Geography - Map skills - Direction

Geography - Map skills - Direction

A complete lesson with a range of activities and resources aimed at teaching students how to use direction as a geographical skill. Students will apply the skill in several different ways as well as develop their spatial understanding of Europe.

Complete lesson > thoroughly resourced and ready to teach > snappy starter > explainers > SPaG activity > practise questions > varied map activities > peer assessment > summary activity > teacher notes > lesson plan > lesson evaluation > homework

The main aim is…
For students to learn / apply skills in describing direction.
To develop a spatial understanding of Europe.

Key ideas and content…
There are 8 points to the compass (as far as we’re concerned for today anyway)
We use direction to describe location / journeying.
Direction can be used by many different people in different situations.

To differentiate…
Students could take turns doing the countries / cities activities and then swap to help each other.
One student in a pair could have the map or atlas and act as an expert.
Pair up students when doing the map work.

To extend…
Use an OS map of the local area, Google Earth, an Atlas or online mapping to explore places.
Use the homework template and a local map / online mapping to explore geographical features in the local area (using direction obviously).
Certainly use the CYO task and encourage students to think about how they can test understanding / get students to apply map skills beyond simply describing.

To assess…
The road trip / CYO activity is the main assessment point.
Class discussion and the summary activity will also show progress and allow you to assess understanding.