Reading patterns in geography Teacher: Lau Mui Sin, Consultant: John Polias Reading patterns in geography Teacher: Ms Lau Mui Sin Subject: Geography Students: Form 1 Topic: Land use patterns and issues Contents Scheme of Work Aims and objectives Notes from first mentoring meeting Genres in school Geography Implementation plan Reflection Appendix A Appendix B Appendix C Reflection Appendix D Reflection Field Trip Introduction Sites en route Walking from Sheung Wan to Central Revision of changing land uses between Sheung Wan and Central Students’ work Overall evaluation of the mentoring program A review on the relationship between language and Geography learning Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School Mentoring Program 06-07 27 Reading patterns in geography Teacher: Lau Mui Sin, Consultant: John Polias Scheme of work Resources Exploring Geography Vol 1A ,Oxford, 2005 edition Mini School Atlas, Ling Kee, 2005 edition Aims and objectives To help students to: – learn basic map reading skills – understand basic geographical concepts by learning about Hong Kong and its environs – extract and arrange spatial information from a variety of sources (eg maps, photographs, report) – understand spatial concepts of location and spatial interactions which help to explain the distribution of features on the earth’s surface at a local level. Term Topic Content and Skills Map reading skills Values and attitudes Remarks concepts 1 How do we Location, scale, Studying maps, plans Being ready to apply know direction, symbols, Basic map reading learnt map skills to where we measuring distance skills solve problems in are? daily life. Longitude, latitude, Using atlas to find Knowing about our Vocab continents, oceans place and information, world lists for learning the names revision and distribution of continents and oceans. 2 Scramble Urban land uses Differentiating urban Distribution of land Knowing more about for land and rural land uses uses in HK HK Characteristics of Identifying urban land Locating commercial Learning CBD uses: photo land use activity: interpretation Field trip Applying map reading to Central Describing and skills on urban areas explaining the characteristics of commercial land uses. Land use conflict Distribution of Comparing the land Valuing the industrial and use characteristics of importance of residential land uses a new town and an planning work. old district in the inner Remedial measures: Identifying conflicting city of HK, using Learning about the using our land in a land uses statistics, maps and controversies of better way photos urban renewal. Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School Mentoring Program 06-07 28 Reading patterns in geography Teacher: Lau Mui Sin, Consultant: John Polias Fixing our Urban problems in Identifying urban Answering questions Learning about the Suggested cities’ HK: housing problems and their by quoting map importance and activity: problems problems, causes from photos. evidence personal presenting environmental responsibility for on urban problems, traffic Reading tables and environmental land uses congestion graphs protection in other cities Solutions to the urban problems Making our city a better place to live Language objectives Students develop their vocabulary by using and understanding language used in the following genres. Genres Purposes of the text Language used to achieve the generic purpose Topics Description To provide information about Use present tense for descriptions of objects or Ch 1: Identifying map events, concepts, ideas, features, features on map or figures, eg symbols characteristics, objects and – A is commercial land use. people. – The living environment near X is poor. Ch 2: Identifying land – There are pollution problems at Y, eg air and use types noise pollution from busy road traffic – There are commercial activities… Ch 3: Describing the – The characteristics of the CBD are… problems. Explanation To provide reasons for things – The reasons are…… Ch 2.2 (Factorial — non- being the way they are. Sample – It is because…. Ch 3.3 temporal) tasks are: – State the reasons for… Presenting personal views: – Give reasons explaining… – I think that… – List three reasons for… – I agree with the statement that… Making sense of visual texts Reading visual texts, eg diagrams, photos, maps, statistical graphs to solve data-based questions Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School Mentoring Program 06-07 29 Reading patterns in geography Teacher: Lau Mui Sin, Consultant: John Polias Notes from first mentoring meeting Rationale: Language plays an important role in learning. Language = learning. In Geography, the connections between linguistic items and visual items (eg photos, maps, statistical graphs) are strong. Learners are required to get information from the visual texts