Geography Teacher Educators’ Conference
Brighton, 27th-29th January 2006
Mark Jones, University of the West of England
• Geography and English in Year 9
• English and geography trainee teachers
• English and geography Tutors
Strange Bedfellows: Emerging relationships
between geography and English.
Re-constructing connections across the curriculum
•English and Geography
•Sequence of 5 collaboratively planned lessons
•Year 9 post SATs English lessons
•Tourism through a range of media and genres
Landscapes of Language
Extract from Scheme of Work
English Lessons
Learning Objectives
Student
activities
Resources
Learning
outcomes
1 – Perceptions of
Kenya
 explain through talk,
your thinking giving
reasons
demonstrate an
awareness of the
reliability of different
texts
understand differing
perceptions of a
country’s tourism
potential
starter ‘Odd
one out’
Perceptions/
prior
knowledge
Card sort
and/or
washing line
activity
Pair and
small group
discussion
Interactive
white board &
Powerpoint
Annotated
flags
Flags as text
Kenya Flag
Card sort
packs
Small group
exploratory
discussion
Perception of
Kenya charts
Lesson 1
Learning objectives
• explain through talk, your thinking giving
reasons
• demonstrate an awareness of the reliability of
different texts
• understand differing perceptions of a country’s
tourism potential
What topics have you covered in geography and English
this year?
Can you see any links between how and what you learn in
these two subjects?
Odd one out
What is the relationship between these flags?
What do you think this country is like?
Write down what you know about Kenya?
Write down any questions you have about Kenya?
EXIT strategy: Wray and Lewis
Kenya is in East Africa.
Where can we get sources
of information on Kenya?
• internet, travel brochures, travel guide
books, TV holiday programmes, films,
photographs, postcards, people who have
been, diaries, autobiographies, news
reports, newspapers, radio, atlas, school
text and reference books, people from
Kenya
Questioning reliability of sources
Unreliable
Reliable
What issues and questions were raised by doing this activity?
Image of model Book Cover and
opening chapter format
• Image and title of a
book cover
• E.g. Living on the
Edge – Life in Sao
Paulo
• Opening page of a
chapter
Homework: Fiction writing
·
·
·
·
Write the opening of a story which is set in
Kenya. In this you should:
introduce a main character -write in first person
narrative style
include reference to factual geographical
information which you have researched, using
technical vocabulary
encourage the reader to want to read on
design a front cover & title
•Word processed or handwritten on landscape A4
• Image of pupils’ original creative writing by
a Year 9 student
• Book Cover word-processed and opening
chapter to story set in Kenya
When the Tourists Flew in
• Task
1. Put a ‘+’ by lines which include positive
features of tourism
2. Put a ‘-’ by lines which include negative
features of tourism
3. Use a key to show which lines talk about:
Economic (Ec) - Cultural (C) and
Environmental (En) aspects of tourism
What impression do
you get of this place?
Where do you think we
might find a photograph
like this?
What’s my title ?
Task: Holiday Brochure images
Red, tropical plants
Poolside Paradise
Tall, green palms
Indigo- blue sky
Clean swimming pool
Problems in Paradise
Water supply needed –
where from ? Who loses out?
Task to be completed for Friday
• Produce a code: How to be a responsible tourist
• Either :
1 – Storyboard for an in-flight video
2 – Instruction sheet to be located in
the seat pocket
3 – Version aimed at younger travellers
e.g. informative cartoons, poster
Original Image of
pupil A’s finished
poster –
responsible
tourism
Original Image of
pupil B’s finished
poster –
responsible
tourism
Lesson 1
research
Flags as text, reliability of
information, initial perceptions
Lesson 2
Different perspectives on Kenya.
Homework task – Opening page
Lesson 3
Holiday brochure - positive/negative
aspects of tourism
Lesson 4
Poetry – cartoons – Homework task
What is responsible tourism?
Lesson 5
Video captions, talking
heads, role play
research
Question -What have these 5 lessons felt like?
4th Qtr
Geography
Qtr
More Geography than3rd
English
2nd Qtr
English & Geography
1st Qtr
English
Pupil quotes on 0
views about English
and geography
10 More
20 pupil30
40
50
quotes on working together
Mote
quotes from data
% students’
responses
Range of genres and media
Trainees’ Collaboration
Critical
Thinking
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Rocks
Mountains
Industry
Urban
Migration
Caribbean
Ice
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Disasters
Weather
Creative
Rivers
use of facts
Sea
Biomes
Environmental issues
Rural
Speaking and listening, reading and writing
• Rocks Who am I? An oral exploration of characteristics of
different rock types and minerals e.g. Limestone, mudstone,
chalk and diamond to produce creative definitionsof different
rocks using personification
• Mountains What are mountains like? Paired research into
different mountain ranges in relation to climate, flora, fauna,
aspect, human activities with emphasis on using synonyms and
antonyms. Creative writing outcome of a ’Recipe for becoming
a mountaineer’.
• Migration What is it like to live in a favella? Use of text ‘Beyond
all pity’ extracts to introduce life in a Brazilian Favella. Outcome
of diary entry to develop emotive and figurative writing in
response to a chosen scenario.
• Caribbean How do hurricanes affect us? Use of poem
‘Hurricane hits England’ by Grace Nichols and autobiographical
account ‘Twenty-five years ago on Ambergris Caye’. Write
poem on ‘Hattie hits the Caribbean’; using personification.
• Example of trainee work – 1
• Mountaineer recipe
• Example of trainee work – 2
• Personification of mineral - Diamond
• Photograph of UWE Trainees at Gallery
style Presentation of work
Trainees’ perceptions after
collaboration
Quotes of English
and geography
trainees after the
Collaborative
experience
Re-constructing connections across the curriculum
What are the constraining factors ( systemic, pedagogical,
ideological ) to your creative collaboration with colleagues
who have differing subject /age phase expertise? What
support would help you to overcome these barriers?
How does collaborating creatively with colleagues, in the
interests of promoting your students' learning, contribute to
knowledge transfer within your HEI and the
wider educational community which we serve?
Landscapes of Language