Presentation from Jo Debens' TeachMeet talk on literacy in Geography from the Geographical Association Conference. General links to Shakespeare text and how to use in Geography lessons.

1. Bill Shakespeare was a
Geographer….
…or getting literacy into Geography
Jo Debens
@GeoDebs

2. What is the link…
21/38?

3. Measure for Measure
The Tempest
Using Bill's blurb to set the scene
Midsummer Night’s Dream
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have over borne their
continents…
That nine men's morris is fill'd up with
mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton
green
For lack of tread are indistinguishable
The Isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt
not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprisoned in the view less
winds,
And blown with restless violence
about
The pendant world

4. King Lear
Play spot the geographic feature…
The Tempest (on St Elmo’s Fire)
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were run; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head; and thou all-shaking Thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o'th'world!

5. Make comparison to other texts..
Jules Verne ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’
Robert Harris ‘Pompeii’
Above our heads, not more than 500 feet away, was the crater of the
volcano. Every quarter of an hour there came flying from it a tall
column of flames mixed with pumice stone, ashes, and lava, together
with a deafening explosion. I felt the whole mountain heave every
time it breathed, sending out, like a whale, fire and air through its
enormous blowholes.
"Mother Nature is punishing us, for our greed and selfishness. We torture
her at all hours by iron and wood, fire and stone. We dig her up and dump
her in the sea. We sink mine shafts into her and drag out her entrails –
and all for a jewel to wear on a pretty finger. Who can blame her if she
occasionally quivers with anger and rains fire upon us?" Pliny.

6. Shakespeare was a Little Ice Age
climatologist…
Julius Caesar
The Tempest
As You Like It
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have roved the knotty oaks, and I have seen
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam,
To be exalted with the threatening clouds
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. Oh I have suffered.
The season's difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon the body,
Even till I shrink with cold…

7. Using your imagination can lead
to problems of misconception…
e.g.
• Bohemia is landlocked…but Shakespeare described
it as coastal
• Athens is described as a ‘real English countryside’
So…give students some text, analyse it, then play
spot the deliberate mistake. Compare the description
to real life.

8. Fact vs Fiction
• Using the extract of text that you have use the
internet to find out how accurate that
description is of the place
BRONZE task:
Find and locate the real
location in the modern
world.
Find 3 images to show
the area today.
Describe the location.
Compare to what your
text said: similarities and
differences.
SILVER task:
Can you plot this
information onto a map
(O.S. map through Bing or
Google Earth screenshot)?
Describe the modern
location & compare to the
text in detail: social,
economic, environmental.
GOLD task:
Can you create photo &
text place-marks on
Google Earth? Create a
tour that compares the
text information to the
modern day location.
Include specific fact,
e.g. development data

9. General wordy bits

10. Redacted text

11. Text analysis

12. Vowel-less words