Friday, November 14, 2008

A big thank you...





A big thank you to all those people who have bought the book so far, and particularly those people who have taken the time to give me such positive feedback. It really is appreciated. As a point of note, the book can be now bought via Amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poems-Geography-Classroom-Mark-Cowan/dp/1905637640, and Geographical Association members can receive 15% of the price of the book. Details of how this can be done are found here...

Monday, September 22, 2008

Now available...




NOW AVAILABLE
As of October 2008 this resource is now available!
The resource can be viewed at the Eprint website

http://www.eprint.co.uk/product.asp?strParents=352,371&CAT_ID=442&P_ID=1723

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Welcome!

Hello and welcome!

Below you will find information about my new publication, Poems for the Geography classroom .

I am a Geography teacher in the North-east of England. My interest in poetry pre-dates my role as a teacher, but increasingly I have used poems in the classroom to stimulate students' interest. Geography is such a visual subject, and it has always surprised me that poetry seems an under-utilised, if not quite untapped area of the subject. I have put together fifty poems in this publication, covering diverse areas of the subject, from earthquakes and volcanoes to map skills, a sense of place and the range of difficulties that face our fragile environment. The poems are such an open-ended resource that students of different ages and abilities should be able to understand them, but at different levels. Primarily, my thinking is that they can be used with older Key stage 2 students and more generally within the Key Stage 3 curriculum. However, I myself have used them with GCSE students too and found them to be just as effective. A list of the poems can be found within this blog. In addition, I am fully aware as a practising teacher how important it is to have practical strategies and suggestions on hand to use. Consequently, the first chapter in the book gives twenty extensive and imaginative suggestions as to how the poems can be used in the classroom to stimulate discussion and further understanding. Equally, consideration is taken of how to make them appeal to different types of learners, whether it be visual, kinaesthetic and so on.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please do feel free to utilise the example resources provided below. Should this stimulate any further interest, details of the book and how to order it can be found at the EPRINT website at

www.eprint.co.uk

Best wishes

Mark Cowan

An audio example: 'Volcano'

Please feel free to use the following audio example of one of the poems from my new publication, Poems for the Geography classroom. I'm afraid the only drawback is that it is me reading it!:)


Click here to get your own player.

A contents page for the book...

Read this doc on Scribd: Contents page for blog



Alternatively, if the above is not working, please try clicking here to access the direct, fullscreen version...

http://www.scribd.com/full/2436543?access_key=key-2a9tzqotvnmexvww8y9x

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Water woe - a free poem and guide to use

Please feel free to use this poem and its attached guide if you find it useful. It doesn't feature in my new book Poems for the Geography classroom' but is reflective of the style and tone of many of the poems found in the book.

Read this doc on Scribd: Water woe