Creative responses to a locality Sharon Witt 17th January 2011

Aims To develop a range of creative geographical teaching and learning strategies To know the National Curriculum map work requirements for Key Stages 1 and 2 To know and understand how to develop the children’s graphicacy skills

Geographical Detection- includes: Enquiry Investigation Problem-solving decision making analysing / synthesising SENSORY EXPERIENCES

Enquiry Skills are: Investigating selecting Recording Interpreting Drawing conclusions Synthesising Communicating Presenting Organising Evaluating observing analysing Questioning Generating Judging Selecting Planning Using prior knowledge Reflecting “Children are actively engaged in the creation of personal and shared meanings about the world rather than being passive recipients of knowledge that has been created or selected by the teacher” Fran Martin

What is the enquiry approach “ Geographical enquiry is a process, similar to scientific investigation and historical research, which defines the way in which geography should be taught in the primary years.“ Pickford, T.(2002), ICT: An enquiry approach, Geographical Association, Sheffield p.8.

The Enquiry Process Enquiry question Collect information Evaluate the enquiry and identify further questions Framed Enquiry Interpret and analyse information Draw conclusions, offer explanations and propose actions Present findings and conclusions A. Pickford(2006)

The Enquiry Process Where is a litter bin needed in our locality? Survey the local area looking for litter ‘hotspots’. Enquiry question Collect information Evaluate the enquiry and identify further questions Consult others in the locality? Interpret and analyse information Make maps & charts Draw conclusions, offer explanations and propose actions Present findings and conclusions Decide where a bin is most needed. Letter to Environmental Services at local council. A. Pickford(2006)

Issues suitable for geographical enquiry Parking House building Traffic calming Quality of the environment- man- made or natural Local shops Special local events e.g. ice rink at Christmas by the Cathedral.

I love to go a wanderin’ My Walks http://nuweb. northumbria. ac What do we love? What do we hate? What tickles us? What makes us see? What makes us touch? What makes us listen? What irritates us? What disgusts us ? What makes us smile? What stops us in our tracks?

My walks! Owens

Messy maps! Messy Maps are a useful technique to record responses back in class. Pupils use their given map of the route to draw their own version of the route and add their data. http://www.geography.org.uk/cpdevents/onlinecpd/myplaceyourplaceourplace/mywalksandmessymaps/#top

Young Geographers project- St Peter’s Smithills Dean CE Primary School, Lancashire Title: What do we feel about the environment around our school? Age Group: Key Stage 2 / Year 5 Approach: A series of small group, teacher-led walks with a class followed by group write-up sessions; with parallel, linked Literacy and ICT units of work. The ultimate aims were to produce a 'journey stick' style map and a short video Concepts: Fieldwork, place and space, ESD Keywords: Local area, changing environments, opinions, change, the future and past, environment, community, feelings, improvements, good, bad, interesting things, Photostory, journey stick

Everyday Geography Recent call for “Everyday Geography” to be taught by Fran Martin “Ethno-geography” Using Children’s everyday experiences or “personal geographies” as a basis for curriculum development

Flat Stanley – supports exploration of children’s personal geographies in the classroom www.flatstanley.com

Scrapbooking happy spots This is Ben Cruachan and there is a lovely view of Ben Cruachan from my Gran’s house and she only lives a few miles away from the mountain .I like to watch the clouds move over the top of the mountain – it is very calming. Scrapbooking happy spots

What the teachers say? This provided an opportunity to view children’s unique way of seeing the world and to formally recognise children’s immediate sensory encounters with places. This was ‘therapeutic’, and the idea that there was no ‘right or wrong’ outcome began to really appeal. Giving children a free rein to express themselves often leads to surprising, impressive and ultimately very creative outcomes. With thanks to Jo Sudbury

Why did you choose this happy spot to scrap book ? It was private and it was mine . It wasn’t anyone else’s to have and it was different. It would always be there on paper that I had been there with my cousins. I had been there and it was so nice there and it really was just great !” A sense of documenting for the future – a personal legacy

Scrapbooking as a tool to record children’s personal geographies can be: Creative Active Independent Fun Captivating Thought Provoking Challenging Stimulating Child-Centred Relevant Varied Interesting Enjoyable Purposeful Meaningful Personal Flexible Empowering Involving Question Raising Inspiring Equipping Child-Led Collaborative Exploratory

Geographical learning objectives for scrapbooking To identify and describe what places are like? To ask geographical questions To collect and record evidence (if part of an enquiry approach) To communicate in appropriate ways To use appropriate geographical vocabulary To use secondary sources of information

Geodoodling! Geo-doodle prompts included: Photos from the local area GoogleWorld views World music Landscape art Webcam streaming Sound clips from the local area Newspaper articles relating to global issues Artefacts Scents Visits to the locality - observing / smelling / listening Reflecting on stories/picture books with a geographical theme. With thanks to Jo Sudbury and the children of Bishops Waltham Junior School

You can be in more than one place at a time ! Nested hierarchies Zoom Yellow button Drawing of children’s version Stories are very powerful! What do the children already know about places? What places are important to them ?

