Literacy skills are essential for geography learning and should be embedded in lesson planning. Developing students' literacy involves writing, speaking, listening, engaging critically with information, and producing grammatically correct work. Literacy also requires students to communicate, collaborate, reflect on their thinking, engage with different types of texts including using ICT, and explore diverse languages and cultures. Storytelling is an important part of literacy development and digital tools can be used to help students tell stories.

1. LiteracyGeographyAlan Parkinson : Secondary Curriculum Development Leader @ Geographical AssociationWriting the earth

2. “Language provides the medium for learning geography in every classroom and should therefore be a major consideration in the planning and preparation of lessons.”Graham Butt, University of BirminghamOriginally contained in 2nd edition of Balderstone and Lambert (2010)

3. What does it mean to be literate in geography ?How do we know that students are developing their literacy in geography ?How can literacy be embedded into our planning ?

4. WritingListeningSpeakingEngaging criticallyGrammatically correct...LiteracyEffective communicationAF3 in new APP / exemplification of standards

5. Kansas City Library , Car ParkTitles chosen by local people...

6. http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/responsibilityofall/literacy/index.asp

7. We live in a society where the image is becoming the dominant means of communication, and where once we used pictures to illustrate our written texts, increasingly we are using written text to illustrate the pictures.Most of us engage with moving image texts more than any other form of text in any given day, so the development of literacy skills in young people should recognise that fact.What links all of these texts is that they are all a form of narrative, so when we develop literacy skills in young people what we are developing is the set of skills which will enable them to engage critically with the range of narratives which are in the world, and to be able to construct their own effective narratives.Bill Boyd, Literacy Adviser, Scotland

8. DARTSDirected Activities Relating to Text

9. Functional SkillsNew in 2010

10. http://www.fssupport.org/

11. It’s good to talk....Engage: relate new information to existing experienceExplore: investigate, hypothesise, speculate, question, negotiateTransform: argue, reason, justify, consider, compare, evaluate, confirm, reassure, selectPresent: demonstrate understanding, narrate, describeReflect: consider and evaluate new understanding

12. “Teacher talk dominates classrooms and controls the process by which communication takes place, by deciding what kind of talk is permissible, by whom and for how long.”Margaret Roberts

13. I develop and extend my literacy skills when I have opportunities to: communicate, collaborate and build relationshipsreflect on and explain my literacy and thinking skills, using feedback to help me improve and sensitively provide useful feedback for othersengage with and create a wide range of texts in different media, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by ICTdevelop my understanding of what is special, vibrant and valuable about my own and other cultures and their languagesexplore the richness and diversity of language, how it can affect me, and the wide range of ways in which I and others can be creativeextend and enrich my vocabulary through listening, talking, watching and reading.

15. Image: Val Vannet – no Photoshop

16. Daily Telegraph – last Thursday....

17. National Literacy Trust report...http://www.literacytrust.org.ukFocus on writing...Young people with a blog (61%) as well as young people with a profile on a social networking site (56%) also displayed greater confidence, believing themselves to be good writers. Blog owners and young people with a social networking profile were also more prolific writers than their counterparts. They held more positive attitudes towards writing and computer use, and viewed writers more favourably

18. "The thing about boys is that they are not good at transferring their skills," says Bev Humphrey. "They are always texting or on their computers at home but these aren't things they see as relevant to school. They think that school is work, and that they can't do it. So doing things online frees them up to have fun and enjoy writing, and if we can build up their confidence and get them writing, the paragraphs and spelling will come later. After all, they are taught these things in class.”Bev HumphreyWoolwich Polytechnic

19. Courtesy: Learning Teaching Scotland

20. Persuasive writing

23. Where else might you try to sell a house ?Activity: estate agents writing

24. One of the first things that children learn how to do is to tell stories...

25. "We do not need magic to transform our world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better.""Imagination is…the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.”"In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity; it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.”J.K. Rowling, Harvard University, June 2008

26. Digital StorytellingTools for telling stories are increasing, often in association with the development of new web tools called Web 2.0“I know only one thing about the technologies that await us in the future. We will find ways to tell stories with them.” Jason Ohler

27. “It's never the technology thatentertains an audience, it's what you do with it.”John Lasseter, Disney Pixar Head of Animation

29. Authors describing local geographyRoger Deakin: “Wildwood”Craig Taylor: “Return to Akenfield”Arthur Ransome: “We didn’t mean to go to sea”W.G. Sebald: “Rings of Saturn”

30. Travel Writing

31. Activity from “Look at it this Way”With thanks to Gary Dawson

32. What if they had a profile?Concept: Tony Cassidy – Examples: Liz Smith

33. SearchQHomeProfileInboxFriendsSettingsLogoutLast status update hereName10hrs agoAdd a picture hereInfoPhotosBoxesWallAdsWhat would they be typing now?What’s on your mind?ShareView photosView videosWhat have they been doing on Facebook?Recent ActivityAdd personal information hereInformationTwo interactions with friendsWhat ads would be targeted to them?Who would they be friends with?GroupsFriendsWhat groups are they in?Older posts

34. SearchQHomeProfileInboxFriendsSettingsLogoutName10hrs agoInfoPhotosBoxesWallAdsWhat’s on your mind?ShareView photosView videosRecent ActivityInformationGroupsFriendsOlder posts

35. John Davitt’s RAG...

36. Life of BrianBrian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for yourselves! You're ALL individuals! The Crowd: Yes! We're all individuals! Brian: You're all different! The Crowd: Yes, we ARE all different! Man in crowd: I'm not... The Crowd: Sssssh!

37. Keep writing....