REVISION: TEACHERS' SECTION

You may want to look at TEACHING TIPS, which was recently advertised by flyers in secondary schools.

It's always worth looking at old syllabus documents for past questions. Even if they're not strictly your syllabus, they are still showing the possible structure, and often come with marks schemes, so that you can give them to your groups to attempt, and then mark themselves so that they can see whether they are including the right things in their answers (plus you don't have to mark them yourself - our maths colleagues have been getting away with this for years..) Don't shout too loudly or they'll hear you at the top of the page, but in addition to the syllabus, past questions and marks schemes can also be downloaded.

• Use journals, many of which have their own websites as well. TEACHING GEOGRAPHY is published by the GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION, or try NEW SCIENTIST for Earth science and climate articles. Also GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE.
• For IT stuff, try BECTA or TEEM.
• Start at the NATIONAL GRID FOR LEARNING. Do a search.
• Some useful evaluations have been done by the PARENTS INFORMATION NETWORK (PIN).

We all learn in different ways. There are several different learning styles, and we have to make sure that our teaching allows for this, and allows the various different learners to learn in their own way. 3 key styles are:

Visual Learners

Auditory Learners

Kinaesthetic Learners

One method that can work for some people is MIND MAPPING. This is a way of setting out an idea visually so that the links between the different parts of the system can be seen. The link is above is to a Geography site that was set up by R. Williams, but hasn't apparently been updated since 1998! Oh well, the mind mapping diagrams are still available. It has links to other MIND MAPPING sites too. Pay a visit and give it a try in your revision sessions.

Some good ideas in the October 2003 issue of 'Teaching Geography'.  One of them was an idea for Revision from Hayley Briggs. It's an adaptation of a familiar idea: a chain of cards which is worked through where each person has an answer and a question, and the chain starts with the first answer and has to get back to the person who asked the first question.

Need a table in Word and cut and past relevant words and definitions in. Could ask your students to provide some of the answers.

PAST QUESTIONS

• Pupilvision has some PAST QUESTIONS on a series of themes. This is worth exploring. Don't underestimate the value of old questions as teaching resources. Teachers often use these to develop into teaching resources, and the exam board websites are also useful for downloading samples along with marks schemes.

• A basic list of REVISION CASE STUDIES at Harlington School's site. A useful checklist.

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