Geo- resources –February 2012 Sharon Witt

Aims • 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

• To evaluate resources for teaching places e.g. maps, photographs, etc

• To develop a range of geographical teaching and learning strategies

Good geographical detective work could include:

• Pictures • Sounds• Children’s Feelings• Local people’s feelings• writing• Sketches• Data• Photographs • Noises via a Dictaphone

• Surveys e.g. carrier bag survey, traffic, land use

• Counting• Measuring• Maps • Field sketches• Questionnaire • Etc…

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.

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

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

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

Alison Cook & Sue Parsons Feb 2009

Research says…• That understanding pictures is a skill that

needs to be taught through planned, directed activities.

• Young children do not see a picture as a whole, but as a series of unconnected, random details.

• They notice foreground and large background objects but tend to ignore the middle ground.

(Mackintosh, 1998)

Alison Cook & Sue Parsons Feb 2009

General sequence of response

• Big objects, things they know, recognise & can name

• Size & colour• Foreground detail (not necessarily relevant to

main essence of photo)• Main essence & associated objects – less

interest in details• Grasp of the whole picture, generalisations

Alison Cook & Sue Parsons Feb 2009

How can we help pupils to see the image?

• Develop appropriate vocabulary

• Give a title to help generalisation

• Focus on different areas of the image

• Building, sky-scraper, tower block, island, bridge, quay, transport, aerial view…

• Manhattan from the air• Look at the bottom of the

picture…

Alison Cook & Sue Parsons Feb 2009

…and then read the picture?• Matching - how are these the

same/different?• Appreciate size, scale and distance –

why are the tulips so large?• Sort photos into sets – own or given

classification• Sequence photos eg features from a

local walk or the journey of a river• Make a field sketch from a photo,

then label, annotate, colour different aspects

• Handle increasingly complex & unfamiliar images

Alison Cook & Sue Parsons Feb 2009

What could the children do with this image?

• Answer your (differentiated) questions

• Label what they see, describe, begin to explain

• Ask their own questions about it• Expand the picture width-ways• Add speech/thought bubbles• Use clues to make a sensible

guess about location• Pretend to be there – make up a

story/newspaper item/postcard home…

• Questioning • Freeze frame• Hot seating• Matching sets • Drawing photographs • Comparisons• Cropping/ masking

Photo activities

• Field sketching • Labelling• Titling • Describing• Sequencing• “good and /or bad

adjectives • Speech bubbles

Be creative!Use tried and tested methods and develop your own!

Unusual sights – children can write captions!

Catling and Willy (2009,p. 44)We see places through two lenses : as real places

and as imagined places. Our experience and knowledge of places is inevitably limited and partial providing an image of these places . Our involvement with places creates an image which is personal .Yet much that we know of places through experience or via secondary sources is shared. ...We may deal with multiple perspectives of the same place to create our own view .These place views are partial and situated.

Game show Geography

• http://www.sln.org.uk/geography/gameshowgeography.htm

Types of Maps and their Symbols

• Picture maps• Architects and other plans

• Large and medium scale OS maps, including:• 1:25,000 scale (Pathfinder)• 1:50,000 scale (Land ranger)

• Street maps• Road atlases

• Thematic maps, e.g. weather forecast maps• Flat maps of the world and continents

• AtlasesNot forgetting:• Globes

Other maps encountered, including:

• in newspapers• on the internet• in brochures• on t-shirts• in magazine

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

Types of symbols used on maps

• Lines: e.g. rivers, boundaries• Points: e.g. telephone box• Shapes: e.g. buildings, fields• Pictograms: e.g. trees• Colour: e.g. water, woods• Words: e.g. place names• Numbers: e.g. contour heights

Understanding ‘conventional’ maps

• Know about the information in the ‘margin’ on maps• Identify the information that is supplied with a mapThis should include:• key• grid• compass rose• scale bar• title• Recognise that not all maps have these features!

National Curriculum Map work Requirements for KS 1 and 2

• KS 1/2Geographical skills:use plans and maps at a variety of scalesuse atlases and globes at a range of scalesmake 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

2. Where do I hang out?

LLLLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLL

LL

LLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLL

+++++++++++++++++

++++++++

+++++

Daughter’s house

Sittingbourne

Beach

Local shop

Local Hall tap dancing

Sheerness

Ebbsfleet St Pancras

London

Cliffs

Train

Town

City

Walk

Car

Station

0000000000 Friend’s house

ADULT last week

Shop House

0000000 Bike

Where do you go to in an average week?Where did you go last week?What is your ‘everyday’ geography?

Paula Owens

Nanny’s house

My house The

beachParis’s house

Jungle way home

Daddy’s shopBus stop

Oliver’s mapAged 5

2. Where do I hang out?

Child’s beginning map - unstructured

Paula Owens

LLLLLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLL

LL

LLLLLLLLLLL

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Nanny and Granddad’s house

Sittingbourne

Beach

Local shop

Friends

Sheerness

Cliffs

Bus

Town Walk

Car

School

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Nanny and Granddad

xxxxxx

LLLL

LLLL

LLL

Daddy’s shop

House

CHILD

3. Who do I hang out with?

Mummy

Mummy Mummy

Mummy and Daddy

Mummy

Uncle Danny

Uncle Zac Auntie Kerri My cousin

Mummy and Daddy

Mummy and Daddy

Add significant people to the mapWho are these people? Where do you meet them and why?

ShopsPaula Owens

4. I am where I live

vVv vVv vVv

Gardening, canoeing,Walking, bird watching, photography, biking

garden

sea

tracks

cliffs

marshcopse

birds

•What environmental features are around your home?•Where do you play? What do you do?•How do the locality features influence activities?

Personal geography ‘glasses’ of an adult

Paula Owens

Other mapping ideas Generic mapping ideas to suit all ages

• Write down the names of geographical features on some post it notes . Can the children find them on a map?

• Landmark mapping – draw the things YOU remember ! This can raise the issue of what do you put on a map. Will it be there tomorrow ?

• Emotional mapping • Transition mapping- emotional journey from

Year 6-year 7

Directed Task • Explore the Oxfam “mapping our world” site and consider

it’s use within a primary classroom

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/mapping_our_world/

• ICT – Explore the Geography Teaching today on line cpd http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/online-cpd/course/primary-geography-and-ict/

• Wendy North’s Everyday Geographies blog – it is very good with lots of resources. http://primarygeogblog.blogspot.com/

Collaborative map making

Have a go ! What do you think ?

Other mapping ideas Generic mapping ideas to suit all ages

• Write down the names of geographical features on some post it notes . Can the children find them on a map?

• Landmark mapping – draw the things YOU remember ! This can raise the issue of what do you put on a map. Will it be there tomorrow ?

• Emotional mapping • Transition mapping- emotional journey from

Year 6-year 7

Directed Task

• Explore the Oxfam “mapping our world” site and consider it’s use within a primary classroom

www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/mappingourworld/

• Look up workshop notes on using Digital photography in the classroom at all levels by Bryan Ledyard and John Halocha .This includes an input on how to take effective geographical photographs , a range of websites offering high quality free digital images and using images to support enquiry and creative thinking

http://www.geography.org.uk/events/annualconference/derby2007/#top