Geography Through Storytelling
How excellent storytelling can bring geography to life
The rich descriptions found in storybooks can teach about world cultures and landscapes far more effectively than merely reading a dull paragraph or list of facts in a textbook. Well-written stories deeply engage students' hearts, minds and imaginations, while effectively teaching geographic concepts. Including a wide feast of fairytales, fables and chapter books from around the world alongside your geography curriculum will help teach geography in a meaningful and memorable way.
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By choosing storybooks set in different parts of the world, children can "travel" to those places in their mind’s eye. The descriptive narrative and adventures of the characters will build a picture library of the world inside the mind of the child. They will come to know places and people of the world through the intimate lens the story. Look for living books that use rich and evocative language to describe life in the Amazon rainforest, a village in Kenya, or a city in Japan. This builds global awareness along with geographic knowledge.
Pioneering British educator, Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) wrote about how the power of imaginative tales for the education of children:
“Let them have tales of the imagination, scenes set in other lands and other times, heroic adventures, hairbreadth escapes, delicious fairy tales in which they are never roughly pulled up by the impossible – even where all is impossible, and they know it, and yet believe”
How can storytelling create a living geography education?
The usefulness of storytelling in geography education lies in the use of the imagination, where images are created, furnishing the mind with its own library of living ideas about the world. So, when a child comes to a more formal educational text talking about the earth science of landscape features, or human geography of village life in remote mountain areas and the African landscape, already the child can connect with this idea and it is also ready alive inside them.
When the child is reading his school books and learns about mountains, or weather patterns, or a different culture, he can call upon this interior landscape of ideas he has gathered through his storybooks, folktales and fairytales. Learning now comes alive – he is experiencing a living education.
Let’s take a look at three examples of wonderful living storybooks that teach about world geography through a descriptive narrative:
Grades 3-7
Based on a true story, One Hen tells about a little boy in Ghana who uses a community micro-loan to buy a hen so his family will have eggs to eat. Through his ingenuity and hard work, he eventually builds a thriving business. The rich descriptions of his daily life, and the community in which he lives teach children about the human geography of rural village life in West Africa, farming, landscape, climate and unique challenges facing the community, In this way, the geography of Ghana comes to life in a far more meaningful and memorable way than just reading pages in a textbook.
“Kojo tugs the knot tight and hoists a bundle of firewood onto his head. Since his father died, he has had to quit school and help his other collect wood to sell at the market… Koyo and his mother live in a mud-waled hose with an open fire for cooking. Beside it is a garden where they grow their own food. They never have much money or much to eat. As Kojo nears the house, he can small his mother’s fufu cooking, their main meal made from cassava and yams. He begins to walk faster.” One Hen, p5
Grades 2-5
The well-loved tale of Heidi is set in the Alpine landscape of Switzerland, which is a landscape rich in geographic features such as mountain ranges and river valleys, as well as human geography of village life in remote mountain locations. Let us look at one of the rich descriptions from the book:
“From the height where Heidi stood there was a full view of the valley lying far below, with the glistening river winding through it and the dark, pine-covered mountains rising up on the farther side. Here and there on the green slopes were scattered brown cottages with their green pastures around them. Overhead the great snow-covered peaks rose into the blue sky, and all was so beautiful, so peaceful, that Heidi’s heart was filled with joy.” Heidi by Johanna Spyri:
In this passage, Johanna Spyri creates an image of an Alpine Valley with a river running through it and pine-covered mountainsides. We can see the little village with cottages, surrounded by pastures. We imagine the higher peaks covered with snow. These images are ingrained in our memory as we follow the adventures of the main characters.
“Geography is, to my mind, a subject of high educational value. Its peculiar value lies in its fitness to nourish the mind with ideas, and to furnish the imagination with pictures. The child’s geography lesson should furnish just the sort of information which grown-up people care to possess. ”
Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
Grades 2-5
In Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters, John Steptoe brings the African landscape and culture to life through vivid illustrations and storytelling inspired by a traditional Zimbabwean folktale, with rich depictions of the environment and culture.
The story gives geographical context: “A long time ago, in a certain place in Africa, a small village lay across a river and half a day’s journey from where a great king lived.”
“The sun rose above the distant hills. Mufaro’s daughters walked through forests filled with birdsong and watched the great trees stretch toward the sky like arms in praise.” And later “Manyara set out at once. She walked quickly, and soon passed through the grove of laughing trees.”
In this moral folktale, highlighting the importance of kindness, generosity and love the reader is taken on a journey through the landscape of Africa and so becomes intimate with those places as if they were walking amongst them themselves. You can see the hills and forests, and hear the birdsong. You can see the small village next to the river, and imagine the people who live in them.
So how can you incorporate storytelling into your geography studies?
Method 1: Read throughout the year and pick books set in different locations
The easiest and most natural approach is simply to make sure that you are reading aloud to your child or supplying them with chapter books from a variety of genres set in different cultures and countries. Make sure you are choosing living books that use rich, descriptive language and a full vocabulary to fully engage the reader’s senses and imagination. This does not need to go hand in hand with specific studies you may be doing in formal geography lessons, rather it serves as a background education, constantly supplying the child’s mind with pictures and ideas of the world.
Method 2: Find specific books to match our geography studies
The second method to enrich your geography lessons is to research and pick specific short stories, fairytales or chapter books that you know are set in the country or city you are studying, or feature a landscape that you are learning about.
There is a very useful resource compiled by Jamie C. Martin, “Give your Child the World” which has sorted over 600 children’s books into region, country and age range. If you are studying a certain country or continent, you can reference this book to pick a picture book or chapter book which will give your child a story-based approach to the subject.
Discover more storybooks to use in your geography lessons inside “Geography Lessons for a Living Education”
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Create a rich and joyful living education: Learn how to easily create lessons that foster delight in the study of geography and cultivate deep engagement, creative expression, critical thinking and an expansive knowledge of the world. Purchase here
