Living Geography: A Lesson for Teachers

Living geography What’s the story? Wendy North January 2008 Living Geography • Geography that is made to come alive for children • It builds on an understanding of children’s `everyday geographies’ and helps to enhance geographical imagination and thinking • Concerned with their lives, their futures, their world • Often starts with local but is set in the context of the global (community) • Concerned with how their world is changing and whether this will lead to a more sustainable future for ALL Living geography - starts with me in my community Identity: • Who am I? • Where do I come from? • Who is my family? • What is my ‘story’? • Who are the people around me? • Where do they come from? What is their ‘story’? Identity Place Where we grow up and the `everyday geography’ we experience shapes who we become and … Identity Place … influences the choices that we make as adults. Identity is shaped by the geography that is all around us My place in the world: • Where do I live? • How does it look? • How do I feel about it? http://www.quikmaps.com/full/47961 Y5 Methodist J & I, Wakefield Identity is shaped by the geography that is all around us My place in the world: • Where do I live? • How does it look? • How do I feel about it? • How is it changing? • How do I want it to change? http://www.gowilder.org.uk/Oyster-Park/index.htm Oyster Park Junior School, Castleford Now Future Changing Places The Green, Ferry Fryston http://www.geography.org.uk/eyprimary/changingplaces/ On The Green I could see... a derelict space waiting for benches; smashed glass sprinkled everywhere you look; birds gliding gracefully through the air; desolate flowerbeds just waiting for blossom; broken branches and destroyed trees cover(ing) the landscape. On The Green I could smell... the newly cut grass; a cool summer breeze; Now some dry beer that had been spilt; On The Green I could feel... … the despair of a child who wants a park where she can go and feel safe. by Ella S MAKING BETTER PLACES Our School Grounds Now Eight steps to CHANGING our school grounds Is this a good or bad place for …? •Watching wildlife •Relaxing •Listening to stories •Playing games •Interesting buildings •Interesting artwork Audit: how do we feel? ☺ ☻ ☹ Now Audit – spy sheet Now We invited family, friends and Mark from the local planning office to come and see our ideas. Future ESD & Changing Places Main aspects of ESD promoted through the project: • • • • Citizenship & stewardship Needs and rights of future generations Quality of life Sustainable change http://www.gowilder.org.uk/Oyster-Park/index.htm Factors that support our understanding of PLACE Geographical Imagination Representation Location Geography is all around us Our `everyday’ geographical experience contributes significantly to our GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION … places that we visit first hand … places that are represented to us in the news, on the web, in stories, from family accounts etc .. Toss the Globe … places that we respond to through feelings • our emotional response  • Possibly the STRONGEST component of our Geographical Imagination Why are our geographical imaginations relevant to sustainable development? Knowledge Inference Emotion • It is the sharing of these views and ideas about places that helps us to reach a consensus about our own values and those of others. Sharing and discussing the representations we carry in our head is important geographical thinking and a vital precursor to thinking and acting in sustainable ways. Paula Owens, Geography Teaching Today, ESD http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/ks1-3-courses/course/primarygeography-and-education-for-sustainable-development/taking-it-further3/ Iran What kind of image do you carry around in your head? Photo Maurice Church Estfahan Living Geography Finally how might `living geography’ be brought alive in the context of distance places http://www.gowilder.org.uk/india-village/ First of all we did some focused activities in the classroom that helped us develop using four of our five senses. In this way we learnt that we could describe a place with lots of details and it helped us to bring the place to life through words. We followed this by using `freeze framing’ to help us take on the role of a character in the photograph. See our photographs on the right. CAN YOU WORK OUT WHICH FREEZE FRAME SHOWS … ? friends village school writing sieving concrete the way home Sieving concrete I can see some trees gently brushing against each other, my friends working hard. I can feel the soft blue powder the rough and hard wood. my bracelet tickling my arm. I can smell the misty air that blocked my nose. the moss on the trees and the dead leaves. Leah Photograph from Action Aid http://www.chembakolli.com/ the muddy floor I can hear the slight breeze shaking and rattling the trees my friends talking to me, telling me some things they are going to have for their tea. Everyday Geography • Sit and think for a moment: If you remember the geography you were taught at school, what comes to mind? • Now think about the geographical experiences you have in your everyday life. Everyday Geography, Fran Martin Primary Geographer, Autumn 2006 Everyday Geography • Which offers the richer and more meaningful experience? • When planning for geography how often do you start from either your own experience of the world or from children's direct experience of their world? See `Everyday Geography’ an article by Fran Martin: http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/images/text/PGAut06Martin.pdf • This PowerPoint was put together by Wendy North for the introductory meeting of the Young Geographers Project – 18th January 2008 • http://www.primarygeogblog.blogspot.com/ • http://www.geography.org.uk/projects/youn ggeographers/