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Does differentiation have to mean different?
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Richard Harris questions common assumptions about differentiation. In particular, he encourages teachers to avoid accepting too readily the view that pupils of different abilities must be given different resources or activities. Instead he builds a...
Does differentiation have to mean different?
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Seeing, hearing and doing the Renaissance (Part 1): Let's have a Renaissance party!
Teaching History article
In two, linked articles, appearing in this and the next edition, Maria Osowiecki shares an account of a five-lesson enquiry, based on the concept of historical significance (National Curriculum Key Element 2e) for mixed ability Year 8. She wanted to experiment with an array of creative teaching techniques that would...
Seeing, hearing and doing the Renaissance (Part 1): Let's have a Renaissance party!
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Update: Space, place and social constructs: the Spatial Turn in history
Historian feature
Ryan Hampton explains how ‘things’ and people combine to make space an important consideration in human history. Focusing on the German Peasants’ War of 1524-26, he examines how advances in our understanding of space might affect our knowledge of this important conflict...
Update: Space, place and social constructs: the Spatial Turn in history
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Steering your OFSTED inspector into the long-term reasons for classroom success
Teaching History article
Sue Dove describes a short but action-packed activity sequence that was designed explicitly to show the OFSTED inspector the impact of the department's professional thinking and long-term planning. An integrated approach to thinking and writing at Key Stage 3 and much training of pupils to adopt a disciplined and creative...
Steering your OFSTED inspector into the long-term reasons for classroom success
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From anecdote to argument: using the word processor to connect knowledge and opinion through revelatory writing
Teaching History article
Jayne Prior and Peter John argue that it is time to build upon what has been learned about historical writing using ICT and to acknowledge both opportunities and dangers in some current and popular practice. Critical of some of the weaker uses of ‘cut and paste’ activities, where pupils are...
From anecdote to argument: using the word processor to connect knowledge and opinion through revelatory writing
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Approaches to the History Curriculum: integrated learning models
Briefing Pack
In 2010 an integrated curriculum was being implemented in some schools in England. This short briefing pack provides some practical examples of that process.
Is your school on the brink of curriculum innovation that involves history? Are you in the midst of such a change and feel confused and uncertain?...
Approaches to the History Curriculum: integrated learning models
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Cunning Plan... for teaching about climate change through the history curriculum
Teaching History feature
Is this climate change lesson geography or history, Miss?
When thinking about teaching climate change in schools we often associate it with subjects like geography or even science, but we hardly think about history. And yet, history has as much claim on this topic as other subjects do, especially when...
Cunning Plan... for teaching about climate change through the history curriculum
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The potential of secondary history to respond to the current ecological and climate crisis
Teaching History article
In this article Michael Riley and Alison Kitson seek to unlock the potential of the secondary history curriculum to educate young people about the current ecological and climate crisis in ways that might also inform their thinking about how to create a more sustainable future. The article (which mirrors a parallel...
The potential of secondary history to respond to the current ecological and climate crisis
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Historical Interpretation: Why is it still such a major issue?
E-CPD
This E-CPD unit was produced for the previous National Curriculum, when Interpretations in History were still relatively new. In the current National Curriculum, Interpretations are still central to the skills necessary for success. Perhaps more so, as it is now a separate assessment objective [AO4] at GCSE, starting in 2016,...
Historical Interpretation: Why is it still such a major issue?
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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... the history of Australia
Teaching History feature
In 1968, in his Boyer Lectures, the anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner argued that Australia’s sense of its past, its collective memory, had been built on a state of forgetting:
It is a structural matter, a view from a window which has been carefully placed to exclude a whole quadrant of the...
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... the history of Australia
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Why we need to teach about the history of trees and woodland...
Primary History article
Michael Riley highlights the importance of educating children about the history of trees and woodland. He explores the potential of primary history to develop an understanding of our changing relationship with trees. The article shows how a focus on trees and woodland could enhance an existing history study, and suggests...
Why we need to teach about the history of trees and woodland...
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Challenging not balancing: developing Year 7's grasp of historical argument through online discussion and a virtual book
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
This article is about using story to construct a learning journey for a Year 7 class. It reports an innovative use of a virtual learning environment to construct a narrative e-book into which argument tasks...
Challenging not balancing: developing Year 7's grasp of historical argument through online discussion and a virtual book
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Webinar series: Making substantive and disciplinary knowledge work together in the secondary history curriculum
HA on-demand webinar series for secondary history teachers
The last few years have, rightly, seen a lot of discussion about 'what' we include in the history curriculum. This has meant that many schools now teach a wider-ranging and more inclusive form of history. As this work has an impact, it is important to continue to think about how...
