Active Teaching Methodologies

Leaving Certificate GeographyUna Nation

Active Methodologies

Tell me and I will forget

Show me and I will Learn

Involve me and I will understand

Teton Lakota

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Active Learning MethodsActive teaching/learning methodologies

concentrate on the doing in order to enhance the knowing.

Active learning involves students directly and actively in the learning process.

Learning methodologies should reflect the variety of learning styles in a given classroom.

Successful active learning Methods Are:

Engaging

Student-centered

Cater for different learning styles

Enhance critical skills

Promote student activity

Active Learning Methods

Behind every good teacher is an exhausted class!

Whoever explains, learns

Active Learning Methods Think, Pair, Share

Brainstorming

Structured discussion

Case studies

Role Play/ Drama

Surveys/Questionnaires

Interviewing

Games

Fieldwork

Visits

Presentations

Demonstrations

Multimedia

Problem solving

Debating

Think, Pair, Share

Think to yourself

Turn to a partner and discuss

Share with a group

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Think, Pair, ShareWhen used at the beginning of a lecture, a

Think-Pair-Share strategy can help students organize prior knowledge and brainstorm questions.

When used later in the session, the strategy can help students summarize what they're learning, apply it to novel situations, and integrate new information with what they already know.

The strategy works well with groups of various sizes and can be completed in as little as two or three minutes.

Think Pair Share in Geography

Predicting Earthquakes

Think to yourself of ways that you can predict where earthquakes are likely to occur?

Predicting EarthquakesShare with the person next to you your thoughts

on the prediction of earthquakes and write down the answers.

I will then ask some of the groups to share their answers with the rest of the class.

Answer Seismographs used to record vibrations in the earths crust.

Tilt meters used to measure bulges in land surface which may happen before a major earthquake.

Laser beams from satellites used to measure the slightest rock movement in areas prone to earthquakes.

History of earthquakes, patterns in seismic gaps.

Animal behaviour may change in advance of an earthquake.

Radon gas which is emitted from the earths crust is monitored as it increases prior to earthquakes.

Water levels in well may sometimes rise when the ground is under stress prior to an earthquake.

Question and Answer To begin, the instructor

asks students to partner with someone near by.

Each student takes a minute to formulate one question based on the information presented in the lecture or course readings.

Student A begins by posing her question for student B to answer. Then the roles are reversed, with student B becoming the questioner.

Name the type of rock?

I am a heavy, fine grained rock. I cooled and hardened quickly leaving no time for large crystals to form?

Visual LiteracyThe power of the visual (e.g.

photography, graphic design, architecture, animation, painting etc.) can be captured and used to motivate the learner and open up a world of imagination that can bring content knowledge to life.

Visual LiteracyPictures can stimulate writing/discussion. Sample

activities include;

What is the first word that comes into your head when you see this picture?

Quick-fire/brainstorm/list.

‘Stream of consciousness’- jot down any random thoughts that the picture suggests.

Compose captions for a series of photographs.

Write a dialogue between the characters featured in the picture.

AFor 30 seconds talk about the picture without deviation, hesitation or

repetition.

Summarise the content as an image.

On 11 March 2011 Japan suffered its worst ever earthquake. For two and a half minutes the ground surface in parts of Japan shook. Earthquake proof skyscrapers cracked and people were buried alive in their collapsed homes. Big fires broke out as gas and oil pipes were fractured by the tremors. A tsunami followed the quake destroying homes, villages and destroying coastland. In all more than 27,000 people died.

Japan Tsunami

Poetry

My Fault

 

So when we pull away

The world falls down its Normal

When we collide together

You lift me up its reverse

When I thrust you too much

You push me across to the other side

When you pass me by

It tears me apart

It’s my Fault.

 

Word BankKey words relating to a

topic/spellings/definitions are written on strips of card, sorted alphabetically and displayed on

a large poster. New words are added after every lesson having been

identified and defined in context of the lesson.

Constant revisiting of lists reminds students of their extent and purpose. Draw attention to lists when completing written

work also.

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Word/Definition CardsDesign two separate bundles of cards, one for

words/terms and the second containing the definition.

Students required to match them up. ICT, this exercise could form a cut and paste exercise on computer.

Alternatively, distribute blank cards to students and assign the task of designing a definition card with an accompanying picture if appropriate.

TweetSummarize a lesson into a

160 character tweet

Facebook

Ask your student to create a Facebook page instead of the

traditional book report.

Students create their own Facebook pages based on research that you assign.

This could be a specific person or even non-human kinds of

things such as a country, region, event or place.

Make a modelUsing play dough make a model of a simple, asymmetrical, Over fold

and Over thrust fold

An active Cone Shaped Volcano

Overthrust Fold

Asymetricial Fold

Rock Chick

FieldworkTasks involving the gathering and interpretation of information can

develop skills of independent learning and provide rich

opportunities for active learning both within and beyond the

classroom.

Milling to Music Used as revision

technique. Ask students to stand at their desk and move around the room when the music starts. Play an appropriate song and when you stop the music the students have to ask each other questions and answers that you prescribe.

Short exercise 3 times maximum

Milling to Music1. A rock formed from the remains of sea creatures. This

is Ireland’s most common rock.

2. This rock is made up of three minerals mica, feldspar and quartz. This rock has large crystals.

3. Great heat or pressure change change the characteristics of existing rocks to form what rock group?

4. Name one way that human interact with the rock cycle and make use of rocks.

5. Name the rock that was formed when limestone or chalk was changed by intense heat or pressure.

AnswersQuestion 1 – Limestone

Question 2 – Granite

Question 3 – Metamorphic

Question 4 – Quarrying and Geothermal energy

Question 5- Marble

BrainstormBrainstorming is an active learning strategy in which

students are asked to recall what they know about a subject by generating terms and ideas

related to it. In brainstorming, however, students are

encouraged to stretch what they know by forming creative connections between prior

knowledge and new possibilities.

Professional Development Service for teachers

Students at Kylemore College in a sequencing activity

http://www.mediaconcepts.ie/jcsp/page62.html

Website _NCCA http://www.curriculumonline.ie/en/Post-Primary_Curriculum/Senior_Cycle_Curriculum/

Leaving_Certificate_Established/Geography/Geography_Guidelines/Resources/

WEBSITES

The following websites are recommended as being of high quality and appropriate to the syllabus. Although they are presented here as being linked to one section of the syllabus, many are relevant to other areas.

The Geography Support Service will develop a subject website and this will provide links to all the web addresses given here. It will be kept updated and extended as other sites are recommended or developed.

GENERAL GEOGRAPHY PORTALS

Portals provide links to multiple sites, usually providing a commentary and indicating the quality of each site.

Scoilnetwww.scoilnet.ieThis website has been created by the NCTE as the reference point for Irish educational matters.

BBC Webguidewww.bbc.co.uk\webguideA comprehensive entry to selected sites, not all relevant to the Leaving Cert, but all of very high quality. Divided into course related sections key stage 3&4 and A Level are the relevant ones.

Aboutwww.geography.about.comAn excellent introduction to world geography broken into categories. Main emphasis on American case studies.

Internet Geographyhttp://www.geography.learnontheintern et.co.ukExcellent site with British bias includes teacher lesson plans.

The Internet Geographerwww.internetgeographer.comHundreds of links to other sites but a heavy emphasis on U.K. sites.

“Lessons should be hard to forget”

Student

Thank You