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Cunning Plan 149.1: a Year 7 lesson on Gladiators
Teaching History feature
This seemingly straightforward question will prompt correspondingly straightforward answers from your mixed-ability Year 7 class, such as ‘they were slaves who fought with swords until one of the men died for the crowd's entertainment', as one of my pupils answered. Scratch the surface, and almost every word in this response...
Cunning Plan 149.1: a Year 7 lesson on Gladiators
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Marr: magpie or marsh harrier?
Teaching History article
The quest for the common characteristics of the genus ‘historian' with 16- to 19-year-olds
Diana Laffin writes about historical language and explores how understanding different historians' use of language can help sixth form students refine and deepen both their understanding of the discipline of history and their abilities to practise...
Marr: magpie or marsh harrier?
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Helping Year 7 put some flesh on Roman bones
Teaching History article
Like many other history departments nationally, Ed Podesta and his colleagues face a daunting practical challenge: redesigning three years' historical learning so that it can fit into a compressed two-year Key Stage 3, whilst enhancing, rather than compromising, the quality of students' historical learning.
Podesta's article reports the beginning of...
Helping Year 7 put some flesh on Roman bones
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ICT and Students with Special Educational Needs
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Turner writing in 1998 acknowledged that there was insufficient research into teaching history to pupils with SEN. He believed that this was one reason why there was little to challenge Wilson's declaration that ‘history as the term is generally understood, cannot...
ICT and Students with Special Educational Needs
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Animation case study: Indus Valley figurines
Primary History case study
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Since the advent of animation software for schools, I wanted to trial an animation project, inspired by the quirky human and animal figurines, model wheeled carts and toys, all of terracotta, from the Bronze Age Indus Valley civilisation which clamour for clay...
Animation case study: Indus Valley figurines
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The Great Powers in the Pacific
Classic Pamphlet
This pamphlet covers a very large period of history in a very important region with great detail and focus. Themes that are covered include the transition of power and dominance in the pacific region, the conflicts that frequently arose in the struggle for pacific dominance throughout the centuries, as well...
The Great Powers in the Pacific
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Chronology through ICT
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Introduction: Research into chronological understanding
Chronological understanding is both one of history's most important disciplinary organising concepts (Lee and Shemilt: 2004) required for developing a full understanding of history, and certainly one of the most researched, though often with a broader remit...
Chronology through ICT
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Primary pedagogy: Lessons from Early Years and Primary ITT Students
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The last decade has witnessed a massive increase in the use of ICT as a teaching and learning tool within the Primary classroom. Schools are indeed perceived as outmoded without the tools of the trade: the Interactive White Boards, ICT suites,...
Primary pedagogy: Lessons from Early Years and Primary ITT Students
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Helping pupils to view historical film critically
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
Introduction: The teaching potential of film
Films about historical events seem like the nearest thing we can give our pupils to a time machine. In commercial film, the physical appearance of the past has often been carefully researched, thus a snippet from...
Helping pupils to view historical film critically
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Supporting initial teacher trainees to think about chronology
Primary History article
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated.
As a teacher trainer I am very conscious that many prospective primary teachers' formal history education stops at the age of 14. As a consequence their knowledge and understanding of history and sense...
Supporting initial teacher trainees to think about chronology
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Oxford's Literary War: Oxford University's servicemen and the Great War
Historian article
The last two decades have seen a slow shift in the academic understanding of the impact of the Great War on interwar Britain. The work of a small group of cultural historians has challenged strongly held pre-existing interpretations of the cultural impact of the Great War. However, there is still...
Oxford's Literary War: Oxford University's servicemen and the Great War
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Understanding Chronology at Key Stage 2
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Introduction - Issues and Concerns
Was I wise to accept the invitation to write this piece? There has been little research to shed light on the question [of what understanding of chronology can we expect of...
Understanding Chronology at Key Stage 2
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The International Journal Volume 10 Number 1
Journal
International Journal of Historical Learning, Teaching and Research Volume 10, Number 1 - Summer 2011. Editorial
Jean Pierre Charland, Marc-Andre Ethier,Jean Francois Cardin History Written on Walls: a study of Quebec High School Students' historical consciousness
Michelle J. Bellino and Robert L. Selman High School Students' Understanding of Personal Betrayal...
