Showing posts with label geography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geography. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 04, 2021

Sod House

Reconstructed sod house at the Mennonite Village Museum at Steinbach Manitoba.

One hundred years ago today, my grandparents, Johann Heinrich Enns and Anna Loewen, were married in a small church in their remote Mennonite colony of "Neu Samara" on the Russian Steppe near the Ural Mountains. They were 22 and 21 years old, and had just lived through the Great War and Russian Revolution, and were in the midst of the famine that gripped Russia during their Civil War. My grandfather, from age 16 to 19, had served in the Forstei and Sanitaersdienst, the Russian alternative foresty and non-combatant medical service. With others from his village, he was sent to the forest of Tossna. I'm not sure where that is, but I understand that it was essentially a forced labour camp. What was life like for them in 1921, living in a sod house or semlin at the back of my grandmother's parent's back yard? My aunt Susan Suderman has conducted extensive family research and tells a moving story about my grandparents in their first year of marriage:

"My parents' first home was a sod hut with a dirt floor on the Abraham Loewen farmyard. They started their life together in extreme poverty. The people of Neu Samara had know crop failures in 1911 and 1916, but in 1921, mainly due to the extreme drought, the harvest was practically non-existent. The government had taken their seed grains, and the meagre crop that was left was eaten by grasshoppers. Barns, granaries, and secret storage places were now empty -- the Red Army had seen to that! Many villagers died of typhus. With the widespread famine, the bodies of those who had died were lying everywhere as they had gone in search of food. Is is said that during these two years, 1921 and 1922, about 7,000,000 Russians dies of starvation. Inevitably, may of those who were still alive succumbed to outbreaks of typhus, cholera and malaria. Animals, too, were dying, and often their carcasses were eaten by the starving villagers. It didn't take long for the villages to be void of dogs, cats, and mice. My father went gopher hunting to add to their meagre food supply. There was no flour for bread. In later years, as my father reflected on those difficult years, he would often say: 'Eascht kaum de Chrich, dann de Revolution, en dann de Hungasch Not.' (First came the war, then the Revolution, and then famine)."

source: Suderman, S. (2016). The Aron Enns family: History and genealogy 1819-1990. Susan Suderman.

Friday, October 27, 2017

School as a system of spaces

Recently, I had my Grade 11 Social Studies students examine the "human experience" at our school, D.P. Todd Secondary in Prince George. 

We thought about all the ways in which we create "affective ties with the material environment” (a reference to Topophilia by Yi Fu Tuan). These are the bonds that people form with the places they visit and inhabit, and can be characterized as positive or negative and everything in between, or neither for that matter. We began our thinking with some history of the school and ideas around why it was built the way it was back in 1976.

We schemed out the patterns, the categories of interaction that take place. In no particular order: safety features & processes, natural light vs artificial light, meetings places, high traffic areas, places to eat, food service, programs in operation, sound and music, state of technology, use of tables and seating, state of repair & equipment, accessibility (e.g. inclusive of disabilities), private vs public places, connection to nature, doorway & entrance experience, noise levels & places to make noise, evidence of celebration, temperature or climate control, communication systems, fun/happy vs sad/depressing, evidence of history/tradition, student-centered creations.

The students set out to take photos as evidence of these patterns. See below for some of the examples -- notably absent are the images that show students "doing their thing" at school -- we did not publish these due to privacy.  Our conclusion was that a school is not just one place, but many spaces that are collected together to meet different expectations.  We had near-consensus that our school building is tired, in need of repair and renovation, and fails to meet certain expectations.  Four of the top concerns were: lack of natural light (most classrooms do not have windows, same for the hallways and open spaces), lack of nature-connection specifically trees on the school grounds, no place to sit and eat lunch (many kids sit on the floor with their backs against their lockers), and a dingy unwelcoming front entrance. As one student put it, when you put our school under the microscope it doesn't look good. For the positive, the students mentioned that student generally feel welcomed and have a positive experience of being together despite the deficits in the school and on the grounds, perhaps due to the school's smaller size and population. Mind you, one student likened this to Stockholm Syndrome. There was also agreement that the library or "learning commons" functioned as a positive space and had good hits on our checklist.

As a teacher doing this work with students, I have a short-term wishlist for D.P. Todd, realizing that a the promised full-scale renovation may never come:
  1. Our school has undifferentiated expanses of hallway and an entrance area that is too small and crowded -- at present these are the only public spaces where student can gather. We need some spaces for students to "retreat" and see themselves reflected in the school experiences -- take out some lockers and put in benches and display cases to form small alcoves. Finish the table replacement cycle by bringing in a few more of the red & blue oval tables and getting rid of the cafeteria style tables in the main hallway.
  2. Have a few areas, even wallspace, that the students control or can manipulate from week to week and year to year. Include digital spaces and outdoor spaces in which students have a sense of participation and choice. Our school should represent the "present" of it's student body, not just the past.  
  3. More trees -- almost all of the "historic" trees at our school were Pinus Contorta and fell victim to the pine beetle epidemic in the early 2000s.  We have a handful of scraggly trees left, including some "accidental" cottonwood saplings coming up between a sidewalk and a fence. Kids deserve communion with trees on a daily basis, and we have the room for single specimens, rows, and small groves of trees, not to mention flowers, plants, shrubbery, or sculpting of small hummocks. The established and repeated rationale for denying past efforts to replant trees -- that it is easier and cheaper to mow lawn that it is to maintain trees -- is unacceptable.
  4. Offer an incentive for teachers to declutter, get some feng shui, and make their classrooms more welcoming -- a new coat of paint or a bit of new furniture can go a long way. Swap desks for small tables where requested, and replace the terrible chairs that snag kids' hair and clothing on the rivets.







 







Thursday, March 03, 2016

Q and A on New Curriculum and SS9

Recently, I was asked some great questions about my draft/sample Social Studies 9 outline that I am using at the moment to pilot the new BCED curriculum. I've been asked "where's the French Revolution" by a few teachers, "where's the competencies" by another, and so on. I've gathered the various tweets, texts, and response emails in what I hope is a useful summary below.

Reference: an outline for Social Studies 9

Q1. Are there topics that have to be included in the new curriculum? Some expected topics are missing from your outline, like the French Revolution and Napoleon. 

A1. No, there are no required topics beyond the "topic areas" that are listed in the content learning standards. Although some teachers could conceivably structure a course that had no firm topics, perhaps around approaches to the study of society, completely based on competencies, or daily analysis of current events, we can be quite confident that many "familiar" topics will remain in BC Social Studies courses. Out of courtesy to fellow teachers, I think most course outlines will not stray too far or too often beyond the new course bookends of 1750-1919. Yes, my new SS9 outline does not include the French Rev and Napoleon (nor the American Revolution per se). These topics, like all the other content, are now optional. Teachers can pick and choose as many of the "old topics" as they wish to tell the story they want, to explore the themes/big ideas, and work out the competencies. Teachers can also add new content, such as other global revolutions or conflicts, if that helps them with their goals. I have explained this in some detail on the 11x17 "content shifting" planning documents posted at http://www.thielmann.ca/new-bc-curriculum.html

Q2. How should teachers decide what to include, or how to set up a SS9 course?

