Literature Trips

Where a trip around Australia, or indeed the world, is not a feasible option to include within a curriculum, traveling in literature is. With the creation of online maps with 3-dimensional features and instantaneous travel via the internet, the world can now come to the students. While the use of maps in storytelling is something which has occurred for centuries, having a map on a device is one which is relatively new (Caquard & Cartwright, 2014). The use of narrative cartography means that readers begin to understand the relationship of potential time it takes to journey in the geographical spaces (Caquard & Cartwright, 2014, p. 101). One way which literature trips have been created online is through Google Lit Trips (GLT Global Ed, 2022) which provides some engaging age-appropriate resources for teachers to use, however, when it comes to the year 1 and 2 students this kit is designed for, creating their own online Lit Trips is probably beyond their literacy capabilities. This is where scaffolding and creating a conglomerate ‘offline’ version of a story map is what is proposed for this strategy.

This strategy comprises of the use of Google Earth and the game Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (earth.google.com, n.d.) as a starting point for discussion and research. Where the game takes students on a mystery solving tour, it addresses the needs of the geography outcomes of the NESA (n.d.) course content, GE1-1 and GE1-3, doing so in an engaging, interactive way. As a whole class the story would need to be navigated, with students searching for answers in small groups on devices along the way. For example, small groups of students will look up flags or geographical places to answer the clues in the game to help the whole class find the answer and progress to the next country in the game.

The next stage of this strategy is for students to create their own interactive story map, using a large physical map of Australia and post-it-notes, basing the maps on the following texts:

• Are we there yet? – Alison Lester (2004)
• Somewhere in Australia – Marcello Pennachio (2013)
• The Great Australian Bite – Mitchell Toy (2020)
• The Gum Family Finds Home – Tania McCartney (2018)

To create the story map students would need to work with one of the known texts, having been read them all prior to this activity. In groups potentially set by student choice of which text they wish to investigate; these groups would then collaborate to research places within the texts. A focus of how to work out place names within the images and text would need to be taught by the classroom teacher or teacher librarian so students have the best opportunity to recognise place names, as Milkshake Hills does sound fictional to most! Not only would students focus on the map position to place a label on their map, but students would include a fact about the place they have found in the literature. For example, in The Great Australian Bite (Toy, 2020), the illustrations have clues about the area of Australia, such as quokkas being in Western Australia, which would fit in with curriculum outcomes of finding out why people visit other places (NESA, n.d.). Scaffolding of the students’ investigations would be necessary to ask inquiring questions putting links to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders History and Culture cross curriculum priority (ACARA, n.d.).

For information to understand the benefits and pitfalls of Google Lit Trips please see Google-Lit-Trip Review (Aranda, 2018). While to further investigate ways to incorporate geography and literature see Literature + Story Mapping = Geography! (Bales, 2018).

References

Aranda, V. (2018, October). Google lit trips. common sense education. https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/google-lit-trips

Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures (version 8.4). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-histories-and-cultures/

Bales, J. (2018, December 4). Literature + story mapping = geography! Jennie Bales. https://jenniebales.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/literature-story-mapping-geography/

Caquard, S., & Cartwright, W. (2014). Narrative cartography: From mapping stories to the narrative of maps and mapping. Cartographic journal, 51(2), 101-106.  https://doi.org/10.1179/0008704114Z.000000000130

earth.google.com. (n.d.). Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego? [online video game]. https://earth.google.com/web/@17.90693717,-12.41937117,-34606.6327455a,57359668.97d,35y,0.00004064h,18.19296234t,0r/data=CjwSOhIgYmU3N2ZmYzU0MTc1MTFlOGFlOGZkMzdkYTU5MmE0MmEiFnNwbC14LXgteC1zcGxhc2hzY3JlZW4

GLT Global Ed. (2022). Google Lit Trips. https://googlelittrips.org/

Lester, A. (2004). Are we there yet? (A. Lester, Illus.). Penguin / Viking.

McCartney, T. (2018). The Gum family finds home (C. Booth, Illus.). NLA Publishing.

NSW Education Standards Authority. (n.d.). People and places. https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/k-10/learning-areas/hsie/geography-k-10/content/1178

Pennachio, M. (2013). Somewhere in Australia (D. Snell, Illus.). Scholastic Australia.

Toy, M. (2020). The great Australian bite (M. Toy, Illus.). Five Mile.