What is Geographic Literacy?
Geographic Literacy and Reasoning is the focus of all content area teaching I do – this means helping students to understand the world they live in to become informed, productive decision makers for the future. Geo-literacy consists of three components: interactions, interconnections, and implications. Geography is interdisciplinary—it includes the fields of science, arts, health, humanities, law, business, engineering, and technology. Here is a quick video from National Geographic Society, noted to be the originators of the term:
http://nationalgeographic.org/media/what-is-geo-literacy/
http://nationalgeographic.org/media/what-is-geo-literacy/
What does concept based learning look like?
In our classroom, we look at things locally and globally. We learn the BC curriculum with a global focus. What this means is we will study local topics, to learn larger global concepts. We start with local information, and then transition to apply that learning to how it connects us to other places on earth. The new British Columbia curriculum is moving in this direction.
For example, the grade 5's study resource use in our province, and how it drives settlement and effects the environment. We talk about and do activities learning about local topics, and then we then look at human settlement, resource use and boomtowns around the planet, current or past. Each child picks a different boomtown. We then study, talk about and compare/contrast all our boomtowns. The overall concept (the why do we study this) is that humans explore certain new places, find resources, and this can lead to settlement and environmental damage. Concept an global learning creates global citizens, children who grow up understanding their world.
The goal is to have students start to questions things, evaluate our world based on their knowledge and understanding. We have a lot of discussions, group activities and presentations in order to achieve this higher level of thinking and understanding. Here is an example:
Knowledge- a snowy owl is white and lives where it is cold. (memorizing)
Comprehend and apply - a snowy owl is white because that helps it to hide from predators, and sneak up on prey.
Apply and Synthesize- A snowy owl uses camouflage as do other animals all over the planet
Evaluate - Why are some frogs extremely bright colors? Wouldn't that mean they would be easily eaten by prey?
For example, the grade 5's study resource use in our province, and how it drives settlement and effects the environment. We talk about and do activities learning about local topics, and then we then look at human settlement, resource use and boomtowns around the planet, current or past. Each child picks a different boomtown. We then study, talk about and compare/contrast all our boomtowns. The overall concept (the why do we study this) is that humans explore certain new places, find resources, and this can lead to settlement and environmental damage. Concept an global learning creates global citizens, children who grow up understanding their world.
The goal is to have students start to questions things, evaluate our world based on their knowledge and understanding. We have a lot of discussions, group activities and presentations in order to achieve this higher level of thinking and understanding. Here is an example:
Knowledge- a snowy owl is white and lives where it is cold. (memorizing)
Comprehend and apply - a snowy owl is white because that helps it to hide from predators, and sneak up on prey.
Apply and Synthesize- A snowy owl uses camouflage as do other animals all over the planet
Evaluate - Why are some frogs extremely bright colors? Wouldn't that mean they would be easily eaten by prey?
Class Projects
As part of concept based and inquiry learning, your child will do many projects this year. Some more guided than others. Some will be small group, some will be independent. Students will usually be choosing their topic, but the project will be learning facts to apply a concept. My global projects could be done by a student in many different countries, as the learning is not just fact based, but concept based. Often there will be 30 different projects going, but all on the same concept. We come together as a class to present and discuss projects. Comparing and contrasting brings out the concept from the facts.
I was interviewed in June 2017 by Canadian Geographic about my teaching style and philosophy www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/geography-teacher-month-kristen-gill