New Look London History Forum

British Library. 'NEWTON' after William Blake by Eduardo Paolozzi 1995. Image Author: John McCullough.

Seeing the Bigger picture: What is the Long Arc of Time? Helping Children to Develop Chronological Understanding

Thursday 8^th December 2011

The British Library (Learning Centre) Euston Road, London.

5 - 7.30pm

Booking for this event is now closed, however, a limited number of on the door tickets are available. Contact suzannah.stern@history.org.uk for further details.

At the Historical Association, we provide events and training for teachers that are both current and effective. It is no secret of late that history has come under attack for failing to provide children with a proper grasp of chronology and a framework upon which to place events and set the wider context. The concept of chronology opens up a whole range of possibilities from sequencing, to a sense of period and vocabulary.

If you are:

(A) A primary teacher or trainee struggling to get to grips with teaching the concept of chronology and the difficulties of assessment

Or

(B) A secondary teacher faced with a class of pupils who think that the 19^th century was in the 1900s or that people escaped from the Great Fire of London in their cars

Or

(C) A head of department wondering how your schemes of work can maximise chronological understanding,

then this course is for you!

Our new look London History Forum has a new central London venue at the British Library Learning Centre, close to both Euston and Kings Cross stations and a new twilight time of 5.30pm (registration from 5pm.) We also have a new running order to help you get the most out of your session. CPD certificates will be available for participants, so what are you waiting for? Book your place/s today! All this great CPD for just £20 per delegate or £10 student concession.

For further details and booking please contact Suzannah Stern on suzannah.stern@history.org.uk with your preferred workshop choice or buy your tickets online...

Programme:

5-5.30pm: Registration and coffee

5.30-6.15pm: Keynote Speech: Ian Dawson. Ian is certainly one of the whose who in the history teaching world. Ian has taught in schools, been a history lecturer, tutored PGCE students, directed the Schools History Project, written numerous textbooks (Medicine Through Time 2009), consulted widely for museums and archives and developed materials for both key stages 2 and 3, run countless professional development sessions for teachers and workshops for students, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Ian is well known for his fantastic delivery of professional development and we are sure that you will not want to miss him

6.15-6.30: Comfort Break

6.30-7.30: Choice of either Primary, Secondary or Heritage workshop. Please indicate your choice when booking. Please note that if your preferred workshop is full, you may only be offered places on workshops with free spaces.

Workshops

Primary: Dr. Hilary Cooper:

Chronology is more than reciting the dates of kings and queens. It involves considering concepts of changes over time, of similarities and differences between periods, of duration - changes which occurred slowly and rapidly, - and of causes and effects of changes. It involves using these concepts to ask and answer questions related to the passing of time. It has been claimed that this helps pupils to engage with changes in a rapidly changing world. Such enquiries involve reasoning and hypothesis - probability thinking. Children across key Stages 1 and 2 can take part in such enquiries at increasingly complex levels, through a variety of strategies, depending on pupils' developing language and mathematical skills. This workshop will involve participants in interactive activities which model such enquiries. It is very much hoped that everyone will bring a few photographs of themselves over a span of time for an introductory activity; no one will be embarrassed!

About Hilary Cooper:

Dr Hilary Cooper took her PhD in Young Children's Thinking in History while a practising teacher in London Primary Schools. She is currently Emeritus Professor of History and Pedagogy at the University of Cumbria . She has an international reputation in her field and has published widely.

Secondary: Dr Katharine Burn is a senior tutor of history trainee teachers at the Institute of education and author of the Historical Association's secondary surveys.

Heritage: The British Library: The British Library: Find out more about the Library's innovative online resource, Timelines: Sources from History. This interactive enables students and teachers to explore collection items chronologically, from medieval times to the present day. British Library educator, Jo-Anne Sunderland-Bowe, will demonstrate the resources and suggest ways in which they could be used to support classroom teaching.