Resource – Exploring England Year 7 SoW It occurred to me this morning that I have so many resources that I put loads of time and effort into but since moving schools in September 2016 I no longer use. I thought I ought to start sharing a few more of them. Now I can’t promise they are any good but they might be a starting point for you. To start with I’m sharing my Scheme of Work on Exploring England. Whilst the topic is called Exploring England, it looks more at the the United Kingdom as a whole with some exploration of the geography of England. Lesson 1 explores the differences between the British Isles, the UK, and Great Britain. Lesson 2 explored human and physical features of the British Isles. Lesson 3 takes a look at the population distribution of the UK and in particular England. Lesson 4 encourages students to look at migration to the British Isles over time. Lesson 5 looks at migration in more recent times and the stories of migrants, encouraging students to explore push and pull factors. Feel free to use as you will.
Resource – Filling the Gaps Ks3 to GCSE – Mrs Humanities Last year before my former year 9 students were to start their GCSE geography course I felt I should drop the final topic for the summer term and instead focus on filling the gaps. Reoccurring errors or struggles were arising from a number of low and middle ability students, so I collated a list of them. Using this I set about creating a filling the gaps scheme of work around the key skills and foundation knowledge required for GCSE. I talked about the filling the gaps SoW here when I posted how I would be getting my students GCSE ready by mastering the foundations. I thought I’d share the resources with you so you can edit to suit your students and their reoccurring errors or struggles. Each section is split up into bronze, silver and gold. Each task corresponds with criteria on the learning matrix (shown above) making it easy to assess student’s and identify their successes and areas for improvement. FinallyEach sub-section end with a self assessment sheet like the one below Like this:
How do you design your curriculum? | Teaching it Real Towards the end of last term, as we started to review our Expect Excellence action plan, my thoughts shifted towards our next goal. I have become increasingly concerned that over the years our focus has been on how we teach and that we have taken our eye off what we teach – and why we teach it. And it looks as though we are right on trend, with OFSTED talking about focusing on a school’s thinking behind their curriculum design and whether it is fit for purpose. Our goal this year is on making sure we have an excellent curriculum. Our first step has been to review our KS3 curriculum. A few years ago, before I started, it was truncated to two years and this was quickly followed by a reform to the national curriculum and now reforms to GCSE and A level. My starting point was to think of what an excellent 7 Year Geography course, which just happened to be interrupted by a GCSE exam after 5 years, would look like. This is the program of study we came up with. Year 7 Year 8 Like this:
What Should Geography Students Know by the End of KS3? Naturally, in our hearts we all wish every student would take geography further, but for whatever reason many will leave their geographical education experience at the end of KS3. We have such a small amount of time available in which to inspire our pupils and get them to love the subject as much as we do, be geographically curious, and to know essential topics, concepts, processes, skills, ‘geocapabilities’, etc. How can we possibly reduce, constrain and curtail such a rich and rewarding discipline? As teachers, it is our responsibility and privilege to make these decisions for our students. All curriculum-making involves decisions, which we must justify, and power struggles as to what ‘makes the cut’. Essential understanding So, what do you feel is essential, integral, vital? I’ve had this conversation many times and had some interesting answers. My personal ‘top five’, in no particular order, would be: Hard decisions It’s tough to narrow down.