A2. Much of the content will naturally be suggested by the course bookends of 1750-1919. However, the decision to focus more on Canada vs Canada/Europe or Canada/World or just World is up to the teacher. Teachers can pick four favourite or important topics and build a course from there, or they could take on forty topics if they want. Teachers may add topics from outside the bookends (e,g, current events) or from outside of formal history altogether, such as architecture, political science, or sociology. Teachers can work through content (and competencies) through talk-and-chalk, worksheets & assignments, press play on the dvd, project-based-learning, debate & discussion, whatever. Some teachers will have core content, and optional content to be explored by students (e.g. project topics). Some teachers will align topics to themes, the content learning standards, or the competencies themselves, others will stick with a sequential outline powered by the topics themselves. Say farewell to common department exams, unless your dep't has a solid history of doing things the same way. There will be good, bad, and ugly all over the place, not much different than now, really, but I think eventually there will be some consistency and productive models to follow. I intend to work towards that, anyways. 

Q3. Why drop French Revolution and Napoleon, but keep the Industrial Revolution? 

A3. My Grade 9 course has a Canadian focus, so, with the exception of the Industrial Revolution, I've dropped topics that don't directly involve or take place in Canada. The French Revolution is interesting, and so very important to European and World history (as are so many other events), but something has to go. I don't  want to teach a fast-paced, low-depth survey course. Ironically, by extending the historical bookends, the new curriculum does more to encourage "survey" vs" depth" than the old curriculum -- although that was not the intention. Our grade 8 teachers will probably not pick up the French Revolution, although it may be an optional area of study for either Grade 8 or Grade 9. A bit later in the course I plan to a short American vs French Revolution activity; more for the competencies, though, and less about the content, e.g. deconstruct some images and sources that either glorify or condemn revolutionaries from each country. I have included the Industrial Revolution because it is part of a truly global story, it is related to Canadian migration, ties to WWI, and is often ranked by historians as one of the top 5 influential events in history. Almost every object and many of the ideas that govern our society, gender roles, environmental issues, labour conditions, and way of life have a link to the Industrial Revolution. Students can wrap their mind around those kind of connections, far more so than some of the nuanced lessons of the Tennis Court Oath and the Reign of Terror. I started the course with the Industrial Revolution as the backdrop to a "skills bootcamp" -- using invention, factory age, results of enclosure, social conditions, and environmental change as ways of introducing competencies and getting students used to interpreting documents and sources, especially images but also graphs and maps. I keep copies of an aged little text around almost exclusively for these lessons - "Thinking about our Heritage: a Hosford Study Atlas" (example here). I also had a student teacher with me for these lessons and he produced some very effective activities and critical thinking prompts, and used some great media.

Q4. Why so you include virtually every other "Canadian" topic (in some form) from 1750-1919 carried over from existing courses? 

A4. The rest of my course is decidedly Canadian (with plenty on and about British Columbia) because I believe it is important in the few short years of Gr. 8-10 to leave students with a sense of the Canadian story, their place in it, and their agency in regards to its future. All other topics are interesting to me as a Socials teacher, but not mission critical for building active, empathetic, and informed Canadian citizens. It is also the Canadian topics that will help me provide an arc and consistency in the use of themes such as Aboriginal content and perspectives. Students can get plenty of world history and culture in Gr. 11 and 12 if they want it, plus some in Grade 8. I have truncated some Canadian topics and left others alone, mainly a reflection of which of my past lessons resonated with students and were fun to teach, or had good class activities to go with them. The topics in my course are also a reflection of the print resources and media that I like to use with students and that our school already owns. We have been, no doubt most school have been told, that there are very little funds for new learning resources. I try to build a course-long narrative that has a point to it; in the past it was part of our job in the class to decide together what the point was. Now we have "big ideas" to frame that discussion. Perhaps we need a new term to describe the blend of narrative, discovery, and repetition that form some kind of class goal. What is it that we actually expect from a successful Social Studies student? Beyond the ability to apply critical/historical thinking to problems and evidence, and the development of good Canadians (itself a problem worth deconstructing), I think we are well served by stirring students to become storytellers. The objective is as simple as students being able to talk about Canada's past, present, or future using emotion, humour, insight, and authenticity. Part of that ability is ease with which students can look at fresh material (like what's on the daily news) and have something interesting to say about it, something that connects with what they learned in the course. In my mind, that is as solid an indicator of readiness to move on to the next grade as is a test score. 

Q5. Why don't you include other (new) topics that fit the time period and big ideas? 

A5. For SS9 I have not yet planned for entirely new topics, Canadian or otherwise. This is my first time through so I will be recycling many old lessons and focusing more on designing new competency exercises and class activities than I will on new content. I am a busy guy with a 1000 interests and a beautiful family, so crisp topics will have to wait their turn. One of the interests I have, however, is developing curriculum. I am currently working with a group of teachers from the Pacific Slope Consortium on curriculum projects, but that is more a long term thing and does not help me out this semester. I find that without quality resources in place, taking on new topics involves too much internet surfing and photocopied materials. One topic that doesn't come up too much in the old or new curriculum is local history and geography. This is passion of mine and an area that I want to spend more time with in my courses. I am also loathe to add more content to an already full roster because I have designed a large chunk of my SS9 course to include project-based learning - a Heritage Connections project that involves ongoing inquiry, source work, interviews, and multiple classes for student presentation. Three other factors influence my choice of topics and will probably drive any further reduction of content in my SS9 outline: increased use of role-play/simulations and the added presence of WWI -- the kinds of things teachers and students can do with this time period could fill a whole course. The last is more practical; I have arranged my units so that I can use the "Crossroads" text for the first part of the course and make a clean switch to the "Horizons" test for the next part. I figure we can do the handoff with the Social Studies 8 teachers who will use the Crossroads text for the second part of their course, thus we don't need to purchase new class sets of texts while they are still useful and current.

Q6. Any suggestions for including Aboriginal perspectives and knowledge? 

