Secondary History Discussion
Inspiration needed!
Maria de los Angeles Picone
May 14th 2010 at 11:16 pm
May 14th 2010 at 11:16 pm
Dear colleagues,
I am a young enthusiastic history teacher in Argentina. I teach Year 7 & 8 and our programme is a combination of British history and International affairs (which is what students usually study before getting into American & Argentine history). You can imagine that it is quite challenging for students to learn history in an other language, leave aside apprehending key skills.
I have a Year 8 group (boys) which is particularly underachieving in general, but especially in subjects taught in English. My problem is that I am correcting their term exams and they were a mess, a REAL mess.
I am feeling physical pain because I feel I failed. Thus, I am asking you, history teachers, to inspire me with engaging ideas you think might work.
Thank you very much!
Angie
2 Responses to Inspiration needed!
2
Melanie Jones
August 10th 2010 at 2:37 pm
August 10th 2010 at 2:37 pm
Boys underachievement is an area of much discussion, but Andy certainly has similar ideas to my experience, in that boys seem to like active kinaesthetic activities that either involve making, doing, role play or moving.The other thing with boys is that they really like ICT. If there is any chance of them doing things on the computer - take the opportunity. Good luck
1
andy
June 19th 2010 at 9:34 pm
June 19th 2010 at 9:34 pm
Hi,
I work in an all boys school and have had difficulty engaging Y8 low ability boys.
Let me know more about the topics you are covering but I have had success with the English Civil War. I split the pupils up into royalists and parliamentarians and allowed them to cheer/shout etc whenever anything was said that they would approve.
I also designed a battle planning game for them to engage with. Give a catalogue of weapons used in the civil war (cavalry, muskets canons) use pictures and brief description of each. Give them a budget and they then purchase their army. Then using map they can plan a campaign against the royalists. They can present to the class (oral work) what they did, why they did and other pupils can suggest improvements.
I also did drill type exercises in the playground, demonstrating the different soldiers' roles etc.
Fire of London - allow pupils different colour card to represent different building materials (stone, wood, clay etc) (pupil must understand why London burnt down, what exacerbated the fire) then provide a budget type game again, allow them to re-build London. They can construct St. Pauls and the new areas surrounding. They then place their new buildings on to a giant map, with just the river drawn on, and justify why they are placing it there. They should try to demonstrate that they are preventing a future fire, but also that they are aware of the immediate need to build quick accommodation for the thousands of homeless Londoners.
Let me know topics and I'll pass on more ideas.
Good luck.
I work in an all boys school and have had difficulty engaging Y8 low ability boys.
Let me know more about the topics you are covering but I have had success with the English Civil War. I split the pupils up into royalists and parliamentarians and allowed them to cheer/shout etc whenever anything was said that they would approve.
I also designed a battle planning game for them to engage with. Give a catalogue of weapons used in the civil war (cavalry, muskets canons) use pictures and brief description of each. Give them a budget and they then purchase their army. Then using map they can plan a campaign against the royalists. They can present to the class (oral work) what they did, why they did and other pupils can suggest improvements.
I also did drill type exercises in the playground, demonstrating the different soldiers' roles etc.
Fire of London - allow pupils different colour card to represent different building materials (stone, wood, clay etc) (pupil must understand why London burnt down, what exacerbated the fire) then provide a budget type game again, allow them to re-build London. They can construct St. Pauls and the new areas surrounding. They then place their new buildings on to a giant map, with just the river drawn on, and justify why they are placing it there. They should try to demonstrate that they are preventing a future fire, but also that they are aware of the immediate need to build quick accommodation for the thousands of homeless Londoners.
Let me know topics and I'll pass on more ideas.
Good luck.
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