KEY STAGE 3

TEACHER INFORMATION

Key Stage 3 is Years 7-9. With the change from the National Curriculum to the less prescriptive QCA Scheme of Work, and the move towards the TLF: Teaching and Learning in the Foundation Subjects, and the growth in popularity of the David Leat THINKING SKILLS, there is a chance for more changes and alterations.

For more on the NEW SCHEMES OF WORK which we are developing in response to the introduction of the FOUNDATION SUBJECTS initiative follow the link above. This is the future!!

I recommend a visit to the excellent new QCA INNOVATING WITH GEOGRAPHY area. Click the banner below to head for the site.

It has some excellent ideas on Creativity, teaching with props and using Images. More to come soon...

The site offers some excellent advice. At Key Stage 3 it says:

"pupils will have come from a variety of primary school backgrounds......some will have covered a great deal of locality-based and thematic study. Teaching and learning at Key Stage 3 should aim to challenge and surprise pupils with a range of new ideas and perspectives, promoting their creativity and developing their geographical skills and knowledge."

The NC ACTION site of the QCA has full information on the use of ICT in GEOGRAPHY.

Some ideas for linking ICT to the GEOGRAPHY schemes of work are:

• use a roamer to investigate following a route

• use a digital camera to record information outside of the classroom, for example fieldwork images

• use CD ROMS, Internet, e-mail to investigate a contrasting locality - make personal contacts, use satellite images of deforestation, details of tectonic processes

• use the Internet and weather stations or data loggers to access comparative weather information

• use e-mail exchange to swap information with other schools

• use telecommuting as a case study when investigating economic activities

• use a spreadsheet to collate traffic survey data and produce appropriate graphs

Some ideas on CREATIVITY from me here.

LINKS FOR TEACHERS

• There are many organisations which exist to offer assistance to teachers of Key Stage 3 Geography, you can download the recent QCA SCHEME OF WORK, or try the DFES. Also a useful list produced by STOCKPORT MBC is here. See what your local authority has to offer. Each of them offers something: for example the ESSEX GRID FOR LEARNING.

• Our main text for Key Stage 3 is GEOG.1, GEOG.2 and GEOG.3, the OUP site to support these books is useful. They offer a CD ROM with other supporting materials. The CD ROM offers some additional worksheets, plus question papers and exams that you can use direct. The Teachers' Guides are full of useful worksheets.

• Worth registering for GRIDCLUB - before it disappears. A lot of money has been put into this online initiative. There are some useful resources for the various Key Stage 3 topics.

• Resources on the theme of space and earth science, with some relevant to Geography, at CLASSROOM SPACE. (Water and Volcanoes in particular...)

• Good idea from Mister P. Use the Auto Shapes in Word to put together a rectangle and 4 hexagons below it and you have a blank grid on which to produce 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' type questions for quizzes, revision etc.

• After some basic Geographical statistics and details ? - buzz along to the GEOHIVE. It has a useful starting point for other researches. There are several similar sites with General information on countries.

• Go HERE for a sheet with an e-mail proforma which can be used with groups to send an e-mail to someone in relation to an event that has happened. I use this with respect to work on flooding, where they e-mail someone to explain the effects on their house, and perhaps following witnessing an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. I also use a TEXT MESSAGE sheet which has a picture of a mobile phone and space to fill in a text message about something. Not sure what the literacy coordinator would have to say about it though...

• Nelson Thornes used to publish a resource called Keyfile. Then they stopped producing it. Now Arthur Jones of GEOPROJECTS: an excellent Norfolk based site has taken on the role of producing the resource again. Why not check out:

a) the GEO PROJECTS site

b) details about KEYFILE, and

c) a BOSCASTLE FLOOD sample issue.

NORWAY: this could become our new Year 8 European country instead of France - that's if we can find enough information. If you're from Norway and can let us have some relevant information please get in touch. Managed to find some useful additional materials.

PUPIL ACTIVITIES

A range of activities can be used with pupils in class. The idea is to use a range of different activities rather than becoming over-reliant on a small range of strategies:

RETURN TO KEY STAGE 3 PAGE