Looking outside the Mansfield ‘bubble’A YEAR 9 SCHEME OF WORK ABOUT ENGLISH

NATIONAL IDENTITY

Nicole LyonsGARIBALDI COLLEGE, MANSFIELD

The aims of this session

During the next 20 minutes I will… Describe the context of Garibaldi College Describe a Scheme of Work about English

National Identity which I developed last year Show examples of pupils’ work which were

completed throughout this Scheme of Work

The context of Garibaldi College

11-18 Comprehensive School North Nottinghamshire coal mining region Mainly white, English, working-class, heterosexual families High levels of poverty and unemployment Relatively low-ability pupils No Geography specialist in two years Now only 1 Geographer, 4 Historians and no RE specialist

within the Humanities Department No A level uptake of Geography for 8 years A Year 11 class of 7 pupils; no uptake in Year 10 Current Year 9: first year studying Geography under a

specialist

The aims of the scheme of work

To broaden pupils’ awareness of the different cultures which are found in England

To allow pupils to consider what was, and what is, typically ‘English’

To allow pupils to consider whether their own lives are typically ‘English’

To address the levels of racism in the school To improve the quality and quantity of pupils’ work To improve uptake of GCSE Geography To offer pupils the opportunity to enjoy and experience a

different type of Geography

Lesson 1: What is England’s identity?

Pupils enter the room to music See a slide show of blurred images of different

countries Discuss what image might represent England

using the examples shown in the presentation Make a spider diagram of these images Discuss which of these images are relevant to

pupils’ lives Homework: Past Identity vs. Present Identity

The Queen

David Beckham

Pubs

British Bulldog

Rain

Big Ben

Football Hooligans

Full English Breakfast

Rolls Royce Cars

Roast Beef Dinner

Eastenders

Red Double Decker Buses

Oak Trees

National Anthem

The Beatles

Little Britain

Fox Hunting

Fish and Chips

Tony Blair

Curry Houses

The Seaside

Branston Pickle

James Bond

Lesson 2: From butties to bhajis

Skills-based lesson: graph drawing Use a worksheet Uses takeaway food as one aspect of

pupils’ lives which is multi-cultural Complete graph of takeaways and

discuss the geographical issues which surround takeaway food:

– International Trading– Immigration– Travel– Relationship between the media and National

Identities

From butties to bhajis… Multinational f oods in England

Work through the questions on this sheet using the information given below and information from your class discussions. I f you get stuck then ask your teacher to help you. 1) Draw a bar graph of the types of nationalities represented in takeaway f ood as shown in the table below:

Nationality of food Number of restaurants I ndian 25 Chinese 48 Cantonese 20 I talian (Pizza and Pasta) 19 USA (Burgers) 4 Southern-USA (Southern-Fried Chicken) 3 English (Fish and Chips) 12 Cypriot 1 Turkish 2 Greek 12

Don’t forget to include a title and to label your axes!

2) What were the most popular types of takeaway food? Don’t forget to write your answers in FULL SENTENCES!

3) Give three reasons to explain why these types of food were the most popular.

4) Write a sentence to explain how each of these f actors have allowed

f oreign f ood to become popular in England: a) Travelling the world has become cheaper b) Transporting goods around the world has become easier c) More people own televisions now than ever bef ore d) Food can be kept f or longer bef ore it goes off now than ever bef ore

5) What other types of f ood do you think might become more popular in the f uture, and why?

Lesson 3: Thank you for the music

Use music as another aspect of pupils’ lives which is mutlicultural

Explore different genres of music…Country, Rock and Roll, Blues, Folk, Dance

…and discuss the geography of this music:– Travel– Immigration– Slavery– War

Then ask pupils to relate this knowledge to the current Top 10 singles chart

Lesson 4: A right royal mess

Bring pupils in to music Separate into groups: ask each group to brainstorm

their responses to different issues surrounding the Royal Family

Then jigsaw the groups Write up a table of ‘For’ and ‘Against’ arguments about

whether or not we should keep the monarchy in this country

Homework: Essay: In your opinion, do you think that we should keep the Royal Family or not? Interview your family about their own views on this subject

Lesson 5: Representations of England

Literacy link to English and Media studies Show clips of different television programmes,

adverts and film clips:Eastenders, Four Weddings and a Funeral, HP sauce adverts,

Coronation Street, Fawlty Towers, Pride and Prejudice, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Emmerdale, Heartbeat, The Krays, Bisto adverts,

Discuss how well each clip represented England – ‘think-pair-share’

Homework: Is Little Britain an accurate representation of today’s Britain?

Lesson 6: Represent your country

Assessed pupils’ understanding of the difference between traditional and contemporary images of ‘Englishness’

Pupils were asked to make a poster including at least 4 images which they felt were a good representation of modern English life

Much higher standard of work than usual Many pupils chose to include some traditional images,

but were able to explain why they had done this Completed within one lesson Easy to assess Fantastic work to display around the classroom

Benefits of the Scheme of Work

Pupils were keen to become involved in class and individual discussions as they found the topic interesting – between 60 and 80 per cent of pupils said that they found the subject interesting and enjoyed it

Parents’ feedback was very good, particularly regarding homework tasks

Complies with National Curriculum and Citizenship requirements’

Massive improvement in homework – both quality and quantity Pupils enjoyed the subject and found it interesting – between

60-90% response in a typical end-of-unit questionnaire Provoked many discussions about racism, immigration and

other topical issues

Further developments of the scheme of work

Further cross-curricular links with History, RE, Languages, PE, ICT, Citizenship

A study of British National Identities – HA pupils Is your town/city/village typical of England Research and questionnaires of different generations and/or

community members Extended enquiry into international perceptions of England Debates about issues such as Fox-Hunting, Immigration,

Racism Enquiry about the effect of large events such as Euro 96 and

the Olympics on international perceptions of England Links with studies of regional identity at GCSE/AS/A2 level