Literacy in Geography

Have just been planning some materials for an event in Suffolk in a couple of week's time.
This will involve a range of strategies for exploring literacy in geography.

I have taken quite a lot of inspiration from the Scottish literacy outcomes, and the work of Bill Boyd and other colleagues in Scotland.

Embedded below is a presentation by Ollie Bray which was used at a CPD event in Edinburgh recently, and kindly shared via Slideshare.

View more presentations from Ollie Bray.
It refers to the Scottish literacy outcomes, which are worth looking at, as they have quite a wide definition of what a "text" that students engage with might be....

A key idea for me is that geography literally means "writing the earth", and students should be given a range of opportunities for sharing their ideas about the world, both individually and in collaboration with other learners.
As Ollie's presentation suggests, there is a range of web based tools that can be used for supporting students with some creative literacy tasks....

Will share more once my session has been used with Suffolk colleagues...

Here is an excellent piece of literacy work on the theme of limestone landscapes which has been shared by Kenny O' Donnell, and was produced by Emma.

This was shared using a website called POSTEROUS: if you can send an e-mail, you can add materials to Posterous....
What I like about this piece is that the geography content isn't forced, and the narrative draws you in.

As teachers we can do a lot to set the scene, introduce the characters and suggest the motivation for some literacy work. What follows can then be produced in association with the learners...

Comments

Kenny O'Donnell said…
Thanks for featuring Emma's work, Alan. An equally impressive spoken word story by Aileen is also on the posterous, and some students presented as comic strips. I enjoyed allowing the kids decide on the way they wanted their work to be submitted