in relation to identified concepts.

1. Plan activities to support learning.

WHOLE SCHOOL PLANNING

To ensure whole school continuity and progression you will need to identify where key geographical concepts will be taught by each class in school and map this onto your whole school plan.

Making Geography Happen

The photograph that forms the new banner for this blog was taken at a recent meeting of the `Making Geography Happen' group. This project, set up by the Geographical Association, involves teachers from two secondary schools and three primary schools. The teachers involved have been devising and teaching geography themes designed to motivate learning and to demonstrate how good teaching `can make geography happen' in classrooms.

To find out `what works' the teachers have involved their pupils in the evaluation. They have also been looking at what things help children progress in their geographical understanding.

I particularly liked this Year 7 (11-12 years) project on `The school of the air' in Alice Springs. One very motivational element of the project was the final presentation where pupils were encouraged to present their `reflection logs'in any way they chose. There were crocodiles with tongues that unravelled to show the logs. Rugby balls that opened up and even a `shopping trolley'.

Ideas and resources from this project will form a new section of the Geographical Association website. I'll put up a new post when the project goes online.

Nelamangala Market

We visited the market during our visit to Southern India in February this year. (This is a my experiment to find out what happens when I embed a Flickr slideshare into this blog.)

Dual Maps

Dual Maps is a stunning combination of StreetView Google Maps and Virtual Earth. Thank you to Noel Jenkins for sharing this website. I think it's great!

A new photo pack for Chembakolli

Action Aid recently published a new photo-pack for Chembakolli: Life in an Indian Village.

This is definitely the best photo-pack of the village to date. I really like the way that the writers of the pack have chosen to combine a full sized photograph on one side of a card with information and photographs on the reverse as this really helps us to see `the story' behind the picture. Something that I feel is crucial element of any resource on distant place.

I usually look at the photographs in a pack with a fairly critical eye, even more so since my recent visit to Southern India. The photographs in this pack are of good quality and show very positive images of the people who live in the area. These photocards also raise a number of issues about the lives of people in the village which could usefully be explored using a 'Philosophy for Children' approach. If you are still using the original pack and want to continue to teach about village life in India, then this pack is very worth considering.

You can find out more about this resource on the Action Aid website.

Further details can be found on the Action Aid website. If you order by the end of May you will get £10 off the catalogue price by placing a telephone order on 01460 23 8000 and quoting "Gudalur".