Overview When studying how successfully different countries achieved their objectives in an international conference, conduct a simple re-enactment where students score points for achieving their national objectives. Then study the terms of the real agreement reached to determine who gained the most and how creatively they solved the problems they faced. The example I give here…
Month: September 2016
New Book from ActiveHistory: “A History Teaching Toolbox”
A History Teaching Toolbox is the perfect handbook for busy classroom teachers eager to try out some new strategies with their students. More than 60 tried and tested activities and approaches are organised into helpful categories and explained with step-by-step instructions and topic-specific examples to illustrate how they can be immediately employed. A History Teaching…
Protest placards: design, anticipate, react
Overview When studying an issue, event or personality which is open to different interpretations, get students to design a placard summarising their personal viewpoint. Alternatively, ask students to suggest how particular historians or observers would summarise their viewpoint in just a few words, or even anticipate what the actual slogans were in photographs of genuine protest marches. Example 1…
Using limericks as a revision tool
Overview As part of a ‘choose your own homework‘ menu, give students the option to produce a set of limericks to help them memorise some key events, dates or individuals. Case Study Here’s an example produced by one of my students when the homework was simply ‘choose a topic from our GCSE studies that you are…
Counterfactuals in History
Overview To help students decide how important a factor was in causing a particular event, ask them to consider whether events would have turned out differently without it. To have validity, this ‘counterfactual’ approach should not descend into mere speculation. Instead, students should be prepared and trained to substantiate their assertions with evidence to help…
Who is your Historical Hero?
I have updated the “Who is your historical hero?” study unit to make use of the ‘Knowledge Cubes’ approach which I outline in more detail at Tarr’s Toolbox.
Knowledge Cubes – originally posted on Tarr’s Toolbox
Overview When students conduct research on key individuals, get them to write up their findings on a cardboard cube, with each of the six faces covering a different theme. After the class has exchanged its findings in the form of a balloon debate or similar, collect the cubes in and, as an extension activity, invite pairs of students to…
