‘Inspiring young minds’ – developing, enhancing and
applying writing through Geography
‘Inspiring young minds’ – isn’t this every schools aim?
To show the richness of opportunity Geography offers non-fiction writing.
To demonstrate how Geography is a vehicle to raise standards in writing.
Geography provides; real, relevant and exciting opportunities to write. Geography teaching should enhancing children’s knowledge and understanding of people, place and the environment and this knowledge and understanding can be presented through a variety of non-fiction writing.
Geography is sometimes underrated as a subject but it is vitally important to our children as it allows them to explore and understand people, place, the environment and their future. If Geography isn’t important then the world in which we live isn’t important. Every child has a right to a meaningful and progressive geography entitlement. We must respect that right, and it is our responsibility to ensure that they have access to it.
“Anybody who questions the value of geography has very little intellect.”
Jeff Stanfield, HIAS Geography Inspector.
Children need opportunities to touch and feel their environment and learn about their place in the future through exploration, discovery and enquiry. Writing is a vital tool in geography as it allows children to communicate their understanding, feelings and opinions. As educators we want the best for our children and this often means raising standards, especially in writing. As professionals we often ask how this can be done while continuing to teach a broad, balanced and creative curriculum; easy - use geography!
“We will not raise standards in writing thought more mechanical, meaningless structural literacy, only through a richness of opportunity.”
Jeff Stanfield, HIAS Geography Inspector.
Without a richness of opportunity where do children get their ideas for writing, how can they form opinions and express their feelings? The best writers in primary classrooms are often those who have had the best experiences, who have read widely and have a better understanding of the world. You only have to look at the SAT and QCA papers from recent years to see the important part geography plays in writing.
Those children who achieved high level 4 and 5 in the 2007 KS2 SAT paper were probably the best geographers as their knowledge and understanding would have provided them with the vocabulary and content to ensure a high score for composition and effect.
We only have to look at the work of great authors, poets, song writes and speakers to see that geography has touched their lives and given them their inspiration. Where would authors like Michael Morpurgo and Bill Bryson be without their knowledge of the world around and places they have visited. Poets and songwriters gather inspiration from the world around them, what they see and experience.
Lots of factors raise the standards of writing – a balance between skills teaching and a focus on content, writing being practiced across the whole curriculum, active learning e.g. visits, drama and ICT, quality feedback and marking, talk before writing, writing for a real audience and purpose. But fundamentally if we don’t provide children with a richness of experience how can we expect them to write well and standards to rise?
Successful writing should be; written in a lively and thoughtful way, ideas should be sustained and writing organised effectively for the reader and it should include adventurous exciting word choices. As teachers we all know that the best writing happens when children are excited by the subject matter, keen to share their knowledge/ideas and motivated to write for a real reason and audience. This sort of writing often happens in fiction when children have a good imagination but in non-fiction writing it often occurs following an experience; a fieldwork visit, debate or treasure hunt. So what’s the message here? Get out there and make your Geography curriculum link to writing it’s a guaranteed way to get children on board, enthused and keen to write.
“In writing lessons, where we use our geography topic it’s much easier to write as we already know lots about the subject and it means we can make our writing more interesting. I like geography and when we use it in writing lessons we get to do more geography that week which is more fun!”
Georgina Webster, Bishopswood Junior School.
Geography gives writing:
· Relevant opportunities to write e.g. letter to council about housing development which affects their lives.
· Real experiences to write about e.g. a recount of ‘Our magical day at Southsea Pier’
· Exciting life experiences and feelings to draw upon in writing e.g. hugging trees and being woodland detectives.
· An audience for their writing e.g. a new display board for visitors to St Lucia, it’s got to be the best you can do!
· An opportunity to find out, think, talk and debate their opinions about an issue e.g. being in role as a concerned party in the debate over ‘Should housing be built on Barton Farm?’
The examples of writing in this document are from Hampshire schools and they show the complete range of non-fiction writing opportunities which are available and demonstrate how these can be greatly enhanced by a creative geography curriculum. The work ranges from Year 1 to Year 6 and shows how Geography can be the stimulus for non-fiction writing. The work is annotated to show the quality of geography in the writing and the Literacy learning outcomes (from the new Primary Framework for Literacy).
Year 1 non-fiction – Labels, lists and captionsUnit 1 – Labels, lists and captions
The focus is on using the medium of labels, lists and captions to consolidate the fact that writing carries meaning and to support children in developing the concept of a sentence. Skills are developed in the context of building a classroom display.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Charlotte wrote:
“I liked it when the leaves fell off the trees and floated down like snowflakes around me.”
This only serves to reinforce the fact that children often achieve higher levels verbally than they do through their own personal recording. This confirms that we need to think very carefully about how we shape activities and ask children to record their findings.
Other ideas:
Make monster floor maps of the local area and ask children to write labels and extended captions for the display.
Year 1 non-fiction – Instructions (persuasion)
Unit 2 – Instructions (persuasion)
In this unit the focus is on supporting children in moving from descriptive past tense, for example I walked around the school to second person present tense, for example, You walk around the school.
This unit starts with children practising following and then giving oral instructions using simple instructional language. Children move onto write simple instructions independently. / In this activity children followed picture trails around the school grounds. They then wrote simple instructions for someone else to follow the trail from picture to picture. They then tested out their instructions.
Class teacher:
“The children loved this activity as it was active and great fun. A brilliant way to introduce instructions.”
