Michael Libbee

The Integration of Literacy and Geography: The Arizona GeoLiteracy Program's Effect on Reading Comprehension

Abstract To provide the first interstate quasi-experimental assessment on the power of content integration in building reading skills, the authors studied the effects on reading comprehension of GeoLiteracy—a K-8 package of 85 lessons that teaches geography in the context of practicing reading and writing skills. Ninety-six third through eighth grade teachers in Arizona and Michigan divided up into intervention and comparison groups. Intervention teachers taught GeoLiteracy lessons during their language arts or social studies times, and their comparison teacher counterparts taught the curriculum as usual—without GeoLiteracy. Statistical analyses of reading comprehension assessments of the 2,539 students involved reveal statistically significant improvement in reading comprehension scores for students in Grades 5 through 8 who were taught using the GeoLiteracy curriculum. Qualitative data regarding intervention teacher practice are also described.

Assessment as a Diagnostic Tool

Over the past decade, the discipline of geography has been deeply involved in projects to develop and implement national and state disciplinary standards. Geography, and the country, has come a long way. Looking back, poor definition of some basic concepts impeded our progress. It is only now, twelve years after the start of the national and state standards process, that better answers to important questions are becoming clear, at least to me. This essay will try to provide answers to four basic questions as a way of reflecting on the past, describing what has actually transpired, and thinking about the future.

Strengthening Certification Guidelines

Abstract The teacher certification process is complex, confusing, and important. After explaining the fundamentals of certification, this article suggests pragmatic strategies geographers can use to influence state certification procedures and requirements. The most effective way to change certification guidelines in order to require more geography for preservice teachers may be to change the problems certification guidelines are intended to solve. However, it is important to remember that more geography and better education are not synonymous phrases.

Exploring Teachers’ Use of Resources to Integrate Geography and History

Abstract This article describes the findings of a study involving a professional development program that prepared middle school teachers to integrate content on the earliest eras of world history and world geography. In particular, this study focused on participants’ (n = 37) use of geographic resources to integrate geography and history and to encourage spatial thinking. Teachers were enthusiastic about all of the resources and used them to integrate geography and history content. Thus, this study found that teachers will adopt relevant and accessible materials if they are trained to use them. The Atlas of World History was the most widely adopted resource; the mapping software StrataLogica was more effective at promoting spatial thinking, but the teachers found it to be less accessible and therefore did not use it as often.