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Editor:

‘Geography in the News’ notice board at school. Weekly as a homework / extension work – to ask students to look through papers and bring into school a news item from a free local news paper / national press or a downloaded article from the internet and a summary about how the particular news item relates to themes, patterns, and processes studied in geography. These items can be displayed on a ‘Geography in the News’ notice board and different students within classes may be made responsible for changing the article and writing a small commentary about why they think a particular news item is geographical. The news articles (cut from newspapers either the students of the school have provided, or articles downloaded from the internet) should be replaced on a weekly basis and laminated / stored in a file for future use as a case study. This may be managed either by getting year 10 students involved as an extension to their homework, it may be managed through different geography classes, or may be run by an extra-curricular geography club. Maintaining a ‘Geography in the News’ board ensure that geography students engage with current affairs issues, and thus consider their own views and opinions more (developing thinking skills). The location of the notice board is important as it also allows the profile of geography to increase in the school if the notice board is outside the classroom or in a space where other students, teachers or people from the wider school community are able to see the board.

MichaelF:

Thinking Skills activity:- Fact or Opinion? a) To encourage students to think and appreciate the different views and opinions of people on particular geographical themes such as traffic congestion proposals or development schemes for example the construction of a shopping centre or housing estate, land uses and future planning, students are able to work through newspaper articles / internet news items concerning a particular theme and draw out what information is fact and what are the different opinions concerning that theme. b) Facts and Opinions can be critically studied when comparing and contrasting different writing styles to showcase the different writing styles used to report information on one particular geographical event; for example an earthquake or reported environmental problems. It is as important to evaluate the position of the authors and editors of the article as well as the information included / omitted from each of the news items studied. A simple introductory session may be to have a lesson or part of a lesson discussing the importance of newspaper resources as sources of information about the way people react and the way that people see and experience the world as a result of reading, hearing or viewing particular news items.

TParker:

ICT and Geography in the News. Increasingly more and more schools are gaining access to the internet through technologies such as interactive whiteboards in their classrooms. This can be a very effective tool in showing students how to share their views and opinions and to appreciate and debates with people of different viewpoints. By logging onto message boards of news stations such as the BBC, local news channels on the internet or educational websites (such as ‘Your Views’ on this site), students are able to debate and discuss and formulate views and opinions for themselves. Such an activity empowers students with their education and makes them think about their own role in the world and what part they could play in it.

Lesotho:

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elliot:

This site is so stimulating! I love learning, especially when it is made so fab! Good work geographyinthenews! Keep it up!