Def of Geography

I spent a long time planning this activity of the definition of Geography. I  made a prezi with different people on it and asked the students to identify what they all had in common. They answered correctly and I tried to talk about how they have influence on people or regions. I did the same thing with pictures of places including land forms and monuments. I rushed the ending and did not really bring it together.
I handed out an activity in which they had to work with a partner and say why their activity should fit into the study of geography. Most of them initially wrote "because its a person" or "because its a place"
I had to use a lot of questions which is what I wanted to do. Ex:
Who is this? Winston Churchill
Why is he important? Because hes a leader
What do leaders do? Lead
I was looking for the fact that he has more influence than the average person, but I really didn't get that. Higher order thinking was my goal, but I guess it was too soon for that.
I could have reviewed the definition and put it in other words that simply "the study of the earth" and provided a visual representation of that.
Mike suggested that this activity would probably be better suited for a review activity
I think the structure of the room discourages the students from talking. There were only 11 of them today and most of them are used to not talking, the square structure does not help that. I would really prefer things in a circle so that the self esteem issues could be done a little better.
"Come together as a class" for a definition seems to have a different meaning. I am thinking back to the cultural studies class when we had a democratic classroom and poking and prodding until we got what the teacher wanted was something that was okay but this environment is completely different.

*Check that they know the definition
*Go over the main point that we come to over and over
*Speak slower during the directions
*Give specific time frames: "you have 5 mins"
*Make it something that are familiar with-
**To change this for another class I could make it the sunsphere, pat summit, the smoky mountains, a roller coaster at dollywood, etc. Background knowledge may be better- perhaps take a poll or questioning the day before as to what is in their own personal idea about what geography is.