Teaching the local area: How to create personalised geography lessons

Did you know that with our AI Lesson Builder and editing tools, you can create geography lessons that are totally unique to your local area? Our new KS1 and KS2 geography curriculum features several units that develop pupils’ awareness of physical and human features in the local area, including Year 2 ‘Where We Live’, Year 3 ‘Settlements’ and Year 5 ‘Our Local Area’. While the lessons in these units contain essential curriculum skills, such as map-reading and fieldwork, they miss a crucial element - maps and descriptions of your own local area. Here’s how you can edit these lessons to personalise them for your class. 

Use our lesson editing tools 

Throughout our geography units, we emphasise the importance of familiarity with your local area. Since a lot of your pupils’ learning is focused on your local area, including your school, you will need to include your own maps, resources and local imagery to make the most out of the curriculum. Our lesson editing tools are an easy and flexible way to do this. 

Included in any subscription to Developing Experts, you can use our lesson editing tools to create bespoke lessons from scratch or edit an existing lesson. Use your dashboard to navigate to your lesson library, where you can create and organise your edited lessons. Then, use our image and video tools to swap out media - you could add local Ordnance Survey maps and videos of local parks, streets or buildings. If you know lots about the history and culture of your local area, you could add this to your slides too - it's a great way to pass on lesser-known information to your pupils. 

Use our AI Lesson Builder 

If you’re looking for a totally bespoke lesson made from scratch, then our AI Lesson Builder is the perfect tool. Simply use the prompt section to type in what you’d like to create. Ideas could include “Build me a lesson about how the mining industry has shaped the landscape in the north west”, or “Build me a lesson about how London grew as a settlement throughout the last three centuries”. These are just sample ideas - our builder can create a lesson or unit on any topic you’d like! Why not create a lesson about where local food is grown and sold, how local landmarks are cared for, or the history of local transport? 

It’s a great way to save time. Instead of spending hours researching and finding imagery for presentations, our builder can do it for you. Simply check the content, make any tweaks needed, and you have a full lesson, ready to go. You can find the AI Lesson Builder underneath ‘Curriculum’ on your dashboard, or you can subscribe now by heading to ‘Manage Subscription’. 

Create fully personalised and adaptive lessons today with our editing tools and AI Lesson builder. To find out more about how our geography curriculum contains opportunities to teach your local area, view our units and subscribe at www.developingexperts.com. 

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