-
Using timelines in assessment
Teaching History article
Bridging a twenty-year gap in their practice, Elizabeth Carr and Christine Counsell bring out the similarities in their use of timelines in their planning, teaching and assessment. What they also have in common is the fact that their experimentation with timelines as a way of strengthening cumulative knowledge emerged in...
Using timelines in assessment
-
Securing contextual knowledge in year 10
Teaching History article
Using regular, low-stakes tests to secure pupils' contextual knowledge in Year 10
Lee Donaghy was concerned that his GCSE students' weak contextual knowledge was letting them down. Inspired by a mixture of cognitive science and the arguments of other teachers expressed in various blogs, he decided to tackle the problem...
Securing contextual knowledge in year 10
-
Triumphs Show 157: What makes art history?
Teaching History feature: celebrating and sharing success
What do 14 Year 7 students, an art teacher, a history teacher and the Victoria and Albert Museum have in common? They are all part of the ‘Stronger Together' Museum Champion project run by The Langley Academy and the River & Rowing Museum and supported by Arts Council England, designed to...
Triumphs Show 157: What makes art history?
-
Triumphs Show 133: Little Miss Cold War
Teaching History feature
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,...
Triumphs Show 133: Little Miss Cold War
-
Britain's settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
Primary History Article
Anglo-Saxons have been a part of the primary national curriculum from the onset so they may not be as unfamiliar to teachers as some themes. Many teachers also report that pupils enjoy studying them so there is clearly much in their favour.
That does not mean, however, that all is...
Britain's settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
-
Nazism and Stalinism
Classic Pamphlet
Is it legitimate to compare the Nazi and Stalinist regimes? There might seem little room for doubt. It is often taken as self-evident that the two regimes were variations of a common type. They are bracketed together in school and university courses, as well as text books, under labels such...
Nazism and Stalinism
-
Oral History
Classic Pamphlet
The classic HA Guide to collecting oral history! Oral history is spoken history: it is the recording of people's unique memories and life stories. Over the past thrity years talking directly to the makers of history has emerged not only as one way in which historians can discover more about...
Oral History
-
Edward III & David II - Pamphlet
Classic Pamphlet
When Alexander II met his tragic death at Kinghorn in 1286, the event was speedily to put an end to the cordial relations which had prevailed for a hundred years between England and Scotland and to substitute chronic hostility for two and half centuries. Edward I, fresh from the conquest...
Edward III & David II - Pamphlet
-
Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe
Classic Pamphlet
Irene Collins explores the origins of Liberalism within a turbulent nineteenth century Europe. From the beginnings of its use for Spanish rebels in 1820 and the insult it became when used by French royalists, to the growth of political Liberalism in Marxism and Russia in the turn of the century....
Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Europe
-
Out and about in Coventry
Historian feature
Coventry and ‘phoenix' seem to be complementary words. Different images to different people. The central medieval area of Coventry is well worth the enjoyment of a gentle stroll. It contains the potential challenge of 400 listed buildings to visit! This article is intended to be an ‘appetite-wetter' which will draw...
Out and about in Coventry
-
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Introducing students to historical interpretation
Historian article
High school history teacher Brent Dyck is one of our Canadian readers. He has offered this item to The Historian as a contribution to our commitment to explore the historical approaches and values that we are seeking to convey to young people and the wider public. We hope that you may...
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Introducing students to historical interpretation
-
Teaching Ancient Egypt
Article
Editorial note: This paper has two sections: first, a background briefing about Ancient Egypt with a timeline and map that introduces the second section's three teaching activities on: building the Great Pyramid of Giza; Hatshepsut, Egypt's great woman pharaoh; and Akhenaten and his attempt to revolutionise Egyptian religion.
‘Hail to thee, O...
Teaching Ancient Egypt
-
Chronology: Developing a coherent knowledge
Article
Chronology: Developing a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain's past and of the wider world
First, this article considers the reasons why it is essential for children to develop a chronological framework. Next it considers ways in which this framework is necessary for the development of the time concepts set...