A6. We have a few decent local learning resources in SD#57 related to Indigenous culture, issues, and worldview. We have a large and well-funded Ab-Ed Dep't with many staff that are available to advise or visit classes. They recently put on a successful Ab-Ed Symposium that gave over 700 local educators a sense of the challenges and possibilities ahead. FNESC http://www.fnesc.ca; and BCTF have produced some great resources in the last couple of years. Check out this Project of Heart site http://bctf.ca/HiddenHistory/ and also this one: http://projectofheart.ca/. Like others, I have many existing lessons or lesson elements in various states of development on the Aboriginal cultures of North America (or Canada, or BC), Indian Act/Potlatch ban, residential schools (historical, modern i.e. TRC), land claims (process, results, protests), environmental issues that relate to First Nations, Aboriginal self-government, Aboriginal soldiers in WWI/WWII, 1960 vote, etc., etc. That's where I'll start -- include as much of that as makes sense, keep my eye open for critical thinking activities and continue becoming familiar with the First Peoples Principles of Learning and their implication for my classroom and students. Our union local's Aboriginal Education rep has also posted some resources here: http://www.pgdta.ca/aboriginal.html.

Q7. What's your take on the curricular competencies?

A7. I have been using the Seixas et al Six Historical Thinking concepts (significance, evidence, continuity and change, cause and consequence, perspectives, ethical dimensions) in one way or another for years, so they are not strangers within my lessons, although it has been hit and miss. While they were as good a place as any for the Ministry K-9 team to build their competencies, I feel as if they have squeezed geography in the process and go straight to the complex stuff at the expense of a few old-fashioned Social Studies skills like map-making, charting and graphing, making, and simply learning from a variety of sources and voices (as opposed to decoding them for bias, significance, etc.). I suppose if you teach/learn the core competencies alongside the curricular competencies, you can do it all. The Big 6 can be scaled, too, so that the process/outcome for students is basic... more like "thinking" than "critical thinking." The Gr. 10-12 Ministry team is working on some unique competencies for Geography 11/12 -- these will likely be similar to the six historical thinking concepts and will be useful for Gr. 8-10 Social Studies in the future, perhaps even incorporated in later edits (if that happens). Another area that seems to be missing from the core and curricular competencies is authenticity. Making personal connections to course material, using personal strengths to express learning should be considered a skill that can be developed, refined, and perhaps assessed (or at least self-assessed). Authenticity relates to quality of research, depth of inquiry, choice of strategies, plagiarism education, and acceptance in the learning community. Maybe that's just an extension of the three core competencies.

Q8. How will you use the competencies and how will they be assessed?

A8. It may not obvious from looking at my course outline how competencies fit in. My plan is to be more regular about using at least one competency-driven activity in each of my lesson. This could mean comparison of disparate sources, having students identify and explain turning point, do cause-and-effect webs, pick a position and defend it, debate issues involving ethics, etc. Some of this stuff I can just wing it -- there is enough of it in my lessons already, but some of it needs to be more deliberate, such as dropping direct/specific questions from lesson handouts and having more open-ended inquiry, perhaps around the image on the screen or an object in the classroom. Towards this end, the project I mentioned in A4 above will be useful -- one of the products we hope to end up with are "assessment boxes" with many source documents, laminated photos, and maybe some 3D objects that are meant to provoke thought, center discussion, and be the subject of competency-driven questions and activities. For example, the class gets a series of images of inventions and artifacts from the Industrial Revolution, with enough time or background info to figure out what they did, why they were important or what impact they had. These could be used for so many learning and assessment purposes, group or individual. Arrange in a timeline. Arrange in order of significance, based on criteria developed by your group. Guess (or find out) what technology this invention replaced and what specifically was improved. Predict the social or environmental consequences of the invention. Explain why YOUR invention should be on the cover of a museum exhibit brochure on the industrial revolution. Find one other invention that is related to yours and, with your new partner, explain the connection to the class. You see how this list could go on and on. Instead of having a test bank, we'll have a source bank that can generate fresh assessments simply by changing up the order or the activity. Combined with simple instructions and a couple of different assessment rubrics (e.g. formative, summative, self, peer), we think this method could actually simplify assessment and not take up any more time than the standard test. In our experience, we learn much more about a student's progress from these open-ended "explain your understanding" assessments than we do from ye olde multiple choice tests. I haven't dug into the TC2 http://tc2.ca resources in a while, or had a chance to read The Big 6, but there one can find many more ideas to drive work with competencies.

I wish all schools and colleagues the best as they wrestle with the many issues that come up with the new curriculum. Historical content remains important, and is a great hearth on which to spin a "Social Studies" narrative with your students and practice both critical and creative thinking, but it is not the only thing that matters in Social Studies. In addition to competencies, tend to the geography, tend to the broad themes of the Humanities and other disciplines that make Social Studies more than a history course. For those that are unfamiliar with the "elements of historical thinking" -- learn more at http://historicalthinking.ca or sign up for their summer institute http://pdce.educ.ubc.ca/historical-thinking-summer-institute/. For those that use them all the time, challenge the notion that competencies begin and end with these elements. I encourage BC teachers to experiment with diverse course outlines and find a way to compare notes afterwards. Social media works fine for this. The word will eventually seep out to teachers who don't use social media.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

UNBC/CNC/SD57 Joint Feedback on proposed BCED Geography 11/12 Courses

Last fall I put a call out for interested teachers and post-secondary Geography faculty to meet and discuss the Draft BC Curriculum: Human Geography 11/12 and Physical Geography 11/12. Here are the results of that discussion

Joint feedback developed and submitted by:
  • Sinead Earley, Lecturer in UNBC Geography & PhD candidate in Geography (Queen’s University), Prince George
  • Dr. Greg Halseth, Professor, UNBC Geography, Community Development Institute, CRC Chair, Prince George
  • Dr. Neil Hanlon, Professor, UNBC Health Sciences, Prince George
  • Chris Jackson, Senior Lab Instructor, UNBC Geography, Prince George
  • Dr. Peter Jackson, Professor, UNBC Environmental Science, Atmospheric Science and Engineering, Prince George
  • Alex Koiter, lecturer, UNBC Geography, Prince George
  • Mark Lafleur, secondary teacher, Duchess Park Secondary, SD57 Prince George
  • Dr. Zoë Meletis, Associate Professor, UNBC Geography, Prince George
  • Dr. Catherine Nolin, Associate Professor and Chair, UNBC Geography, Prince George
  • Steve Porter, secondary teacher, Kelly Road Secondary, SD57 Prince George
  • Stephanie Powell-Hellyer, Sessional Instructor, UNBC Global and International Studies, Prince George
  • Cliff Raphael, Instructor, Geography and Leadership, College of New Caledonia, Prince George
  • Glen Thielmann, secondary teacher, D.P. Todd Secondary, SD57 Prince George
  • Dr. Roger Wheate, Associate Professor, GIS Coordinator, UNBC Geography, Prince George
Meeting location
Held at University of Northern British Columbia, November 30th, 2015, 4-6pm, Admin Bldg 1069

Meeting agenda:

  1. Orientation to curriculum change in BC K-12 Education system
  2. Overview of the new curriculum framework and role of geography in Social Studies courses
  3. Defining and contextualizing big ideas, competencies, and content
  4. Feedback groups and sharing out (see five questions below)
  5. Wrap-up discussion on geography education and opportunities to connect K-12 teachers with post-secondary faculty and the UNBC Geography Program
Reference:
“Social Studies: Proposal for Grades 10-12 Curriculum,” BC Ministry of Education, retrieved Nov 20/2015 from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/10-12