Year 1 non-fiction – Recounts
Unit 3 and 5 – Recounts
In this unit it is important that children learn to orally rehearse recounts in the past tense and use some time connectives to support chronology. Children orally rehearse and then write simple first-person recounts linked to personal experience.
It can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other ideas:
The possibilities are endless!
· Recount a trip/visit.
· Recount a experience e.g. fieldwork in the school grounds or making playground rivers.
· Write postcards, letters or diaries.
Year 1 non-fiction – Information texts
Unit 4 – Information texts
Using another curriculum area as a starting point, model how to pose questions and ask their own questions. Give children practical opportunities to develop knowledge and understanding of the curriculum area under focus, for example by visit/fieldwork. Children write their own page for an information book.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other ideas:
· Write pages for a class book about the local area e.g. pages on houses, shops, play areas etc.
· Write an information board about a local site, the school etc.
· Write a factfile or I-Spy book e.g. about local are or contrasting locality.
· Write a glossary/wall frieze of topic words.
Year 2 non-fiction – Instructions
Unit 1 – Instructions
The focus at the start of this unit is on oral instructions; children practising giving and following oral instructions. This then progresses onto reading and following simple written instructions. The language features of written instructions are analysed and children write their own instructions and evaluate their success.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other ideas:
· Create oral instructions as a trail or guide to their school or school grounds – these could be recorded using a Dictaphone.
· Write instructions to find places in the school grounds or for treasure hunts.
Year 2 non-fiction – Explanations
Unit 2 – Explanations
This unit can be linked to curriculum subjects or themes in which a process needs to be understood. This could include any life cycle, for example sunflowers, tadpoles, ourselves. It is important that children have the chance to carry out the practical activity, be it an investigation, experiment or construction task, so that they can draw on first-hand experience of the process. / Other ideas:
· Explanation texts are often written for scientific processes. But they are a brilliant way to introduce a topic about another place as children can use several sources of information to explain how to get to the place being studied.
Year 2 non-fiction – Information texts and non-chronological reports
Unit 3 – Information texts
In this unit children gather and use information collected to write simple information texts incorporating labelled pictures and diagrams. They draw on their knowledge and experience of texts in deciding and planning what and how to write. Children should have the opportunity to develop their research skills using paper-based and ICT-based texts. They could use search engines to find images on the Internet, leaflets from educational visits, photographs taken by children and non-chronological paper-based texts.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other Ideas:
· Create information pages for artefacts collected on a visit to form a museum piece.
· Create a visitors board for a place the children have visited.
· Create information leaflets or verbal guides for places visited.
Year 3 non-fiction – Instructions
Unit 2 – Instructions
This unit has three phases, with oral or written outcomes. Analyse varied instructional texts, revising key organisational features and identifying language conventions. Children plan and orally rehearse instructional sequences. They record a process and use this to write instructional texts which they later revise and finalise, evaluating their effectiveness.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other ideas:
· Create instructions for touring the school or local area.
· Write instructions for how to…conduct fieldwork or linked to map work about getting to school.
· Make maps of ‘ace and not so ace’ places in the school grounds and use instructions as a guide to get around the map to see these places. Test them out on other children to aid evaluation of their success.
Year 3 non-fiction – Information texts
Unit 3 – Information texts (persuasion)
Research a particular area using reference materials (books, IT sources, visit). Locate, read and note relevant information. Work collaboratively on an ICT-based presentation which includes different text types.
Begin to use words, pictures and other communication modes to persuade others when appropriate to particular writing purpose.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other ideas:
· Children could write persuasive adverts to give people information about e.g. saving water, recycling, visiting a new country etc.
· Children could research and write persuasive leaflets or booklets to persuade people to visit an attraction.
Year 3 non-fiction – Reports
Unit 3 – Reports
Demonstrate research and note-taking techniques using information and ICT texts. Analyse broadcast information to identify presentation techniques and language. Analyse report text and demonstrate how to write non-chronological report. Children write own reports based on notes from several sources.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other ideas:
· Non-chronological reports can be created about any area studied or visited. These could be in the form of a page for a non-fiction book, a display board, a museum piece information board or a website.
Year 4 non-fiction – Information texts
Unit 2 – Information texts
Linked to a curriculum area carry out research and make short notes, for example by abbreviating ideas, selecting key words, listing or in diagrammatic form.
Present information from a variety of sources in one simple format, for example chart, labelled diagram, graph, and matrix.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other ideas:
· Use ICT to present information pages and include photos from visits or images from the Internet.
Year 4 non-fiction – Explanation texts
Unit 3 – Explanation texts
This unit can be linked to other areas of the curriculum such as geography. Children write explanations of how things work or processes happen. Children write explanatory texts from a flow chart or other diagrammatic plan, using the conventions modelled in shared writing.
The unit can be purposefully linked to other areas of the curriculum. / Other ideas:
Explanations are often written for scientific processes but could also be used as above or:
· To explain how a geographical process occurs e.g. how a river moves, how a town grows and changes, how a mountain is formed, how earthquakes and volcanoes happen.
Year 4 non-fiction – Persuasive texts
Unit 4 – Persuasive texts
The unit introduces children to written persuasive texts. They read, compare and contrast a range of persuasive texts. Discussing and recording common features of the text types. They express views about the persuasive nature of different texts. Plan a trailer or prepare a written voiceover script to persuade a reader to see a film. Demonstrate how to combine words, music and images to convince the reader. / Other ideas: