Geography Teacher Educators Conference Brighton 27 th29 th

Geography Teacher Educators’ Conference Brighton, 27 th-29 th 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 A 4

• 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? Geography More Geography than English & Geography English Pupil quotes on views about English and geography More pupil 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