Group activity questions:
  1. What is the point in studying Geography? Put another way, what are some of the “Big Ideas” in Geography?
  2. What are some competencies (skills/processes/ways of thinking and expression) in the study of Geography?
  3. What areas of study, key concepts, and topics are important for students to learn about in a well-rounded and interesting introductory course in Human Geography?
  4. What areas of study, key concepts, and topics are important for students to learn about in a well-rounded and interesting introductory course in Physical Geography?
  5. Anything else to add?
FEEDBACK

General comments:
  • Why two courses (plus environmental studies, plus earth science)? Wouldn’t a general, interdisciplinary geography course with flexible content have more appeal to both students and teachers?
  • Content and competencies should use the heading/bullet approach used in the draft Earth Science course - allows differentiation between main ideas and lesser ideas within each category
  • One course: human-environment interaction and process
  • The draft competencies are for the most part about history education and not geography education
  • How about a holistic geography course with options for students to get credit for human vs physical based on the projects the complete?
Feedback from the group activity

1. What is the point in studying Geography? Put another way, what are some of the “Big Ideas” in Geography? (this section also includes general statements about the draft curriculum)


More about Human Geography:
  • environment
  • spatial learning
  • place
  • inter-relationships (local to global)
  • based on data (observations | measurements
  • human-environment interactions (also expressed as the human-environment dynamic)
  • geography is about the study of space, place, and identity (these are core concepts, prompts for inquiry)
  • why do people live where they do and how do they interact with the environment
  • 3rd and 4th Human Geog “Big Ideas” are too similar
More about Physical Geography:
  • measurement of space
  • earth’s surface as a place of interactions
  • systems
  • understanding our world
  • location, maps,
  • patterns, trends
  • purpose of (physical) geography includes understanding of basic composition and structure of the earth, forces that share the surface of the earth, and biomes
About both Human and Physical Geography:
  • patterns
  • understanding humans on Earth
  • data-based measurements, observations, pattern recognition
  • Geography is applicable to all fields - emphasize where geography takes you, e.g. experience-based learning
  • systems thinking; scales - local to global
  • cycles and interactions
  • location, location, location
  • make the relationship between humans and environment more interactive, less deterministic
  • integration: knowledge of physical and social dynamics shared across both courses
  • if they were one course, they should focus on human/environment interaction/process
  • geography is an integrated science, interdisciplinary
  • focus on underlying processes
  • local-global interdependencies (a key-component in geographic thinking
  • climate change
  • linking human and physical processes
  • globally connected world
  • understanding connections/reciprocal relations between land and life
  • how/why people live where they do
  • basic geographic literacy (various definitions)
2. What are some competencies* in the study of Geography?
* “competencies” is the term used in BC Curriculum documents to describe skills, capacities, practical abilities, and habits of mind. Some are discipline-specific, some are interdisciplinary, while others are meant to apply generally to “critical thinking” and “inquiry.”

More about Human Geography:
  • critical thinking
  • isolating what we’re thinking about (metacognition)
  • levels of “Why?”
  • ability to express in a variety of means (e.g. photo essays)
  • reasoning
  • recognize patterns in the world that relate to people
More about Physical Geography:
  • experiential learning (mentioned multiple times)
  • clear expression from qualitative through to quantitative
  • basic geographic literacy
  • ability to spatially represent and interpret data
  • basic mapping skills
  • inquiry
  • analytical tools to use/interpret geographically referenced data
  • integration of different geographic understandings
  • chain of explanations: be able to explain things that are interconnected
  • transfer and translation of geographic knowledge
  • capacity for interdisciplinary research, thought, and expression
  • refer to http://pics.uvic.ca for competency ideas
  • problem-solving
  • ability to discuss and make chains of explanation (e.g. Syrian Migration)
  • concept maps/mind-mapping
  • writing/expressing thoughts clearly (qualitative and quantitative thinking)
  • integrative; interrelated thinkers - knowledge transfer - discussion - linkages (mind maps)
  • explain “so what”
  • visual representations of space; patterns, meaning
  • see the “Big Picture” when presented with geographic data and phenomenon
  • identify key factors as explanation
  • ability to trace interconnections
  • knowledge translation - from science to policy and back (bridging)
  • data management
  • spatially integrated data - interpretation of multiple data sets
  • make predictions and apply conclusions to geographic evidence
  • find and assess geographic data
About both Human and Physical Geography:
  • math skills
  • recognize patterns in the world that relate to physical characteristics
  • ability to work with case studies
3. What areas of study and key concepts are important for students to learn about in a well-rounded and interesting introductory course in Human Geography?

One group summarized their work as such:
  1. Settlement - urban/rural/mega-city/migration
  2. Culture - conflict/change
  3. Environment - climate change/environ. degradation
  4. Economy - globalization/eneven development
  5. Geopolitics
  6. Colonial Legacies
One group created themes of content:
  • class, race, space, place, identity, gender, diversity, patterns, trends, locations, processes
Other submissions:
  • identification of…, applicability of…, interrelationships…
  • dynamic relations between humans and the environment and human-human relationships
  • scale - interdependence of scale from local to global (e.g. commodity chains)
  • nominative values
  • case study learning
  • inquiry and project-based learning
  • spatial literacy
  • how applicable geography is to all disciplines - interrelationships
  • different kinds of spatial analysis
  • representing the world visually (e.g. animations, maps, art, writing, photography)
4. What areas of study and key concepts are important for students to learn about in a well-rounded and interesting introductory course in Physical Geography?

One group summarized their work as such:
  1. Atmosphere
  2. Lithoshpere
  3. Biosphere
  4. Hydrosphere
    ... interaction and spatial distribution
A second group summarized their work as such:
  • Earth’s systems - and thinking about these systems:
  • Atmosphere
  • Hydroshere - Cryosphere
  • Lithosphere
  • Biosphere - Anthroposphere
    ... for all: processes and flows of energy and matter in each and between each system. Details within - refer to competencies and concepts
And also a third:
  • The Four Spheres (atmosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere)
Other submissions:
  • processes: glaciation, water erosion
  • structure/framework: tectonics, rocks, volcanics
  • systems: equilibrium, open/closed (e.g. watersheds), emergent properties
  • history - past events and conditions, current processes and landforms
  • multiple layers in landscapes
  • significance of physical features (e.g. as resources)
  • earth systems
  • linkages (e.g. between biosphere and lithosphere)
  • organization of phenomena
  • use more inquiry-based learning and media-based learning: offer examples and cases for investigating concepts and themes in geography
  • sources to be included: census data, maps, photos, images, government docs, northern BC archives
  • integration of knowledge
  • local physical geography (integration and experiential learning)
  • local interaction of the spheres
5. Anything else to add?
  • Suggestion: replace language in competencies — replace “assess the significance of…” with “appreciate the diverse nature of our world and patterns within it”
  • The Physical Geography draft does not mention the biosphere — exploring the spheres without the biosphere or ecology does not make sense
Facilitator’s notes :
  • The responses to both Question 1 and Questions 3 and 4 contain many items that the Curriculum Team will recognize as potential competencies in addition to thoughts about big ideas and content.
  • The list of suggested competencies related to Question 2 have great integration of human and physical — it seems likely that a single set of competencies could emerge for both geography courses
  • Most of the feedback group agreed that having a single integrated geography course would have more appeal to students — high schools in northern BC already have a hard time getting a single course of geography going, and might have a harder time trying to sell two courses, or one at the expense of the other