Webinar series: Making substantive and disciplinary knowledge work together in the secondary history curriculum
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History Abridged: American Policy: theory and practice over 200 years
Historian feature
History Abridged: In this feature we take a person, time, theme or event and tell you the vast rich history in small space. A long dip into history in a shortened form. See all History Abridged articles
The ‘Monroe Doctrine’ in 1825 provided a cornerstone for future United States foreign policy. Drafted...
History Abridged: American Policy: theory and practice over 200 years
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My Favourite History Place: The Tenement Museum, New York
Historian feature
The Tenement Museum is not remotely like any museum I had previously visited. It is an old tenement building where generations of New York migrants lived and loved, worked and had families before moving both on and out. The Tenement Museum tells the story of the Lower East Side through the...
My Favourite History Place: The Tenement Museum, New York
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Broadening Year 7’s British history horizons with Welsh medieval sources
Teaching History article
Hiscox wanted to broaden her students’ understanding of the complexity of the British past, and developed an enquiry into the Norman Conquest of Wales to help achieve that aim. Hiscox reports her enquiry design and its outcomes, sharing how she broadened both content and the types of sources that students...
Broadening Year 7’s British history horizons with Welsh medieval sources
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Why history teachers should not be afraid to venture into the long eighteenth century
Teaching History article
As ardent advocates of eighteenth-century history, Rhian Fender and Stephen Ragdale were determined to ensure that the period found a secure place within their department’s Key Stage 3 curriculum. Given the extraordinary range of contrasts that epitomise the long eighteenth century, and only ten lessons within which to explore them,...
Why history teachers should not be afraid to venture into the long eighteenth century
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New Initiatives Affecting Primary History 2010
E-CPD
N.B. This unit was produced before the 2014 curriculum and therefore while much of the advice is still useful, there may be some out of date references or links.
This unit is concerned with some of the most recent initiatives and how the knowledge management aspect might best be addressed. It...
New Initiatives Affecting Primary History 2010
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Film: Discussion: Historical memory of key individuals in the Civil Rights Movement
Film series: The African-American Civil Rights Movement
Professor Tony Badger, Professor Joe Street and Professor Brian Ward discuss the African-American Civil Rights movement and examine different ways we might interpret the significance of key individuals, groups, institutions and events that played a role in its development and progress.
This section reflects on how the past is portrayed...
Film: Discussion: Historical memory of key individuals in the Civil Rights Movement
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New Saxon, Viking and Medieval GCSE Content
GCSE Resources
As you will no doubt be aware, GCSEs are changing. New specifications (subject to accreditation) will require students to learn history from a range of different time periods. Different specifications will specify different content, but whichever specification you end up teaching, you are very likely to be teaching some medieval...
New Saxon, Viking and Medieval GCSE Content
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Building and assessing a frame of reference in the Netherlands
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Concerns about our ability to equip young people with a frame of reference that they can actually use to orient themselves in time are widespread. The challenges were extensively debated within the last issue of...
Building and assessing a frame of reference in the Netherlands
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What Have Historians Been Arguing About... Chinese history?
Teaching History feature
Teaching Chinese history in the UK runs up against some immediate obstacles. It lacks the familiar staging posts of European history: Chairman Mao is among the few well-known names, and terms such as Cultural Revolution and Opium War may attract recognition, but are often not understood in detail. The situation...
What Have Historians Been Arguing About... Chinese history?
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My Favourite History Place: Berwick-upon-Tweed railway station
Historian feature
Glimpsed from the window of a speeding train, as it hurtles north across the Royal Border Bridge and towards Edinburgh, the modest station at Berwick-upon-Tweed would seem an unlikely spot for one of the most momentous episodes in British history; but step off the train, walk up the stairs, and allow...
My Favourite History Place: Berwick-upon-Tweed railway station
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Recorded webinar: Survive and thrive in your initial history teacher education
Primary webinar recording
Calling all those beginning their initial teacher education! Whether you are undertaking an undergraduate or postgraduate qualification, if you are interested in choosing a history specialism, this session is for you! In this free webinar you’ll hear from teacher educators and those who have just completed their initial teacher education...
Recorded webinar: Survive and thrive in your initial history teacher education
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Using picture books to explore ideas around history with very young children
Primary History article
This article looks at the relevance of picture books in the Early Years Foundation Stage as a resource for introducing children to the idea of the past. Firstly examining its relevance to the Framework, Karin identifies some appropriate resources and how they can be used. In particular, she links them...
Using picture books to explore ideas around history with very young children
