The Rookery

Many of the Herons have really been enjoying our recent foray into geography.  Every week, we are memorizing 9-12 countries on one of the continents (we began by learning the continents and oceans).  The work is important for several reasons.

First, knowing how to memorize information is a helpful skill.  As students get older, they need to have successful ways to absorb and retain factual information.  Today we brainstormed a list of techniques that have been working for us:

1. Look at it a lot (on the bus, on cereal box, near the TV, near your bed)
2. Make up rhymes.
3. See pictures (a shark fin in Finland, Italy as a boot)
4. Choose first letters and make up a sentence
5. Have someone quiz you.
6. Look at it, cover it up, say the answer, and then check
7. Do a little each night
8. Use colors to help you.
9. Make up songs

More important than improving students' study skills, however, is developing a sense of global geography.  While I don't think that it is necessary for students to memorize every country and every capitol – I do think it's important for all people to have a geographical context in which to place world events.  I hope that children get a sense of geo-political neighborhoods.  The countries that I choose to have them memorize are often those that are currently or often in the news.  They may not remember the exact placement of a country long term but they should remember the area in which they can find the country.  Even such a small connection can help students make more sense of world events.

Finally, a lot of the Herons simply love doing work with maps.  Geography can become a real passion for students (they can even pursue in on a team at Northfield Middle School.)  Something I've come to realize about progressive education is that sometimes the "authenticity" of the work comes from the sheer joy of knowing and learning and feeling competent.  The majority of the class is learning a lot more than I'm requiring for no reason other than they want to.  If your child has really been enjoying map work consider exploring an app like "Geotap"  If you find another that you like, let me know.

If you don't already have one, consider getting a globe or world map.  (Here's a site where you can download and print many different sizes including a large wall).  Geography games are a great way to pass time in the car.  Some favorites include "Name the continent" (you name a country, your child names a continent) and "Starts with an _ ends with a _" in the first person says a country and the second person has to say a country that starts with the last letter of the previous country.  Have fun.