Monday, November 02, 2015

Draft Curriculum Feedback


I thought I'd post an edited version of what I posted on the BC Ministry of Education site for curriculum feedback <https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/feedback> on Nov 2.  Like the curriculum itself, my thoughts about the 10-12 Drafts are a work in progress. The stuff below is specifically about Social Studies 10 and Human / Physical Geography 11/12. While these are my own views, I have developed many of them in collaboration with other Social Studies teachers.

Please leave your own feedback on the new curriculum -- they have a lot to work to do and will take their cue from the teachers that offer feedback.

1. What do you like about the proposal? Please comment on the core and optional curricula.

I like that the proposal is an attempt to carry the streamlined ideas of the K-9 courses forward for 10-12. Requiring students to take one "Socials" elective after Grade 10 is a bare minimum -- it should be two. Alternately, students should be required to take a set number of credits from Humanities (e.g. English and Socials electives) as well as Math/Science, such that it is natural and encouraged for students to take more than one post-Grade 10 Socials elective.

I appreciate that Social Studies 10 is in a tight position -- does it simply replace the old SS11 minus WWI, allowing it to "breathe" a little in the absence of a Provincial Exam, or does it try to be something new, a true "Social Studies" course that employs multi-disciplinary inquiry to examine Canada and the World in the last 100 years? At this point it is not quite doing either.  Ironically, this is due, in part, to the admirable (but very much history-based) competencies.  The irony is that the heart of the competencies (the so-called "benchmarks of historical thinking" developed by Peter Seixas of UBC among others) are a great way to study history and other related subjects, but as a day-to-day "skills" guide for Social Studies students they might be too much -- they may cloud the other joyous offerings of history (such the art of storytelling) and also cloud the strong role that geographic thinking (and other "competencies") should play in Social Studies. Nonetheless, I'm glad to see the "benchmarks" present as I (and many others) have been using them in Social Studies for years as a way to shift the focus from content-for-content's sake to content as a tool for developing thinking.

I like that Geography has been split into Human and Physical, although this will make it tough for smaller high schools to "fill a block of geography" with an even more specialized choice of courses. I think some teachers will be tempted to combine them where possible, just like some teachers will likely want to combine First Peoples Issues and Social Justice, or will want to include them as part of a larger program. Will this be possible? We don't know enough yet about the Grad Plan, funding model(s), cohort-based programs vs course credits, opportunities for blended learning, etc. It is difficult to apply for an innovation grant or envision how a new program will play without knowing if the proposals will even be possible -- schools have a hard enough time figuring out when their lunch time should start, let alone whether they are ready to upend the timetable to launch something like cross-curricular learning inquiry time/spaces.  I like that geographic thinking and literacy are mentioned (once) in the draft proposal -- this needs to be built on and used in both (new) geography courses.

2. What do you think should be improved? Please comment on the core and optional curricula.

First -- the proposed Social Studies 10. Too much content has been squeezed out of the old Social Studies 9, 10, and 11 into the new SS9, and as a result the new SS10 is, in part, too vague on content. Yes, teachers can now pick and choose the content they will use to address the big ideas and explore the develop the competencies in SS9, but there is too much history that will be glossed over -- if anything it encourages SS9 to be more of a survey course than ever. Speaking of which, the competencies rely so heavily on Seixas' history benchmarks that it takes away from other aspects of Socials, particularly Geography. I think that geographic literacy should have a more prominent role in the SS K-10 curriculum. Assuming SS K-9 will not receive further edits, one thing that can be done is to adjust the new SS10 -- it needs an additional content item: "development of Canadian Identity in the 20th Century at home and on the world stage." This will help make it clear to teachers that events of note in 20th Century Canada will still be something students get to learn about -- the Great Depression, WWII, Canada and the Cold War, Quebec Nationalism, etc. As it stands, there is nothing compelling in the content that suggest teachers need to pay attention to what was once the heart of the old SS11. At present, SS10 looks like a contemporary civics, issues, and human geography course (in fact very much like the old 3-part pre-2004 SS11 without explicit reference to the History section), and yet relies on history-based critical inquiry for competencies and mandates a timeline of 1919-present. If we are to do the job of teaching human geography effectively in the new SS10 (just like we did in SS11), there needs to be a term added to the content item "interconnections between demography, urbanization, environmental issues, and globalization." Between urbanization and environmental issues add "stages of development." Additionally, for the content item "development, structure, and function to Canadian and other economic systems" add "...and their impact on standards of living." This line of inquiry in the old SS11 (why are some nations better off than others and how do we close the gap) was for me, along with "why bother voting," the heart of the course. As for the SS10 Big Ideas -- they are quite generic and basically reiterations of the content and competencies -- they lack the nuance of the SS9 Big Ideas. As such they are not very useful as course organizers or even themes that could guide the construction of units.

Next -- the optional content. Geography 11/12 courses have a few serious issues that need to be addressed. I see that most of the competencies have been copy-and-pasted from other SS courses (the benchmarks of historical thinking plus statements about inquiry). These ones specific to historical thinking should out rather than suggest they should guide geography studies. To a lesser extent, the competencies for 20th Century World History 11/12, Contemporary First Peoples Issues 11/12, and Social Justice 11/12 will also need to be adjusted to make them more discipline-specific. Interdisciplinarity is great, but requires it's own "competencies" separate from those specific to the study of History. As an aside, I would suggest that the biggest support for interdisciplinarity comes from the 3 Core Competencies.

So what to do with Geography 11/12? First the Human Geography 11/12 has too much overlap with the "human geography" aspects of the proposed SS10. It is a rough (and in my mind inaccurate and outdated) survey of topics from post-secondary "human" geography programs put through the filter of the bits of geography that currently exist in Gr 10-12 curriculum. It reads a bit like the chapter headings from a 1980s Geog text, or a list of old Geog courses (Economic, Regional, etc.) prior to the extensive use of technology in gathering and interpreting geographic data, and prior to some wicked developments in Geographic thinking and post-colonial inquiry. There is too much emphasis on resources and not enough on "environment." Content items 3 and 4 should be combined (they are really the same thing). The imbalance can be corrected with more emphasis on place-conscious learning, making sense of human interaction with place, and the prompt to use of many types of texts and data in order to explore themes and thinking in geography (literary sources, photography, video, and especially maps).

