Geographical Association

- Citizenship Working Group
- The GeoCitizen Project
- Voices
- Designing Identity
- Citizens in Society

The Citizenship Working Group provides the GeoCitizen project in order to help teachers explore citizenship issues through geography teaching from Key Stages 2-4. We invite you to get involved by sharing your lesson ideas and doing some of the following activities with your class. If you send in your work for the website, your class will receive a GeoCitizen award and badges! See below for more details of how to get in touch.

Download: GeoCitizen Project Description (PDF, 79k)

This collection of lesson ideas and activities is linked with our annual GA Conference workshops.

Further information can be found on the CWG page including our workshop reports and presentation slides relating to each theme.

We will be showcasing students' work and lesson ideas on these pages soon.

You can also join our discussions at the Geographical Association Network ('Ning') website!

Download: Theme One: Voices (PDF, 73k)

Download: Voices 2007 Workshop Report (PDF, 63k)

Contact geocitizenproject@googlemail.com to have your lesson ideas and examples of student work added to this page.

Download: Theme Two: Designing Identity (PDF, 82k)

Download: Designing Identity 2008 Workshop Report (Word, 83k)

Download: Designing Identity PowerPoint Presentation (PPT, 148k)

Contact geocitizenproject@googlemail.com to have your lesson ideas and examples of student work added to this page.

Are you a GeoCitizen?

Lesson by Dr Jane Veevers, Rawlett Community Sports College, Tamworth

Year 9

As part of the CWG Conference Workshop 2008, teachers were asked to trial a 'Designing Identity' lesson using guidance provided in the pilot project. This lesson is one interpretation and is designed to be adapted and used by other teachers.

Starter: What makes your identity?

• Individual work. Students make a list on sticky notes defining their own identity - no talking!
• Students then make a list on another sticky note defining the identity of the person next to them, still without talking!
• Whole-class discussion: I found that most students came up with physical attributes and found it quite difficult to define identity. Lead into whole-class definition of identity, citizen and diversity.

Task One: Group work on using identity cards

Task Two: Group work on designing an identity card

Plenary: Individual work

Feedback

I found that my students concentrated mainly on physical appearance as 'identity' and did not really consider social groupings. This is an interesting indicator of how young people define themselves as individuals. They also found it quite challenging to see how ID cards would need to be different depending on the scale of their use (local/regional/national/international).

The activities were completed in a one-hour lesson, and perhaps all elements of this lesson could be further developed with more detailed group discussions, and split into two lessons or more. It could also be linked more widely to cultural diversity and multicultural societies, and encourage students to think outside their own personal experiences, which can often be quite narrow.

Download: Theme Three: Citizens in Society (PDF, 74k)

A workshop will take place on Friday 17 April 2009 at the GA Annual Conference (Workshop 6, 'Teaching Citizenship Through Geography: Citizens in Society'). Workshops are allocated on a first come first served basis, so book your place now!

Download: Citizens in Society Workshop Flyer (PDF, 298k)

Contact geocitizenproject@googlemail.com to have your lesson ideas and examples of student work added to this page.

(Updated 23.07.09)


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