Chronology: Developing a coherent knowledge
-
Triumphs Show 155: beyond trivial judgements of 'bias'
Teaching History feature: celebrating and sharing success
Towards victory in that battle...
10A were nearly a term into their GCSE history course, working on an 1890-1918 British history ‘depth study'. They had already completed work on the Liberal welfare reforms and on the women's suffrage movement, and they had been practising a range of source evaluation approaches....
Triumphs Show 155: beyond trivial judgements of 'bias'
-
Polychronicon 154: Elizabeth I
Teaching History feature
Elizabeth I is admired today for her power dressing and her power portraits; her political acumen and her success in a man's world.
The adulation of Elizabeth started during her own lifetime when she was praised as a goddess and even as a celestial power. Elizabeth's semi-mythical status is reflected...
Polychronicon 154: Elizabeth I
-
Stone Age to Iron Age - overview and depth
Primary History article
Stone Age to Iron Age covers around 10,000 years, between the last Ice Age and the coming of the Romans. Such a long period is difficult for children to imagine, but putting the children into a living time-line across the classroom might help. In one sense not a lot happens...
Stone Age to Iron Age - overview and depth
-
Working with Historical Picture Books
Primary History article
For the majority of children a picture book is the first book that they enjoy and share with an adult. Picture books introduce children to different genres of writing, different themes and different artistic styles. As young children 'read' and explore picture books they take meaning from the text and...
Working with Historical Picture Books
-
Saxons, Normans and Victorians
Classic Pamphlet
When Queen Victoria died in 1901, the Annual Register remarked that the feeling of forlorn-ness which swept the country had no parallel since the death of King Alfred. The men of the new century were driven to seek a Saxon parallel. So too were men at the beginning of the...
Saxons, Normans and Victorians
-
V&A Schools SEN Programme
Article
The V&A Learning Department aims to make the Museum's collections accessible to all through an engaging and diverse range of events, courses, workshops, trails and resources. The Schools programme supports Primary and Secondary students and teachers and includes sessions for students with special educational needs. The SEN sessions have a...
V&A Schools SEN Programme
-
Out and About in Shaftesbury
Historian feature
Shaftesbury in North Dorset is one of the highest towns in England, standing as it does at 750 feet above sea level. As with many high points in the area, the first settlement was established around 8000 years ago in the middle of the Stone Age. The town went on...
Out and About in Shaftesbury
-
New, Novice or Nervous? 152: Describing Progression
Teaching History feature
'New, Novice or Nervous?' is for those new to the published writings of history teachers. Every problem you wrestle with, other teachers have wrestled with too. Quick fixes don't exist. But if you discover others' writing, you'll soon find - and want to join - something better: an international conversation...
New, Novice or Nervous? 152: Describing Progression
-
Why we would miss controlled assessments in history
Teaching History article
A place for individual enquiry? Why we would miss controlled assessments in history
Most history teachers will, at some point, recognise the tension between teaching an engaging history course while at the same time meeting the requirements of an exam specification. Mark Fowle and Ben Egelnick reflect here on how...
Why we would miss controlled assessments in history
-
World War II evacuation project - A living history experience
Primary History case study
Editorial note: The WOW factor. When we first received and read the World War II Evacuation Project case study we simply went WOW! It was genuinely mind-blowing. Below we publish the main sections of the report. They bring to life an invaluable, ground-breaking case-study of national significance.
The case-study involved...
World War II evacuation project - A living history experience
-
Teaching history as a national grand narrative
Article
There is no reason why highly sophisticated, intellectually challenging, creative and enjoyable ways to teach history to young children should not continue when a National Curriculum for History is based upon a country's Grand Narrative, know that knowledge, that can require knowledge of ‘facts' such as key dates, the names...
Teaching history as a national grand narrative
-
Polychronicon 123: Gladstone and Disraeli
Teaching History feature
Our Polychronicon in Teaching History is a regular feature helping school history teachers to update their subject knowledge, with special emphasis on recent historiography and changing interpretation. This edition of 'Polychronicon' focuses on the interpretations of Gladstone and Disraeli.
Polychronicon 123: Gladstone and Disraeli