and incorporate that as a written text. Generic patterning in Geography Refer to the table of suggested genres and patterns in Geography (Genres in school Geography). These genres are patterns of organization and language and so, to learn the technical terms (sets of vocabulary) that constitute Geography, it is effective to learn these technical words within the text patterns. This suggests the importance of any teaching strategies to focus on meaning. In other words, learning technical vocabulary is done through activities such as discussion, text reading, group work, and problem-solving. Learning patterns from low to high forms in schooling tend to spiral up from simple to complex generic activities (eg description is simpler than explanation) and out as clusters of genres become more complex (eg sequential explanations are simpler than causal explanations.) DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION IN GEOGRAPHY Description and explanation are the commonly used organisational and linguistic patterns in F.1 Geography. Describing geographic features: Description — What are the features of the CBD? Classification — What are the different land uses in the Central District of Hong Kong? Comparison — How does land use in Central District compare with Kwun Tong? Explaining geographic features: Sequential — Explain the water cycle. Sequential — How do floods occur? Factorial — Why is Central District full of commercial blocks? Consequential — What are the consequences of urban renewal in Kwun Tong? Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School Mentoring Program 06-07 30 Reading patterns in geography Teacher: Lau Mui Sin, Consultant: John Polias Genres in school Geography Knowledge and Genre Purpose activity domains Biographies retell events in a person’s life Recording and accounting for recount environmental event or community over change over time Factual Recounts time describe multiple aspects of places or physical Descriptions phenomena compare features of places or natural Comparisons Describing and phenomena organising geographical describe component parts of physical or human features Components phenomena describe different kinds of physical or human Classifications phenomena temporal explain a physical phenomenon by presenting Sequential Explanations the events producing the phenomenon in chronological order Explaining geographical non-temporal features and/or phenomena Factorial and explain the multiple factors that contribute to or Consequential are the consequences of particular phenomena Explanations Theoretical define and illustrate a theoretical principle Explanations present arguments on an issue in geography in order to persuade the reader/listener to agree Arguments with a particular point of view — some may also Exploring issues in geography request some action to be taken present the case for more than one point of view Discussions about an issue See also van Leeuwen T & Humphrey S (1996) ‘On learning to look through a geographer’s eyes’ In Ruqaiya Hasan & Geoff Williams (eds) Literacy in society. London, Longman. Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School Mentoring Program 06-07 31 Reading patterns in geography Teacher: Lau Mui Sin, Consultant: John Polias Implementation plan Topic: Scramble for land Chapter 2.1 How is our urban land used? Chapter 2.2 Why is Central District full of commercial blocks? Teaching schedule Period Genre Topics Purpose Nov 06 Description Describe the differences between urban and rural areas. Compare differences between places. Jan 07 Description Identify urban land uses. Describe features of places. Characteristics of Central Business District. List the features of a specific land use. Why are there so many commercial firms in Central Provide factors which contribute to this Feb 07 Explanation District? phenomenon Applying the map reading skills, to get first Field excursion to Central hand experience of observing the characteristics of commercial land uses in HK. Baptist Lui Ming Choi Secondary School Mentoring Program 06-07 32 Reading patterns in geography Teacher: Lau Mui Sin, Consultant: John Polias Teaching plan Chapter 2.1: How is our urban land used? OBJECTIVES Students should learn to: – describe land uses in urban areas and rural areas – make comparison between urban areas and rural areas – identify and describe different urban land uses – interpret photos – read maps. TEACHING STRATEGIES AND PROCEDURES Part 1: Differences between urban areas and rural areas Topic Content Remarks – 2 sets of photos are given on power-point slides Refer to Appendix A for photos – Brainstorming: Students give description Describing rural – Record words on blackboard (divide into two groups) and urban areas – Ask students to summarise the characteristics of words in each group; Refer to Appendix A