The International Journal Volume 10 Number 1
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The River Don Engine
Article
Sarah Walters explores The River Don Engine - her favourite history place.
The River Don Engine, though strictly an object, is almost big enough to be labelled as a place in its own right. It certainly needs its own high-ceilinged museum annex and it is in this room that I...
The River Don Engine
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Witchcraft - Using fiction with Year 8s
Teaching History article
Which women were executed for witchcraft? And which pupils cared?
Paula Worth was concerned that her low-attaining set were only going through the motions when tackling causal explanation. Identifying, prioritising and weighing causes seemed an empty routine rather than a fascinating puzzle engaging intellect and imagination. She was also concerned...
Witchcraft - Using fiction with Year 8s
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Out and about in Silloth
Historian feature
Situated north west of the Lake District, Silloth is a seaside resort, looking across the Solway Firth to Dumfries and Galloway.
The origins of this settlement lie in medieval times because the monks of nearby Holme Cultram Abbey had established storage facilities there to receive and store the grain from...
Out and about in Silloth
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Making use of outstanding resources in museums
Primary History article
‘An embarrassment of riches' is not an inappropriate description of the new ancient Egyptian galleries in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The Ashmolean has always been famous for its Egyptian collection, being the product of the work of Oxford academics for over a 100 years, but the problem in the...
Making use of outstanding resources in museums
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Bristol and America 1480-1631
Classic Pamphlet
This pamphlet addresses the relationship between Bristol and America, charting the rising and waning interest the city and its merchants had in discovering new lands and profiting from them, and the success or more often the failure of these voyages. It provides an interesting argument which may be seen to...
Bristol and America 1480-1631
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The Historian 69: Don't Blame the Messengers
The magazine of the Historical Association
Featured articles:
4 The adventures of Peter Porcupine: William Cobbett in the United States, 1792-1800 - Noel Thompson
9 Don't Blame the Messengers: News Agencies Past and Present
16 ‘The War against God': Napoleon, Pope Pius VII and the People of Italy, 1800-1814.
22 Squalor and rough justice in Watford
The Historian 69: Don't Blame the Messengers
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Using sites and the environment
Primary History article
Focus and Purpose
A Year 5 class of 27 children were to visit the North Gallery at Petworth House in Sussex, where the 3rd Earl of Egremont kept his collection of sculptures and pictures. If the children were to learn I needed to give them a focus and a purpose....
Using sites and the environment
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'Women and Children first!' a lost tale of Empire and Heroism
Historian article
In January 1852, under the command of Captain Robert Salmond, HMS Birkenhead left Portsmouth carrying troops and officers' wives and families from ten different regiments. Most were from the 73rd Regiment of Foot, and were on their way to South Africa to fight the Xhosa in the 8th Kaffir War (1850-1853),...
'Women and Children first!' a lost tale of Empire and Heroism
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Co-ordinators' concerns: Visits and Ofsted
Primary History article
Since Ofsted published its 2012 new guidance for the inspection of schools, it seems that aspects such as visits will not be a high priority. What advice can I give to the senior management team in response to its pressure to avoid these kind of frills?
Ofsted will judge the...
Co-ordinators' concerns: Visits and Ofsted
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Polychronicon 148: The Wars of the Roses
Teaching History feature
There are few periods in our history from which we turn with such weariness and disgust as from the Wars of the Roses. Their savage battles, their ruthless executions, their shameless treasons seem all the more terrible from the pure selfishness of the ends for which men fought, the utter...
Polychronicon 148: The Wars of the Roses
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A View from the Classroom - Museums
Primary History article
Visits off site are viewed with anticipation and expectancy. One of the first visits I arranged was in the summer term of my first year of teaching in Stroud, Gloucestershire. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for the children in a lower junior class to explore a real...
A View from the Classroom - Museums
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The Long Winding Road to the White House
Historian article
The Long Winding Road to the White House: caucuses, primaries and national party conventions in the history of American presidential elections
Almost the Last Hurrah
At last we know officially. In late August at their 40th national convention in Tampa, Florida, the Republican party formally nominated its candidates to run...
The Long Winding Road to the White House
