Living Geography

Living geography What’s the story? Wendy North January 2008

Living Geography
Geography that is made to come alive for children
It builds on an understanding of children’s `everyday geographies’ and helps to enhance geographical imagination and thinking
Concerned with their lives, their futures, their world
Often starts with local but is set in the context of the global (community)
Concerned with how their world is changing and whether this will lead to a more sustainable future for ALL

Living geography - starts with me in my community
Identity :
Who am I?
Where do I come from?
Who is my family?
What is my ‘story’?
Who are the people around me?
Where do they come from? What is their ‘story’?

Identity Place Where we grow up and the `everyday geography’ we experience shapes who we become and …

Identity Place … influences the choices that we make as adults.

Identity is shaped by the geography that is all around us
My place in the world :
Where do I live?
How does it look?
How do I feel about it?
Y5 Methodist J & I, Wakefield http://www.quikmaps.com/full/47961

My place in the world :
Where do I live?
How does it look?
How do I feel about it?
How is it changing?
How do I want it to change?
Identity is shaped by the geography that is all around us Oyster Park Junior School, Castleford http://www.gowilder.org.uk/Oyster-Park/index.htm

Changing Places The Green, Ferry Fryston Now Future http://www.geography.org.uk/eyprimary/changingplaces/

On The Green
I could see...
a derelict space waiting for benches;
smashed glass sprinkled everywhere you look;
birds gliding gracefully through the air;
desolate flowerbeds just waiting for blossom;
broken branches and destroyed trees cover(ing) the landscape.
On The Green
I could smell...
the newly cut grass;
a cool summer breeze;
some dry beer that had been spilt;
On The Green
I could feel...
…
the despair of a child who wants a park where she can go and feel safe.
by Ella S
Now

MAKING BETTER PLACES Our School Grounds Now Eight steps to CHANGING our school grounds

Is this a good or bad place for …? ☺ ☻ ☹
Watching wildlife
Relaxing
Listening to stories
Playing games
Interesting buildings
Interesting artwork
Now Audit: how do we feel?

Audit – spy sheet Now

We invited family, friends and Mark from the local planning office to come and see our ideas. Future

ESD & Changing Places
Main aspects of ESD promoted through the project:
Citizenship & stewardship
Needs and rights of future generations
Quality of life
Sustainable change
http://www.gowilder.org.uk/Oyster-Park/index.htm

Factors that support our understanding of PLACE Representation Location Geographical Imagination

Geography is all around us
Our `everyday’ geographical experience contributes significantly to our
GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION

… places that we visit first hand

… places that are represented to us in the news, on the web, in stories, from family accounts etc .. Toss the Globe

our emotional response
 
Possibly the STRONGEST component of our Geographical Imagination
… places that we respond to through feelings

Why are our geographical imaginations relevant to sustainable development? Knowledge Inference Emotion

It is the sharing of these views and ideas about places that helps us to reach a consensus about our own values and those of others. Sharing and discussing the representations we carry in our head is important geographical thinking and a vital precursor to thinking and acting in sustainable ways.
Paula Owens, Geography Teaching Today, ESD
http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/ks1-3-courses/course/primary-geography-and-education-for-sustainable-development/taking-it-further3/

Iran
What kind of image do you carry around in your head?

Estfahan Photo Maurice Church

Living Geography
Finally how might `living geography’ be brought alive
in the context of distance places
http://www.gowilder.org.uk/india-village/

First of all we did some focused activities in the classroom that helped us develop using four of our five senses. In this way we learnt that we could describe a place with lots of details and it helped us to bring the place to life through words.

We followed this by using `freeze framing’ to help us take on the role of a character in the photograph. See our photographs on the right. CAN YOU WORK OUT WHICH FREEZE FRAME SHOWS … ? friends village school writing sieving concrete the way home

I can feel the soft blue powder the rough and hard wood. my bracelet tickling my arm. I can smell the misty air that blocked my nose. the moss on the trees and the dead leaves. Leah Sieving concrete I can see some trees gently brushing against each other, my friends working hard. the muddy floor I can hear the slight breeze shaking and rattling the trees my friends talking to me, telling me some things they are going to have for their tea. Photograph from Action Aid http://www.chembakolli.com/

Everyday Geography
Sit and think for a moment:
If you remember the geography you were taught at school, what comes to mind?
Now think about the geographical experiences you have in your everyday life.
Everyday Geography, Fran Martin Primary Geographer, Autumn 2006

Everyday Geography
Which offers the richer and more meaningful experience?
When planning for geography how often do you start from either your own experience of the world or from children's direct experience of their world?
See `Everyday Geography’ an article by Fran Martin: http://www.geographyteachingtoday.org.uk/images/text/PGAut06Martin.pdf

This PowerPoint was put together by Wendy North for the introductory meeting of the Young Geographers Project – 18 th January 2008
http://www.primarygeogblog.blogspot.com/
http:// www.geography.org.uk/projects/younggeographers /

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Living Geography

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