CREATING THE SUCCESSFUL GEOGRAPHY CLASSROOM Jane Evans Geography Facilitator 2013 Team Solutions

1. CREATING THE SUCCESSFUL GEOGRAPHY CLASSROOM Jane Evans Geography Facilitator 2013 Team Solutions

2. Introductions • Make sure you have signed the roll • General Administration • Agenda for day.

3. AGENDA: • Part 1: Teaching Geography as Inquiry • Part 2: Scaffolding towards the externals • Part 3: Understand requirements in incorporating geographic concepts

4. Know Your Learner • Get into a group of 3/4 people you do not know well • Using the 2 pieces of string, make the North and South Island • Write on the post-its 3 places that have special meaning to you. • Place these post-its either in or outside NZ • Share why this place is important to you to others in the group • See if there are any links between these places and others in the group.

5. What was the point of this exercise? • How can this translate to the classroom?

6. About Me:

7. Part 1: Teaching As Inquiry In groups discuss: • What do I understand by this term? • How do I use it in my teaching? • This is NOT inquiry based learning. • It is based on the Teacher and how they approach their teaching.

8. It is likely to be student centered as: • Best Evidence synthesis (BES) says that the best practice in Social Sciences is based on: • Alignment (student outcomes) • Connection (relevant) • Community (relationships) • Interest (variety and experience)

9. Teaching As Inquiry

10. Prior to Teaching • Setting your goals Course and Unit design • Differentiate - Know your student Teaching - Getting information across Evaluating - Review effectiveness • Learning • Consolidating information • Assessing understanding

11. Prior to Teaching • Setting your goals • Course and Unit design • Differentiate - Know your student Teaching - Getting information across Evaluating - Review effectiveness • Learning • Consolidating information • Assessing understanding

12. Setting Your Goals (group discussion) • What does a successful geography classroom look like? • What is it you want to achieve? • These are our outcomes

13. – Programme Design • What do my students need to learn? • - The AO’s should be your starting point • - Assessment should be the end not the start • - Decide what you think is important for a student to cover in a course of geography

14. A Course should include the following: • Physical geography • Cultural geography • Applied Geography (People/environment interactions) • Skills • Case Studies at a local / national/ overseas and global scale. • Current Geographic Issues

15. An Easy way to do this is a term of each: • Term 1: Physical Geography (ENE, Skills, global ) • Term 2: Cultural Geography (Pop, Skills ) • Term 3: Applied Geography (sustainable environments, Current issues)

16. Alternatively can break it up according to scale: • Term 1: My local community (Research, Current Issue, Skills) • Term 2: My Country (Pop, Skills, sustainability) • Term 3: Further Horizons (Global based on ENE)

17. How Effective is your course?

18. Use this to see the gaps

20. Once this is established then bring in other considerations.

21. Teaching Inquiry – what do I need to know and do?

22. Past Data: • Get to know your students in terms of interests • Use data available – NCEA results, e asTTle, Reports • Keep updating data – no of credits, how doing in other subjects. • Know who to target when doing activities • Design activities to be inclusive for less able students.

24. Remember: • It is the student you want to understand not the effectiveness of a course • If your numbers are low then comparing to national averages is irrelevant • You need to understand what it is that hinders their learning. • It is also important to understand the entry point of students so you can see any difference.

25. Activities to inform prior knowledge • Brainstorm • Pre-tests

26. Example of a Pre-test:

27. Activities to inform prior knowledge • Brainstorms • Pre-tests • Know-All (what we know, think we know, don’t know) • True / False Try the activity for Level 3 on Waves. Sort into True or False

28. Answers: • TRUE: 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12 • FALSE: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14 • Does anyone use any other effective techniques?

29. Prior to Teaching • Setting your goals • Course and Unit design • Differentiate - Know your student Teaching - Getting information across Evaluating - Review effectiveness • Learning • Consolidating information • Assessing understanding

30. The success of Teaching and Learning is based on literacy? • IN GROUPS • What do you understand literacy to be? • How do you try to promote this in geography?

31. Literacy is the written and oral language people use in their everyday life and work. It includes reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Skills in this area are essential for good communication, active participation, critical thinking and problem solving. • Geoliteracy is the ability to use geographic understanding and geographic reasoning to make decisions

32. This has become a new catch phrase as: • ALL except (1.4 and 1.8) AS are now literacy standards. We therefore must take responsibility to teach them. • Numeracy and Literacy NZQA

34. Providing The core information • Use of film or documentary • A You Tube clip • Use of a power point • Use of visuals – maps / photos/ diagrams • Teacher instruction • Use of a text-book • Use of a newspaper article • Use of internet • Use of manipulatives • Games

35. Students learn best in different ways • V isual • A ural • R eading and writing • K inesthetic • You must therefore do a variety of activities that matches these. Try a combination.

36. Visual: • Show a You tube clip or power point as an introduction that can be followed up by discussion. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFZz6ICzpjI • Use photographs to extract characteristics

37. Visual: Question dice • 1. What • 2. Where • 3. Who • 4. Why • 5. When • 6. How • Differentiate from basic to higher level.

39. Aural: • Complete a dictated diagram • Teacher reads a passage • Students draw what they hear • After teacher finished student goes back and adds captions to pictures. • For example what are the effects of an ENE on people?

40. Aural: • Do a running dictation • Words on the wall – groups have to find the answer and tell the others who write it down. (great to introduce terms)

41. Reading • What strategies have you tried? • Highlighting key words or phrases • Skim and scan • Reciprocal Reading strategies • Paragloss (write down key terms only)

42. Writing • For getting notes down scaffold this from: • Completing a close • Giving the first few words and getting students to complete the sentence • Providing the key ideas and getting them to put these together • Providing a graphic organiser or writing frame

44. Many Activities require students to engage with text: Match the task in your pack to the appropriate activity

45. Manipulatives: • Dominoes – put cards in order • Matching terms • Flow charts – put a process in order

46. Try to combine several of these: • For example if teaching the processes causing an ENE to occur: • 1. Show a DVD clip and get students to identify key words • 2. Using the key words see if they can explain how the ENE was formed in a group discussion. • 3. Using cards put the processes into order • 4. Draw diagrams to go with these stages • 5. Underneath write sentences that explain what the diagrams show.

47. Prior to Teaching • Couse design • Unit design • Differentiate - Know your student Teaching - Getting information across Evaluating - Review effectiveness • Learning • Consolidating information • Assessing understanding

48. Consolidation means: • Ensure understanding of core information • Expanding on that core and going beyond. A chance to put information together and make links. This is where most ‘thinking’ happens. • Many of the games used are explained in your pack

49. Seeds of possibility waiting for the right conditions

50. From this you can differentiate activities: Students generally learn best in the following order: • Doing / Action / Kinesthetic • Speaking and Listening / Aural • Watching /Drawing / Visual • Reading and Writing Scaffold towards this