Triumphs Show

The regular ‘Triumph Shows’ that feature in Teaching History offer a quick way for teachers to celebrate their successes and share inspirational ideas with one another. While the ideas are always explained in sufficient depth for others to be able to take them forward in their own practice, the simple Triumph Show format allows teachers to present individual activities or one-off events that have had a particular impact on their students. The website search function means that relevant ‘Triumph Shows’ can be identified in relation to particular substantive content or principles of planning, but simply browsing through the collection can also provide powerful inspiration and trigger new ideas. It might even inspire you to begin writing for Teaching History yourself – sharing a recent ‘Triumph’ is a great way to start!  

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  • Triumphs Show 150.2: Year 13 game for reaching substantiated judgements

    Article

    Year 13 play a competitive game to help them arrive at strong and substantiated judgements. Year 13 were in the library again, sinking under tomes of weighty works on the German Reformation. James was feverishly rifling through a book on the ‘Reformation World' for something (anything!) to do with Luther's...

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  • Triumphs Show 150.1: meeting the challenges of the A2 synoptic unit

    Article

    A collaborative project between Richard Rose Central Academy and University of Cumbria PGCE History trainees to meet the challenges of the A2 synoptic unit. "If I tell you to eat, you will eat! You wanted cake! You stole cake! And now you've got cake! What's more, you're going to eat...

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  • Triumphs Show 148.2: using pupil dialogue to encourage engagement with sources

    Article

    Using pupil dialogue to encourage sophisticated engagement with source material - even at GCSE! Frustrated by the mechanistic approach that their pupils were using when working with historical sources, Tim Jenner and Paul Nightingale sought to experiment with a method of teaching sources which eschewed practice source questions in favour...

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  • Triumphs Show 148.1: collaborating to commemorate Olaudah Equiano

    Article

    How a drink in the bar at the SHP conference - and discovery of a shared interest in ICT - led to the campaign for a Blue Plaque for an eighteenth-century abolitionist. What do the 1970 Brazil World Cup-winning team, Charles Darwin and Vanilla Ice all have in common? This...

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  • Triumphs Show 146: putting an enquiry together

    Article

    Department meetings have a range of purposes, and all teachers will be aware of some of the more tedious tasks that have to be completed at such meetings. The most exciting meetings for us are those where we can sit down as a history department and design a new enquiry....

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  • Triumphs Show 144: Active learning to engage ‘challenging students'

    Article

    Active learning to engage and challenge ‘challenging students' Historical significance may have been the ‘forgotten element' in 2002 when Rob Phillips first offered us the acronym ‘GREAT', but it has been seized upon with enthusiasm by the history education community. Christine Counsell's now famous five ‘R's (remarkable, remembered, resonant, resulting...

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  • Triumphs Show 141: using family photos to bring the diversity of Jewish lives to life

    Article

    Headteachers, Hungarians and hats: using family photos to bring the diversity of Jewish lives to life It is 9.35am on a wet Tuesday. As the rain falls outside, fingers twitch in a Y ear 9 history classroom. The instruction is given and 28 pairs of hands spring into action, rifling...

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  • Triumphs Show 140: leading a school re-enactment group

    Article

    Who would true valour see...let him (or her) lead a school re-enactment group While many teachers may have called on the services of historical re-enactors to inspire their students and create a living sense of the past, few have taken on the challenge of establishing their own historical re-enactment group....

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  • Triumphs Show 139: Whodunnit? The Felling mining disaster of 1812

    Article

    Whodunnit? The Felling mining disaster, 1812 The room buzzes as pathologists swap stories about injuries on the latest bodies. Some have virtually all limbs missing, others have been crushed by rockfall. Others have been found seemingly asleep with not a mark on their bodies. You have stepped into a Year...

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  • Triumphs Show 138: a kinaesthetic interpretation of Dover castle

    Article

    Licking the stones: a kinaesthetic interpretation of Dover castle in 360 degrees This is the story of one history department that, in collaboration with a local historical site, embarked on a ‘curriculum co-development project' with the art department. The aim was to use learning experiences outside the classroom to bring...

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  • Triumphs Show 137: Assessing through reflection

    Article

    Assessing through reflection: How one history department has found a way to satisfy the Senior Leadership Team, parents and pupils through tightly focused self-assessment Teachers are caught between a rock and hard place when it comes to assessment. Senior leaders want to see evidence of regular ‘levelling' while (most) pupils...

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  • Triumphs Show 136: how one history department changed pupils' and parents' perceptions of homework

    Article

    Devising worthwhile and engaging homework tasks, week in week out, can prove both demanding and frustrating - particularly in contexts where we know students will have be chased to complete them. How can we make homework planning easier and more effective - and cut down the time spent chasing recalcitrant...

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  • Triumphs Show 135: how trainee teachers learned to put history back into GCSE

    Article

    What do you know about how your local museums can help your GCSE planning and teaching? How can your new GCSE courses for September make use of the free resources, artefacts and images that our local and national museums house? That's just what the PGCE history group from Leeds Trinity...

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  • Triumphs Show 129: Holding a live debate around an historical theme

    Article

    Beheading Headlines: Holding a live debate around an historical theme Studying the events surrounding the execution of Charles I is exciting on many levels: the first English King to be executed by his ‘people', the gory public beheading and the controversy surrounding the trial and verdict... But studying the Civil...

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  • Triumphs Show 133: Getting more pupils choosing History at GCSE

    Article

    It is often remarked that history is under pressure nationally at GCSE. Our history numbers have never been enormous, and we have recently gone down from 2 sets to one set. The crunch came in 2007 when we collapsed to a dismal 12 students. A variety of factors may have...

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  • Triumphs Show 133: Little Miss Cold War

    Article

    Students can find it hard to understand and remember the differing schools of interpretation that they encounter at A2. The process of studying differing historiographic claims can also seem rather dry and tedious. It is crucial that they grasp differences in interpretation if they are to succeed in their examinations,...

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  • Triumphs Show 130: Righting the Revolution

    Article

    It was period 5 on a wet Wednesday afternoon deep into the winter term. Year 9 were even more difficult than usual. Being cooped up inside at lunch, without supervision, had not helped the situation. What was I going to do with this untamed bunch? Put on a trusted video?...

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  • Triumphs Show 128: Speed-dating with Queen Elizabeth

    Article

     Some of the most effective role play activities are those which draw on the common experiences of pupils to promote serious learning outcomes. Chris Higgins experiments with a number of situations and strategies that draw upon popular games and television show formats. These are used to engage, to provide structure...

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  • Triumphs Show 127: using the Anne Frank House's 'A Family Secret'

    Article

    The Anne Frank House recently translated its comic book A Family Secret into English. By stressing the choices and dilemmas of ordinary people living in Amsterdam during the German Occupation, the comic seeks to revise the black and white ideas students hold of right and wrong. With five other history...

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  • Triumphs Show 123: Making sources fun

    Article

    One of the biggest challenges which any history teacher faces is how to make sources fun! Source work does struggles in terms of pupil excitement, understanding and motivation when pitted against the roleplays, dramas and debates. As a history teacher, I am constantly looking for fresh and novel ways to...

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