The Physical Geography 12 course is primitive but not far from what would be expected -- it is all the "physical" bits from the old Geog 12, especially the geomorphology. I think what it is missing is a window for the inclusion of geology and ecology, two important "subtopics" (arguable of course) in a holistic study of physical geography. A geographer worthy of his or her dirty dirty fingernails will relish the opportunity to share a bit about rocks, plants, and soil. Some colleagues (who stare at clouds) will also want to see a stronger role for atmospheric science in the new course (beyond the existing mention of human interaction with the atmosphere). As mentioned, a discipline-specific set of competencies is needed, as will a decision of whether Physical Geography 12 will count a lab or science credit towards university admission.

In neither geography course is there mention of how technology has shaped geography (e.g. GIS, GPS, satellite imaging). This relates to the need for data literacy, for the need to make geographic data more important in the Geog courses. The Human Geog proposal misses this, although it is mentioned in the Physical Geog competencies -- it appears as if there was the beginning of an attempt with competency #2 to adapt benchmarks of historical thinking to the realm of geographic thinking.

Beyond tech, maps, and discipline-specific data, the other side of the missing coin is sense of what these courses are for. "20th Century World History 11/12" is, arguably, about how our world is still dominated by conflicts and cooperations based on ideas with incredible realizations in the last 100 years.  Why take Human Geography 11/12?  The content (and still-to-be written competencies) need to convey the profound questions about how we relate with place, about the deep impact of environment, about how we read landscapes, and about how we conduct ourselves as humans on the planet. The new curriculum does not prevent this from being the basis of the course, but it does not go very far to encourage it either.

So what do competencies look like in Human Geography (and perhaps Physical Geography)? They could be based on the "five themes of geography" (Location, Place, Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Region). They could be based on the "six elements of geography" (The World in Spatial Terms, Places and Regions, Physical Systems, Human Systems, Environment and Society, and The Uses of Geography) or some kind of synthesis of the two. See my blog post about these for references: http://thielmann.blogspot.ca/2012/10/benchmarks-of-geographic-thinking.html.

Following is a list of focus areas for the application of geographic inquiry. They are somewhere in between "Big Ideas" and "Competencies." If I get around to it, I'd love to work these into specific competencies, but here is where they were at when I blogged about it in 2012.

  • Structure of place - form & function of human and/or physical systems
  • Use of Evidence - selection & interpretation of phenomenon related to human and physical features of past and present landscapes
  • Causality and Change - function of space & time in the evolution of human and physical systems
  • Human-Environment Interaction - mutual impacts and dependencies, modes of adaptation
  • Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives - role of history, sociology, biology, economics, geology, etc. in the study of geography
  • Responsibility and Sustainability - resource ethics, interconnected issues, planning & management

3. Does the core curriculum require anything further to meet the needs of students graduating from BC schools? Please provide details.

Yes -- see comment above for #2 (SS10 needs an additional content item: development of Canadian Identity in the 20th Century at home and on the world stage). Students should not graduate without this basic grounding in Canada's history in the 20th century. As well, "development" and "standards of living" need to be retained in the new SS10 curriculum in order to fully realize the human geography component.

Friday, January 24, 2014

GeoNarrative Paula

This year's cohort in the "Language and Landscape Program" recently presented their GeoNarratives -- a historical/geographical study of a specific place, time, person/s, and/or event.  This "project-based learning" was meant to roll many English 11 and Geography 12 learning outcomes together for our blended learning, course combination approach.  The students had time in and out of class over a few months to put this together.

One of my students "P.C." built her project and presentation around what life was like for a woman coming of age in the 1930s and living a life of some privilege in the Vancouver of the 1940s-1960s.  The focus was her great-aunt Paula, a larger-than-life personality in the personal narrative of P.C.'s family who, with her husband, travelled extensively and left an impression on those around them.  Paula. among other things, was one of the first women to join the Vancouver Yacht Club, and was a careful recorder of life around her.

P.C.'s project involved designing inquiry, conducting personal research, curating evidence from a variety of sources (mainly primary documents), building a scrapbook to summarize her inquiry, and writing a short story from the perspective of Paula on he honeymoon. P.C.'s narrative for us (her audience) tried to capture both the extraordinary qualities of Paula, but also the more general characteristics of a time and place (Vancouver, 1930-1960).  Alongside this "evolving landscape" were descriptions of the many clubs, theatres, and restaurants that Paula visited.

One of the many artifacts that P.C. used to structure her presentation were the menus from some of these restaurants, saved by Paula as mementos and kept in the family after her passing.  I found this one intriguing, love the inclusion of cow's tongue and rarebits:




Saturday, October 12, 2013

GeoNarratives

For educators and others: this post is intended as a beginning, a draft for a Gr. 11 student project design. Your feedback is welcome, particularly about communicating these lofty ideas to students so they can understand it, managing steps in the project so they don't get lost, assessment suggestions, and weblinks to examples of similar projects appreciated. I'll also be seeking "critical friends" feedback at Mumbleypeg 2013, an annual meeting of the Pacific Slope Consortium. Virtually all of the students at my school have conducted Heritage Projects or Echo Projects of one flavour or another in Social Studies 9, 10, or 11. This means that they have spent considerable time gathering evidence and stories about past cultures and locations, mainly ones within their own family. For my current group taking Geography 12 and English 11 together in the Language and Landscape Program, I want to provoke them to examine the role that geography played in those stories, and to engage in writing and other creative expression to deconstruct these narratives. We will be assigning a significant number of our learning outcomes to this project, and working through it off and on for about two months.

Enough preamble; here it is:

GeoNarratives: Cross-curricular Project-based Learning about People and Places

Each of us has rich stories in our past, stories that woven together with places. For some, it is the tale of our ancestors as they endured challenges that we can only imagine. For others, the people, places and stories are more immediate, still present within our lives. In all cases there is direct and indirect evidence hiding in language, food, and song, and written into physical and cultural landscapes. 

