Writing the earth #tm east

“Are you sitting comfortably.....??”

Image by Psychogeographer under CC license

LiteracyGeography

Writing the earth

Secondary Curriculum Development Leader @ Geographical AssociationFormerly Head of Geography @ KES, King’s Lynn (1988-2008)

Image: Andy Riley

“Language provides the medium for learning geography in every classroom

and should therefore be a major consideration in the planning and

preparation of lessons.”Graham Butt, University of Birmingham

Originally contained in 2nd edition of Balderstone and Lambert (2010)

Kansas City Library , Car ParkTitles chosen by local people...

We live in a society where the image is becoming the dominant means of communication, and where once we used pictures to

illustrate our written texts, increasingly we are using written text to illustrate the pictures.

Most of us engage with moving image texts more than any other form of text in any given day, so the development of literacy skills in young people should recognise that fact.

What links all of these texts is that they are all a form of narrative, so when we develop literacy skills in young people

what we are developing is the set of skills which will enable them to engage critically with the range of narratives which are

in the world, and to be able to construct their own effective narratives.

Bill Boyd, Literacy Adviser, Scotland

Directed Activities Relating to Text

Travel Writing

Maps...

Doreen Massey quote...

Space is a cut across an infinite landscape of stories

Maps are not fixed

They are the surface on which stories happen...

Language of Landscape

Andy Riley – Great lies to tell small kids

It’s good to talk....

• Engage: relate new information to existing experience

• Explore: investigate, hypothesise, speculate, question, negotiate

• Transform: argue, reason, justify, consider, compare, evaluate, confirm, reassure, select

• Present: demonstrate understanding, narrate, describe

• Reflect: consider and evaluate new understanding

“Teacher talk dominates classrooms and controls the

process by which communication takes place, by deciding what kind

of talk is permissible, by whom and for how long.”Margaret Roberts

Image: Val Vannet – no Photoshop

Daily Telegraph – December 2009

Authors describing local geography

• Roger Deakin: “Wildwood”• Craig Taylor: “Return to Akenfield”• Arthur Ransome: “We didn’t mean to go to sea”• W.G. Sebald: “Rings of Saturn”

Activity from “Look at it this Way”With thanks to Gary Dawson

Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for yourselves! You're ALL individuals!

The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals!

Brian: You're all different!

The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different!

Man in crowd: I'm not...

The Crowd: Sssssh!

Living Geography...http://livinggeography.blogspot.com