I've been preparing for the GA Conference for part of the last few weeks, as the conference gets closer. Less than a week now before the main event.I'm doing several sessions this year, and have been focussing on the power of stories for one of them.
It's about the idea that if you can build a curriculum around knowledge (and its retrieval) you can build one around stories. As with any curriculum, it is made by the teachers and enacted with students, and results from choices which come from teacher agency.
I've been reading about the importance of narratives and preparing to talk about the work we do at King's Ely.
This involves influences from work by Daniel Willingham and Kieran Egan among others.
I'd like a few thoughts from you, good readers of the blog.
Which books do you use in the Geography classroom with your students. Not textbooks... but fiction or non-fiction books, illustrated or otherwise.
I use several that I wrote and co-wrote (got to love the royalties) including The Ice Man, Mission:Explore and Mission:Explore Food and Water.
We have also introduced a new unit based on Hans Rosling's 'Factfulness' book (SoW document here)
In the last few days, I have also dipped into Bee Wilson's 'The Way we Eat Now', several issues of 'Geographical' and 'National Geographic' magazines, Guinness Book of Records, the Human Planet book and DVD, Divided by Tim Marshall and various others as I plan my new units for next term. There will also be a range of London books coming out, as I finalise my London: a City's Stories unit for the next half term.
Please let me know of a book that you have used in your teaching this year, and how you've used it if you have the time.
Please add the hashtag #geogstories if you can be bothered to :)
I'm going to use that during the conference as well to collate the ideas that delegates have who come along to my session.
Contact me via e-mail, add a comment, Twitter or Facebook... thanks to those who have commented so far...
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