Differentiated instructions

Attending a course on differentiation instructions by Master Teacher Vijaya. Definitely brings about a new understanding on what is DI.

 

Videos on DI available @ http://differentiationcentral.com/videos.html#miscon

The sharing of the implementation of DI on 16 Apr was an enriching session. DI difinitely requires proactive planning and I must say all the presenters have put in a lot of efforts preparing for the DI lessons.
Learned some useful ideas:
One group use potatoes to show contour - of course you have to find one which is asymmetrical to show steep and gentle slope but it is an interesting idea.

 

Another group shared on a lesson based on DI on the economic and social impacts of rising sea level. Different resources are given to the different ability group - one with more photos and another with photos plus write-up which is more guided.

One group which presented a lesson on evaluating the effectiveness of adaptations and responses to earthquakes in various countries. The students were grouped according to their readiness/interest. The weaker group was given short news articles. The gaming group  was given  a laptop to play a game  on natural disasters:   http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/en/home.html The advance group was given the task to research on USGS website, choropleth maps

 

 



TWA with Chan Brothers

I went through a 2 Day TWA with Chan Brothers  last year which was a real eye opener on how the tour agency design tour packages to align to the learning of our students. Decided to share this as Annie mentioned that her school is bringing the students to South Korea - something which we touched on during the TWA. 

Chan brother twa from Lily Lee

Humanities Network Sharing 8 March 2013

Quite glad that a few teachers I met @ the humanities network sharing have already made use of the resources I put up on my Geography Blog. My presentation slides below:

Blog humanities sharing from Lily Lee

Love some of the ideas shared by the others today - overwhelming so I am highlighting a few here:
Dealing With Challenges In A Globalising World by CHIJ (Toa Payoh) (SS) - though the focus is on SS - the team integrated the various discipline including Geog and even Chemistry!
I love the way they integrated the Geog component -esp the graphic mindmap on Global warming - one of the negative impacts of globalisation which we could apply for the topic on climatic changes. 

SS E-learning: Borderless@GESS by Gan Eng Seng School (SS)

Though the focus is on SS - the team has also uploaded topic on Geog for the students' weekly e-learning on current issues related to the subject syllabus. The students are then quiz on the 1st lesson of the following week. 

I love the idea from Annie (Queensway Sec) -Making a Curriculum Artefact – Where’s the Geography? 

She  made use of  a photo essay on "What the world eats, part 1" from Time Magazine online in 2007  (http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373664,00.html) and got the students to compare the expenditure made on food in different parts of the world as well as work on the data (calculating average) as well as mapwork based on the photos shown. I like the idea of getting the students to create the map based on the data they have generated. In doing the mapwork, the students will have a better concept of space as well as being able to see the difference in food consumption when they complete the legend for the map.

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373664,00.html

Extract of the worksheet below:

New Geography Syllabuses

As mentioned in the briefing for the Humanities Curriculum Leaders’ sharing session 2013 on 6 March:

New Lower Sec Geography Syllabuses

Sec 1: Environment and Resources

• Introduction: What will I learn in Geography?
• Tropical Rainforest – How can we save rainforest?
• Water Supply – Will our taps run dry?
• Energy resources – How can we avoid an energy crisis? *

Sec 2: Urban Living

• Introduction: How and where people live?
• Housing: How to build inclusive homes for all?
• Transport: How do we keep people moving? *
• Floods – How can cities prepare for floods?

*Only for Express

Key Features of New Syllabuses

•         4 key concepts of place, space, environment and scale
•          Emphasis is placed on geographical perspective of human-environment interaction
•          Geographical skills e.g. map reading and photo interpretation are incorporated as and when appropriate
•          Examples are drawn from Singapore and the world
•          Use of inquiry as key pedagogy

     Geographical Investigation Tasks

	Topic	Inquiry question
Sec 1	Tropical rainforest	How do we protect Singapore’s tropical rainforest?
	Water Supply	How clean is our waterway or water body?
	Energy resources	How can my school’s carbon footprint be reduced?
Sec 2	Housing	Does the neighbourhood meet residents’ needs?
	Transport	Are we satisfied with our public transport service?
	Floods	How do we cope with floods?

      Only 1 per level per year – choose 1 the 3 given

Geographical Investigation Skills

GI	Sampling	Sketching	Photo	Questionnaire & Interview	Use of equipment
Tropical rainforest	√	√	√	√	√
Water Supply	√	√	√		√
Energy resources	√		√	√
Housing	√		√	√
Transport	√	√	√	√
Floods	√		√	√

 When do we carry a Geographical Investigation?

The GI should be carried out after the topic has been completed.

Teachers have the flexibility to carry out the GI at the end of:

-          1 topic, or

-          Towards the end of the course

Time required for a GI:

Recommended curriculum time:

Express: 12 periods    Normal Academic: 15 periods

Each period is 35 min in duration

Where can we carry a Geographical Investigation?

Classroom and school compound and

Nearby field sites e.g. nearby water body, waterway, forest, housing estate, interchange and canals

 New Lower Secondary Geography Assessment Objectives

Objective 1: Knowledge

Objective 2: Critical Understanding and constructing explanation

Objective 3: Interpreting and Evaluating Geographical Data

Assessment	Assessment Modes		Assessment Objectives	Paper (Weighting)
Continual Assessment	Responses to a geographical issue in the news		AO2+AO3	2X10=20%
	Short answer questions		AO3	2X10=20%
	Structured questions		AO2+AO3	2X15=30%
	Geographical Investigation	Product	AO2+AO3	1X30=30%
		Process
Overall Total				100%

Assessment Format of response to a geographical issue in the news

Component	Marks
Summary	3
Map work	2
Personal response	5

Assessment Format of GI

Component	Submission	Marks
Process	Individual Reflection (on knowledge learnt and limitations of the investigation)	3
	Group Investigation Log	2
Product	Group Product	5
	Total	30