Figure 2: Category 5 Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. At least 1833 people died in the hurricane, and the total cost of damage to property was estimated at US$108 billion. Much of the damage was the result of the 8.5m storm surge which caused the levee system to fail catastrophically, flooding large areas of New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana. Ten years after the Hurricane Katrina hit there are still many abandoned houses in New Orleans (pictured). Photo: Ruth Totterdell. Developing students’ essay-writing Nicola Walshe Most teachers would agree that many students find it difficult to produce good-quality writing for extended essays. It takes a high level of skill to guide a reader through a geographical issue, drawing together key points and explanations, comparing and critiquing different arguments, and making conclusions appropriate to the evidence. Taylor (2004) argues that this can mean teachers are sometimes reluctant to set analytical or discursive extended writing tasks below A level, and this may mean that A-level students can suddenly, and overwhelmingly, have a lot of catching up to do to meet the demands of their course. One way that I have found to support students of all ages with their essay-writing is the ‘talking essay’. Talking essays give students an easy way into essay-writing, helping them develop their ideas without requiring large amounts of independent writing. The way it works is that the teacher gives each student a small section of an essay (a ‘small point’); the students work together to identify which paragraphs their small points belong to; then they work together in ‘paragraph groups’ to collaboratively ‘write’ the essay. Depending on how you structure the activity talking essays can develop students’ ability to select the geography for their writing, prioritise their key points or effectively communicate the geography. In this process they are learning together through dialogue and discussion, using peer talk to develop not only their extended writing skills, but also their thinking about a particular geographical issue. An example of how I have used this is with a year 10 class exploring the different effects of hurricanes (Figure 1 and 2). The title of the essay the students were set was ‘Do all hurricanes have the same effects?’ In previous lessons, students had considered the physical causes of hurricanes, including their place within global climate systems, and had started to explore some of their social, economic and environmental impacts. They had then begun to consider the different approaches to hurricane damage mitigation in countries with contrasting levels of economic development. The essay title had been introduced at the end of the previous lesson, and for their homework students considered what types of information their essay might include. At this point my students had not studied specific examples of contrasting hurricanes, so this was a useful way to introduce them to two case studies as well as develop their literacy skills. Figure 3 summarises the talking essay process, the cards referred to are available to download. Although the example in this article explores the differing effects of hurricanes with year 10, the talking essay technique could easily be adapted for other topics and year groups. I have found it particularly effective with year 13, to give them greater confidence in selecting relevant case study information for extended examination questions. These students are already familiar with the case studies; I provide them with a larger number of descriptive smaller points relating to a range of case studies, and the activity becomes the more challenging task of selecting and tailoring the information to the overall question. Spring 2016 © Teaching Geography 26 Nicola describes a way of supporting students with their essay-writing through talking essays, using the example of comparing two hurricanes. Figure 1: Cyclone Nargis was a low-latitude, Category 4 tropical cyclone that made landfall in Myanmar (Burma) in Asia on 2 May 2008. It sent a 4m-high storm surge 40km up the densely populated Irrawaddy delta, causing at least 138,000 fatalities and catastrophic destruction. Despite the fact that India had been tracking the cyclone, the Burmese population, with both low literacy rates and low levels of technology, received very little warning of the disaster. Cyclone Nargis rendered 3.2 million people homeless and cost approximately US$10 billion. Photo: Burma Campaign UK. Accompanying online materials