Romanian Review of Geographical Education (Jan 2015)
USING LITERATURE IN GEOGRAPHY LESSONS
Abstract
Including in a novel information about relief, climate, vegetation, fauna and various aspects of socio-economic life can make literature a real source of geographical information. Using realistic literary works in Geography lessons has multiple benefits, which are not limited only to geographical knowledge. In this paper there are some fragments from literature, suggestions of activities about how to integrate the fragments during Geography lessons and the results of these activities. The activities are from fifth to twelfth grade, passing through a first example of water pollution resulting from a Hercules labour, through the lyricism of the aurora borealis description, through the dramatic life of a refugee from Darfur, through the Dobrudgea winter landscape, through the grey urban landscape of Bucharest in the 90s and so on. Students were put into learning situations that stimulated their creativity, developed communication competencies and enriched their general knowledge.