Have you seen the Geography Worksheets High School English tests? Many teachers have, and they are very anxious about them. Unfortunately, the test questions were designed to test only one major question in each of the four worksheets, and even then it’s difficult to know which questions to make an extra effort to answer.
Even so, these tests are designed to make students “think like a geographer” as much as possible, and many teachers are finding that the tests are directly sabotaging their efforts to teach the English they will need to be successful in college. Some teachers say that it takes more than just memorizing certain facts to succeed in college.
This has caused a schism between teachers who believe that a geography lesson is the best way to teach English and those who don’t. It seems clear that all they want to do is get students to memorize facts about different places instead of teaching students how to use these facts in a meaningful way. And there are many examples that illustrate this point.
One of the most apparent reasons that many teachers find that their Geography worksheets tests are not helping students learn English is that there are many time lines that are outlined on the test, and they often times have little relevance to the actual geography classes that students are taking. It is a simple matter to do a simple double-check by asking students how long it will take them to drive from a certain place to another. If the class is three hours long, then the students will understand the answers to most of the questions.
And yet, many teachers, even those who believe that a geography lesson is essential to their students’ success, are still using Geography worksheets to teach English. After all, if the English lesson isn’t working, why would students be spending so much time on a geography worksheet?
One of the biggest problems with Geography worksheets is that they are not designed to actually teach students anything other than a certain number of facts about a certain geography. Teachers should have been doing research on geography long before this program was invented, and they should be doing research about the history of geography, rather than trying to sneak in facts about the geography of this class.
Of course, many middle schoolers are being taught geography without really understanding it, but what should they learn about a specific place that they already know? If they only know a little bit about that place, then they are not likely to want to spend more time in that particular class.
Unfortunately, teachers may find that many middle school students are not ready for the courses they are taking in high school. They have not been introduced to real-world issues, and they cannot grasp basic facts about geography on their own.
