Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.

Let me start with a personal experience and then move on to a classroom example.

I went to Paris for a few days recently and sat in the bar where Hemingway used to drink with Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s. I have read their books and know something of their lives; the room therefore had a special quality for me. I could almost feel the history in the spirit of the place. Interestingly, most of the other people there did not seem to be affected at all...