Case Study: Increasing

engagement in learning at

Key Stage 3 to increase

geography Uptake at

GCSE

Suzy Pykett

Head of Humanities, Cedars Upper School

Keep a brisk pace!

No gaps in progress data

Increased recruitment and retention

Top down approach

Follow themes and skills throughout the key stages

Barriers to overcome

Meet with your team of teachers throughout the year they take options

Open evenings

GEOGRAPHERS not students!

1. Successfully exploiting resources and

teaching relevant content to ensure pupils

reach the necessary standard to continue on

to Key Stage 4

Topic teaching (KS3 taught in Middle school)

• Teach themes and skills through the topic (later in the year compare Japan LIC to Brazil NEE)

Japan

Human and Physical Geography

Plate tectonics

Population structures- ageing population

Development/ resources

Map skills

Assess progress in first half term/ set

the standards for KS4

Catch up for some/ make progress

with all learners

Switch on and engage for GCSE

Provide learning opportunities in

lessons which provide variety,

independence and challenge.

1. Create the hooks for learning ‘awe and

wonder moments’ Geography in the News-

5Ws and H Starters/ stimulus (display)

2. Update your case studies

3. Use pop culture -get on their level: music (Mr Parr)/ karaoke, Films…

4. Use props

5. Story boards/ power points

6. Geography jingles

7. Write a class interactive revision booklet

HAVE FUN and enjoy those moments with them/ building relationships…

8. Mind-set and language

9. Differentiation

10. White boards- pens/ cloth, play dough, geography images and a camera.

Extension- make movie clips to show changes over time on the land

2. Introducing pupils to the skills required in Key Stage 4

to help build a foundation for the next stage of their

geography schooling

Walk and talk Key Stage 4

1. Expectations raised…

2. Build a forward thinking, constructivist, resilient learning attitude in

your classrooms.

3. Build autonomy in your lessons through choice

tasks and challenging differentiation where

appropriate:

* Basic (grades 1-3)

** Clear (grades 4-5)

*** Detailed (grades 6-8)

Keep them in the struggle zone

4. Set the books up as GCSE books

5. Presentation

6. ‘Walking talking mocks’

7. WWW/ EBI / PP Frequent effective feedback

8. Highlight keywords throughout-use and refer to the vocab lists

9. Map skills and exam technique ‘little and often’ from day 1

Colours to engage

Orange tectonics PLC

Case study mats A3

orange sheets

Map out the unit

Frequent and accurate use

of subject specific vocab is

essential for high quality

geographical understanding

• Mix up the way you

teach/ check the progress

of vocab and literacy

• Leader board competition

• Differentiate */ **/ ***

• Card sorts

• Wordle/ Wordscapes

• Highlight when used key

words

• Word bank/ Fill in the

blanks

• Bingo key words

• 1 minute essay to use as many words from the

list as possible

• Guess the question- only given the keywords as

answers

• Just a minute/ taboo

• You say we pay- images to the viewer

describing

• Word off

• Shopping game- reorder the information

• Globe ball catch/ Blooms questions

I know where I

am and what I

am aiming for…

I know

where I am

going and how

to improve…

3. Working in partnership with other schools to keep

geography lessons topical, global and interesting in

order to engage students

CREATE a name for yourself

Own the geography brand!

Be loud and proud- earn a reputation of

good teaching, finger on the pulse… GA branch

Link school in Kenya

Feeder school work… June 2017 Geography

Ambassadors trip

6F lesson support

SGQM/ Excellence awards…

Competitions

Annual logo competition for new intake

Trips

Geography at the movies lunch club- watch

and make short movies (wet weather- film

club)

Invest in one piece of new technology/ learn a

new skill each year- software, dictaphones,

ladybug projection lamp/ cameras with

memory sticks

Careers noticeboard

Siblings following on

Open evenings

Get the students involved and

excited invite them to help out

at revision in lessons

Visit Universities

Trainee teachers

Displays

Head Boy and Girl: Each year

group Ambassadors for the

subject

Friday 5

Be linked Duke of Edinburgh

awards/ World Challenge

Photograph competition-set a

theme or title

Ex students come back to talk to

students

4. Citing examples of successful lesson plans and using

field trips to help students better place what they are

learning in a more practical and real context

Destructive plate margin, subduction zone,

Eurasian continental crust, earthquakes, volcanoes, Pacific

Oceanic crust, convection currents… Japan Case Study

Ecosystems/ Brazil (NEE)

• HOOKED! David Attenborough

‘Planet Earth- Jungles’

• Human TRF using skipping ropes

from PE/ chairs…

• Who am I? What is it like on this

layer of the TRF and why?

• Created a fact file for the

display.

• Led on to a carousel activity

fact finding the different uses of

the TRF and the impacts it is

having.

• Then we prepared a debate

discussing: Should deforestation

be banned in the Amazon

rainforest?

• Murder enquiry about who killed

Chico Mendes

Ecosystems/ Brazil (NEE)

Extension work:

Brazil as a holiday destination- plan a

tour (on a budget/ back pack with

limited weight for listed items to take

with you).

The impacts of the Olympics and

world cup- winners and losers

of the events

Assess how SEE sustainable the events

have been… (window into high order

GCSE thinking)

Hurricane pop up cross-section: past exam question to assess K/U

Recipe card- good for less able/ EAL/ complex concepts/

getting used to GCSE structures

Hurricane mobiles- 5 ingredients needed for a hurricane to form

and then 5W and H c/ study cards of information hanging off the

outer edges (can use Blooms taxonomy Q’s to structure your

levels of challenge)

Tracking the route of hurricane Katrina

as ‘live’ news is coming in throughout

the lesson (Montserrat eruption).

Check on maps skills again and

consider primary/ secondary effects

SEE of the event… discuss what you

predict to be the worst areas hit by the

hurricane and why- then find out…

Add a title, key, place names and the shaded areas to

a blank map (partially completed for less able…). Or go

straight to the question after discussion.

Then answer an exam type question: 4 steps to success

1. BUG the question ,

2. Plan the answer GSE (General pattern with Specific

examples/ Exceptions anomalies) ,

3. PEE (Point Evidence Explain) style of writing,

4. Check/ edit (with purple pen) using marking criteria

What is today’s lesson

about?

Mam Tor is a 517 m

(1,696 ft) hill near

Castleton in the High

Peak of Derbyshire,

England. ... These

landslips, which are

caused by unstable

lower layers of shale,

also give the hill its

alternative name of

Shivering Mountain.

Map reading, collecting primary and secondary data, field sketches, team building.

Focus on: Geology/ landslip, Tourism and Rivers

Write up their enquiry when we return with 6F AmbassadorsPresentation evening before we break up for the summer