This project will require building a “geography” and creating a “narrative” -- specifically:
  • heritage inquiry: taking the stories from your personal and cultural background and examining patterns, geographic relationships, and significance -- applying critical geographic thinking to an authentic context 
  • creative non-fiction: writing and creating narratives based on research -- perhaps there is some short cross-over into historical fiction and personal myth-making, but at its heart is the telling of a story that connects to your heritage 
  • embodiment: putting your senses, your artistic side, your physical presence into your research and presentation -- creative expressions of the parts of your research that you find most compelling 
 Aside from the critical thinking and creativity involved, some specific skills will be developed:
  • careful use of technology: placing a digital stamp on this project -- use of an online portfolio, use of technology for research and/or expression, experimenting with something new 
  • literature review and wordtake: surveying the reading and media that relates to your inquiry and using some of it to explore Self and Other, or global issues that impacted your own backstory
This is a broad framework created by your teacher, but it is important that you design the questions that will allow this to be meaningful to you. As your teacher, I can provide as much structure as you think you need to be successful with this project, including narrowing down your topics, suggesting courses of action, and helping you embed “benchmarks of geographic inquiry.” With all this in mind you are free to take this project in new directions, as long as we consider certain learning outcomes that are basic to English Language Arts and Geography, including a high standard for writing.

GeoNarratives at a glance -- considering the impact of geography on the stories from one’s past

The final presentation of your GeoNarrative will take in four parts:
  1. sharing the part of your portfolio that shows your heritage research, literature review, and critical analysis (the conclusions you have made about both the topic and your learning)
  2. sharing some or all of the creative non-fiction (or historical fiction) that you have built around your research 
  3. sharing a performative piece that you made to express or symbolize the deep part of your learning during this project 
  4. use of at least one effective of digital technology in the process of project creation or presentation 
Project Steps (not always in this sequence):
  1. look at and assess example of creative non-fiction, heritage inquiry, and “geographies” 
  2. develop questions and designs for your project 
  3. accumulate primary and secondary evidence and conduct a variety of research 
  4. co-develop aspects of your project and evaluation criteria with student groups and the teacher 
  5. create the pieces that make up your project 
  6. prepare the pieces for sharing, including presentation 
  7. share and present your project 
  8. reflection, celebration, and evaluation 
Examples of stories that would work well as GeoNarratives:
  • immigration experiences, so different depending on location and time period 
  • wartime from civilian or a soldier’s perspective 
  • grandma’s garden, grandpa’s workshop; practicing bygone skills and trades 
  • working on the land; pioneering and homesteading 
  • outdoor lifestyles, a tradition of hunting or fishing 
  • managing a farm and family, homemaking in the past 
Examples of global issues that could be examined within your project:
  • a study of racism/tolerance, language acquisition, or labour market among new immigrants 
  • evolving role and treatment of women in various places, cultures, and time periods 
  • aboriginal ways of knowing and relationship between First Nations and the broader society 
  • the power of wealth: studies of “class” and differences between rich and poor 
  • citizenship, rights and democracy: how much freedom or “agency” did historic groups really have 
  • the idea of sustainability and the relationship that different peoples have with the environment 
  • grief and hope: how did historic groups cope with challenges (could tie in to religious studies) 
Examples of evidence that would support a GeoNarrative:
  • non-fiction, documentaries, history books and websites, academic studies 
  • novels, short stories, works of fiction and poetry from the time period and place that you are examining 
  • artwork or crafts such as paintings, architecture, sketches, sculptures, carvings, jewelry, tools, heirlooms 
  • primary evidence, journals, memoirs, recollections, artifacts, photographs, recipes, travelogues, interviews 
  • genealogical websites, graveyards, government records, family history books 
  • existing “human geography” connected to your topics (studies that parallel your inquiry), historical atlases
Examples of a performative piece:
  • musical creation (e.g. write a song), interpretive dance, historical re-enactment, water colour painting, original poetry, food creation, a model or diorama, puppet show, simulation, class activity, video reflection, narrated slideshow, interactive display, build something
Examples of a digital stamp:
  • use of QR codes to link to key evidence, like a reader’s guide for someone to understand your work 
  • creating an attractive space in your digital portfolio to display some of your work (lots of applications to try for this one) 
  • using video or computer animation for part of your project 
  • conducting interviews via Skype and archiving part of it as portfolio evidence 
  • use of social media for “curating” (assessing and organizing) research or telling/sharing a story
Examples of a projects that put together many strands of inquiry:
Note on the image at the top: this is a map of the Molotchna colony -- home to Mennonites who left Prussia to settle in this part of South Russia from the 1780s onwards.  After WWI and the Russian Revolution, many of these Mennonites fled to North America, including all four of my grandparents. One of my own GeoNarratives is very much connected to this time, place, and people.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Board Proposal for Middle Earth 12



Presentation (well... highlights, anyways) to accompany proposal for a BC Board/Authority Authorized Course. Middle Earth 12 is a senior Humanities elective course - an authentic, blended approach to the study of language and landscape. Middle Earth 12 is designed to work as a stand-alone course but will be implemented locally within a Humanities Program that also includes other students seeking credit for BC English 11 and Geography 12. Using diverse sources like fantasy fiction, regional environments, and work created or chosen by students, Middle Earth 12 is a Quest for deep connections to people, places and ideas, and powerful skills to interpret and respond to what we discover along the way. Tolkien's creations serve as both a metaphor and model for what we will do in Middle Earth 12 -- he fashioned a personalized landscape using the crafts of a writer, poet, painter, sketch artist, cartographer, medieval scholar, language origin expert, linguistic specialist, environmental devotee, historian, keen observer, and wanderer. He set an example of what relentless curiosity and collaboration can accomplish.

Board/Authority Authorized Course Framework for school trustees and district staff -- "brief" version: http://db.tt/yCrfoQ6A

Documentation on the project development, FAQs, philosophy, and the placement of Middle Earth 12 in the Language and Landscape program at D.P. Todd -- "full" version: http://db.tt/Uziz9EBU

Monday, November 05, 2012

staff mtg course presentation


It's official... time to let my staff know where this is going. What started as a set of ideas about course combination and imaginative content, and became a project in curriculum and learning design is ready for the next level.

This course proposal for D.P. Todd Secondary will see English 11 and Geography 12 combined in a blended learning environment. Students enroll for two blocks of course work, half of it class-room based and half of it outside of class with individual, group,and seminar work. The "blend" refers to both the mix of traditional lessons with flipped or flexible learning, and the mix of in-school with distributed (e.g. online) content and coursework.

We will emphasize self-reliant learning, developing personal learning networks for students, cross-curricular themes, performance-based assessment, interactive technology, social learning, and exploring horizons of significance and authenticity.

In short, a new way for Grade 11 students to complete two courses with compelling curriculum in a two-block program that blends different approaches to teaching and learning.

Space permitting, this program will also allow Grade 12 students to audit parts of the double-course offering and complete a single grad credit board-authorized course: Middle Earth 12.