What is graphicacy? Children are increasingly making sense of their world through visual images which for young children provide more information than text The skill of interpreting pictorial forms of spatial information is known as graphicacy Baldwin and Coleman( 1965) described graphicacy as “the fourth ace in the pack” along with literacy, numeracy and oracy. Using visual resources either through first hand experience or fieldwork can help a child really see Geography

Why use photographs? Images play an important role in shaping our ideas about ourselves and other people Good open- ended resource with lots of potential in the classroom Important for children to question photographs and develop their visual literacy, enquiry and critical thinking skills Can provide stimulating, challenging and creative learning opportunities and hep them gain knowledge and critical understanding of the wider world Photos are highly influential in our lives – every single day we are exposed to hundreds of images , from the cereal packet to adverts , newspaper photos, shop window displays .Images like these play an important role in shaping our ideas about ourselves and other people

How do children respond to and “read” photos? Do they see what adults see? Children will “home in” on clues in the picture that seem familiar and use these to interpret the photograph (even if their understanding of the clue doesn’t fit the context of the rest of the picture) Children may add details that aren’t there! Children respond differently to photographs according to their age Children will tend to ignore the unfamiliar. Margaret Mackintosh Research shows that when children look at photos they are probably not seeing what adults assume they see this means it is important to use activities that help children to look carefully and critically at different parts of photo as well as looking at the photo as a whole eve They may see things they associate with what they feel about the photo based on their existing knowledge and preconceptions Young children find detail very important – they may not notice the middle ground of the picture and will look more in the foreground and background older children concentrate on the overall themes of the picture

Checklist for using photos in the classroom Work with photos should be integrated with other classroom work Start with photos of people and places that children are familiar with before moving on to less familiar subjects Use photos of good technical quality Put photos in some sort of context why was the photo taken? Who by? What for? Give children as much accurate information as possible about the people and places in the photos you use Encourage children to explore the links between their own lives and experiences and those of the people in the photos

Use tried and tested methods and develop your own! Photo activities Field sketching Labelling Writing titles Describing Sequencing “good and /or bad adjectives Speech bubbles Questioning Freeze frame Hot seating Matching sets Drawing photographs Field sketch Comparisons Cropping/ masking Questioning What can you see what is she/he doing What are the bricks for? Why is she working outside? Would you like to live there How else could he or she … Be creative! Use tried and tested methods and develop your own!

Opportunities for Map work Learning about symbols and the map key Learning about grids Learning to use a compass Learning about relative size and scale Learning about map purposes and selectivity Making maps of the table and room Making maps in the school grounds Making maps of a street and an area Using picture maps to find out about places Using aerial photos to find out about places Using Ordnance Survey maps to find out about places Using maps in locality packs to find out about places Using atlas maps to find information Using ‘all sorts of maps’ at a variety of scales Learning about maps and places through picture/story books

National Curriculum Map work Requirements for KS 1 and 2 KS 1/2 Geographical skills: use plans and maps at a variety of scales use atlases and globes at a range of scales make plans and maps at various scales

Through Geographical Skills in KS1/2 PoS: children are introduced to maps children use and make maps children develop their map skills and competencies children use maps in various contexts Map work should be integrated with place and thematic studies: use maps in locality/place studies use maps in thematic studies use maps looking at topical matters Elements of map work should include: locating features, places and issues showing distributions and patterns appreciating size and scale identifying changes and development specifying the role of the map

Geographical and map studies should: The Purpose of Understanding and Using Maps Source: Catling, S. (2005) ‘Developing children’s understanding and use of maps’ in Lee, C. and Hung, C.C. (eds) Primary Social Studies: Exploring Pedagogy and Content. Singapore: Marshall Cavendish Education. Geographical and map studies should: provide practical activities which involve children finding information from maps and finding out about how the map works through focusing discretely on key map skills; cover the range of map scales from plans of individual objects to small scale atlas maps, use a variety of types of maps including plans of objects and areas, picture maps and conventional maps; encourage children to use maps effectively, both in the real environment and for study, with the purpose of enabling them to learn to obtain information about places readily from maps of many types; encourage the use of children's own experience of their environment and the use of additional resources to extend their awareness and understanding of their own environmental map skills and map reading capabilities.

“Geography is the word that runs through the rock of learning” Kelly, A.(2006) Hidden Geography? Primary Geographer , Autumn 2008,p.8.