Geography Teaching Today

Selection of content: I chose to produce work related to our local river, the Great Ouse, in King's Lynn. This decision was affected by available time and health and safety. Personally I learnt a fantastic amount about the river that I didn't know before.

Download: Sue's Learning Journey

Course Leader Comments: Sue engaged in a personal odyssey to take photographs and find out more about the Great Ouse and its tributaries. In total she created seven information-sharing PowerPoints. These exemplify the way one enthusiastic teacher has collected her research and communicated it through a series of visual and verbal notebooks. One example PowerPoint has been provided on this page - 'A journey down river'. If you have a particular interest in studying the River Ouse you may want to contact Sue and ask her to share additional examples. She has collected together an impressive photo gallery.

If you were going to use some of these images with children think about how you might select materials and mediate them in order to facilitate children's learning.

Download: A Journey down the River Great Ouse

Sue devised a series of key questions to help shape her planning of this 'Rivers' topic. Which of these might you prioritise in order to explore with your pupils the relationship between a place, a particular space and what people do there?

Download: Planning with Key Questions

Assessment Activity: using photos and maps. I selected and laminated 20 individual photos which could be placed on an A3 sketch map of the Great Ouse at Kings Lynn. The idea came after looking in QCA Geography Assessment suggestions and I thought that it would be good for observational skills and would suit the lower ability pupils in my class who didn't enjoy writing! Overall there were varying degrees of success. I had deliberately chosen photos available to the children in ICT and which had been in my PowerPoints, and they had used the map outline for the boats activity.

Download: Using Photos and Maps

Course Leader Comments: A hide and reveal activity was shared at the curriculum making event and a blank frame provided for participants to use - download it from the GA website.

I've selected this example to share because Sue not only created a version of the activity herself, she also provided an opportunity for her Year 5 pupils to produce their own versions. The example below was produced by a Year 5 boy in Sue's class.

Think how you might adapt and use this 'Hide & Reveal' PowerPoint to provide a starter activity for a current geography topic. Show it to pupils and ask them to construct their own versions.

Download: Look Behind You What Might You See

Download: Sue's Evaluation Report
Download: Sue's TLA submission

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