Comments and feedback welcome. An open planning site for this course can be found at http://dpts.sd57.bc.ca/~gthielmann/middleearth or at http://landspeak.blogspot.com

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Benchmarks of Geographic Thinking

My sister planting trees in the Bowron Clearcut, 1986. Many geographic relationships and themes overlap in this image

In what seems to be a regular occurrence, a Social Studies colleague from Ft. St. James has challenged me with some powerful questions. This time it is about what is at the heart of geography education, something she is working through with her students. She likes to set the bar high; not just content to teach curriculum and provide a friendly learning atmosphere (which is as high as I reach on most days), she want her students to really get somewhere, to express and invest and stretch their thinking. Adapting the questions a bit, here is what I'd like to know more about:

When students encounter a geographic issue or phenomenon, what guiding themes or inspirations will help them make sense of of it? What themes, skills, or approaches are of most use for engaging students in geographic problem-solving?

Please leave a comment or email/tweet if you have ideas to add to this. I will edit the post as ideas arrive. I suppose one place to start is with some existing standards to apply to thinking and inquiry in Social Studies:

Benchmarks of Historical Thinking (Seixas)
ref: http://www.histori.ca/benchmarks/
  • Establish Historical Significance 
  • Use Primary Source Evidence 
  • Identify Continuity and Change (Patterns of Change) 
  • Analyze Cause and Consequence 
  • Take Historical Perspectives 
  • Understand Moral Dimensions of History (Judgement) 
Benchmarks (American Historical Assoc.)
ref: http://www.historians.org/teaching/policy/benchmarks.htm
  • Analysis of primary and secondary sources 
  • Understanding of historical debate and controversy 
  • Historiography/how historians develop interpretations 
  • Analysis of how historians use evidence 
  • Understanding of bias and points of view 
  • Formulations of questions and determining their importance 
  • Determination of the significance of historical change 
  • Examination of how causation relates to continuity and change 
  • Interrelationship among themes, regions, periodization 
  • Perceiving the past through values of the past 
Five Themes of Geography
ref: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/themes.html
  • Location 
  • Place 
  • Human-Environment Interaction 
  • Movement 
  • Region 
Six Elements of Geography (American Association Geog National Standards)
ref: http://edmall.gsfc.nasa.gov/inv99Project.Site/Pages/geo.stand.html
  • The World in Spatial Terms 
  • Places and Regions 
  • Physical Systems 
  • Human Systems 
  • Environment and Society 
  • The Uses of Geography 
Benchmarks exist in other disciplines, too
Science 9-12 Content Benchmarks (compiled from various American sources)
e.g., ref: http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/BEG/BEG_Standards_Science_Part1.html
  • Use scientific method to investigate and gather/analyze evidence 
  • Understand that scientific processes produce evolving knowledge 
  • Use appropriate math to solve problems 
  • Understand properties, structures, and reactions of matter 
  • Understand role of biodiversity and genetics in nature 
  • Understand earth systems, origins, and interactions of the spheres 
  • Understand energy and how it interacts with matter 
  • Understand the motion of objects and waves, and the forces that cause them 
So, what might benchmarks for critical thinking look like in geographic education?
Geographic Inquiry (my synthesis):
  • Structure of place - form & function of human and/or physical systems 
  • Use of Evidence - human and physical features, selection & interpretation of phenomenon 
  • Causality and Change - evolution of systems, function of space & time 
  • Human-Environment Interaction - mutual impacts and dependencies, modes of adaptation 
  • Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives - role of history, sociology, biology, economics, geology, etc. 
  • Responsibility and Sustainability - resource ethics, connected issues, planning & management
What are they for? I think themes guide inquiry in the same way that principles guide decisions or values guide behaviour. They don't always look the same, depend on the individual perhaps, nor are they consistently applied (My "principle" says eat local, eat organic, and yet I just ate a Big Mac). The themes or benchmarks can be studied, challenged, adapted, and can remain present as reminders that just thinking about what we observe isn't enough, we need to put internal (identity connections) and external (scholarly approaches) on the line and be prepared to be stretched in order for deep learning to take place. That's the big challenge. The 5 themes of geography has been around for along time, by themselves they don't make geography fun. A friend of mine recently had his Social Studies 10 class explore the PGSS school and grounds with cameras to locate evidence of the 5 themes in play. They shared their photo observations together and spent some time explaining connections to the 5 themes, defending photo choices, and discussing the use of space at their school. Critical thinking (using themes and benchmarks), engaged identity (their choices, their photos), smart use of technology, physically active/hands-on, focus on "how to think and learn" built on top of the "what," multiple roles for teacher... great lesson, eh?

What is the intended outcome of the use of themes or benchmarks? Sometimes in Geography we construct "geographies." (srsly!). We move from the general (the skills and processes and observations), to the personal (the reconstruction of what is happening in a specific landscape), filtered through the knowledge and agenda of the individual geographer. In other words, "Geography" (as a subject) is the study of place, an analysis of physical and/or cultural characteristics related to a phenomenon or location.  A "geography" (as an inquiry) is a construction of significance -- what is happening in a particular place, often related to an issue (e.g. environmental crisis in a watershed, changing climate as it relates to forestry, a town recovering from a recession, etc.). The "Study of Geography" is the set of lenses we develop with out students -- what's going on here, what are the relevant terms and underlying factors that help make sense of this landscape or phenomenon or issue.  The "building of geographies" is the application of these skills, attended to by the themes and benchmarks that ensure rigorous thinking. The hinge, the key piece that links skills, knowledge, and ability to analyze case studies, is the role of identity and the "topophilia" or the deep connections to place that guide so many of our conscious and unconscious understandings of geographic phenomenon and experiences. Occasionally, students connect to different parts of my geography 12 course because they simply find the material interesting or I've put on a great lesson. Sometimes their engagement depends on a cool project they design and do. More often, though, it is when the material (or lessons) and their response (e.g. project) resonate with some deep need they have to "become" -- they want to make connections between issues, places, ideas, patterns of thought and their own bodies. Learning, especially in the K-12 scene, is as much about becoming as it is about what one ends of knowing. It is for this reason I've abandoned most written or powerpoint project options in Geography and encourage more "Embodied Geography" from students (e.g. see Poutine Glaciation or Waffle Tectonics).

Here are some examples of "geographies" that combine observation with different degrees of bias (identity can't be engaged without also evoking agendas) and the use of standard reference points (e.g. derived from benchmarks or fitting into themes):

This list could be endless -- any careful deconstruction of a set of relationships happening in a particular space and time (sometimes applicable to the larger world, sometime not), and careful reconstruction of what it all means and where we might go with what we learn -- this is a geography. It is the rich boundary-zone between benchmarks of geographic thinking, relevant cases studies, and the passion emerging from students' ongoing identity work. It is also the place where students can get fires up about  issues and begin to understand how direct experience, power, agency, consciousness, and intimacy are all at play in landscapes, just as they are in their lives. Building a "geography" is both a phenomenological and ontological effort. Don't worry, I don't punish kids with those words, not unless they ask, anyways. We do talk about topophilia, though.

I think one of the best things to do with a Geography class is be to build geographies and then find a physical way (something built or something performed) to express them, ideally for the whole class so we can follow their thinking and ask lots of questions.