Geography Teaching Today

'What children think about a country is of course more important than the ability to name it. In recent years, numerous activities have sought to reveal their images and ideas. Generally, it appears that infants and lower juniors tend to associate their countries with food and animals but are likely to be confused. Older children exhibit a wider range of responses but also include an increasing number of negative images such as war, famine and poverty...

... If left unchallenged, crude stereotypes can easily harden into prejudices, especially when reinforced by peer or group pressure. Infants it appears, learn attitudes in the same way that they learn facts. Stereotypes are thus fairly easy to dislodge at this age. By the time pupils reach secondary school their attitudes are much more entrenched and difficult to modify.'
Scoffham (2004) p.20-1

Extract from Primary Geography Handbook Chapter 1 'Young Geographers' by Stephen Scoffham.

Also read about the development of some essential skills in Primary Geography Handbook Chapter 9 'Images in Geography; Using photographs, sketches and diagrams' by Margaret Mackintosh.

Getting started

• Ask the children to write one thing that they know about India on a sticky note. Those who don't know anything could ask a question.
• Collate or display the results.
• Incorporate what you have discovered in your investigation.

Children's issues and misconceptions

Remember that India is a vast country with many different landscapes, communities and a vast heritage. Focusing on small scale and contrasting localities will help you to avoid generalisations which are often misleading.

Using and making maps

• Use globes, maps and plans at a range of scales to locate and describe the country and specific localities.
• Zoom in on India using Google Earth. Discuss what you see on the journey. What impressions do the children form from the satellite image?
• Identify and map patterns of land use in a studied locality - groups could map the same area at different times of the year.
• Compare the distribution of endangered species such as Bengal Tigers, now and one hundred years ago. Challenge pupils to draw a map to show the distribution in 100 years time and explain why. Provide a base map for this and use information from one of the sites suggested in the lesson plan.

Fieldwork opportunities

When you are studying a distant locality you are unlikely to be able to visit, remember that when making comparisons with your own lives you will need to draw on relevant aspects of locality knowledge that can only be properly understood through first hand experience i.e. fieldwork. There are however other things that you can do to make distant localities come alive:

• If possible, invite someone who has lived or worked in India to come and talk to the children about their experiences of their life abroad.
• Create a multi-sensory learning environment using e.g. food and a diverse range of artefacts.
• Explore the possibility of an email link with a school in India and possible teacher exchanges.
• If you are lucky enough to establish (and maintain) a link with an overseas school, you can exchange information about your own localities. Use local fieldwork as the basis to answer questions that may be posed by your partner school.
• Investigate how you can explore your locality to support understanding about how your place is linked to your area of study and the wider world e.g. shops, docks, restaurants, markets, museums, places of worship.
• Use the Ashden Awards 5 minute films which include some useful films depicting aspects of everyday life in India. You can 'hot seat' pupils and ask them to imagine they are there and get them to answer questions from their peers.

Primary framework opportunities

Literacy: There are many stories which are set in India. The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling) is one of the most famous. The People Who Hugged the Trees (Deborah Lee Rose, Roberts Rinehart Publishers, 2001, ISBN 0911797807) is a traditional tale with an environmental focus. Creating rich sensory experiences in the classroom through role play areas and providing ample talk time creates a rich learning environment for speaking and listening.

Numeracy: Find out about geometric rangoli patterns. Alternatively, you might explore the power of multiplication using the picture book One Grain of Rice (Demi, Scholastic, 1997, ISBN 0-590-93998-X).

© bbjee / Flickr.com

Activity ideas

1. Use a world map to plot how you could get to a chosen place in India and how long it would take to get there. What is the most sustainable means of travelling? Which would be the quickest?
2. Watch one of the films from the Ashden Awards about sustainable energy solutions from India and look at some of the accompanying activities - lots of ideas here.
3. Compare a small scale locality with your own that focuses on aspects of everyday life. Identify similarities first and then discuss some differences. Children could write diaries set in the UK and India to compare daily life. Use Google Earth or a similar programme to zoom in on regions and ask pupils which are they would like to study. Then plan internet research to find answers to questions posed.
4. Investigate a range of artefacts used by people in your chosen region - include modern as well as traditional items.
5. Compile a fact file about India including information about the climate, rivers, mountains, main cities, flag, currency and languages (but include a small scale locality study to make learning relevant to pupils' own lives).
6. Investigate items used at home that may originate from India, e.g. clothes, jewellery and discuss why they are made there and imported to the UK.
7. Find about famous Indians such as Mahatma Gandhi or Ravi Shankar. What did they do? Why are they famous?
8. Make a study of Indian animals. Tigers, snakes and elephants are all endangered and are easy to investigate using the internet and library books. (See lesson plan)
9. Look at a Bollywood film to capture the flavour of India. Children might copy some of the dances.
10. Find out about the varying climate of India. How hot does it get in summer and when does the monsoon arrive? How does your chosen locality compare with other regions of India? This could be a good data handling exercise using charts and tables.
    

Children's Voices

India: Children's Needs, Children's Rights (UNICEF, 1998, ISBN 1-871440-13-0) is an excellent resource which focuses on the lives of different people in India and is framed around the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

ICT

• The BBC interactive whiteboard package Living in Contrasting Environments (ISBN 978-1-4066-1241-7) contains a unit on monsoon areas.
• Oxfam and other aid agencies also produce films and videos about India and other parts of the developing world.
• Use the internet to search for information and capture images to use in a PowerPoint presentation - give a short talk to another class. Using a range of images to zoom in and show scale can be highly effective.
• Use internet mapping software.

Assessment for learning

• Use starting points from the pupils to establish a baseline of attitudes and knowledge and use this to frame pupils' questions.
• Adapt planning as you go depending on pupil progress.
• Have clear learning goals and share these with pupils - not just for each lesson but what you all hope to have learnt at the end of the unit.
• Use 'target buddies' to check each other's work using given criteria and feedback.

Displays

Set up a display table of Indian artefacts. This could include Indian food from a local shop, pictures and maps of India, Indiam fabrics and clothing, souvenirs. If possible have a listening station for Indian music as well.

Additional resources

Acker Backa Boo by Susan Winter and Opal Dunn (Frances Lincoln, 2006, ISBN 9781845075156)
Swami and Friends by R.K. Narayan (University of Chicago Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0226568317)
Tiger Child by Joanna Troughton (Puffin, 1950, ISBN 978-0140382389)

Recipes Indian
Pataks Education - Simple Recipes for Kids

The Global Teacher Project

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