KS3 planning (general)

There are many different issues, both practical and pedagogical, subject specific, school-wide and national that must be considered in any teachers’ planning. In this section you will find research, articles, guides and resources that will support you to develop your planning as it relates to teaching history and helping pupils to make progress.

Sort by: Date (Newest first) | Title A-Z
Show: All | Articles | Podcasts | Multipage Articles
  • Continuity in the treatment of mental health through time

    Article

    Where's the other ‘c'? Year 9 examine continuity in the treatment of mental health through time Helen Murray, Rachel Burney and Andrew Stacey-Chapman show how they strengthened three goals of their practice - secure knowledge, narrative shapes and conceptual analysis - by securing strong connection between them. The curricular focus...

    Click to view
  • Do we need another hero? Rorke's Drift

    Article

    Do we need another hero? Year 8 get to grips with the heroic myth of the Defence of Rorke's Drift in 1879 Mike Murray shares a lesson sequence in which his students examined changing interpretations of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879. Building on earlier work on teaching interpretations...

    Click to view
  • Year 9 - Connecting past, present and future

    Article

    Possible futures: using frameworks of knowledge to help Year 9 connect past, present and future How can we help pupils integrate history into coherent ‘Big Pictures' or mental frameworks? Building on traditions of classroom research and theorising reported in earlier editions of Teaching History, Dan Nuttall reports how his department set...

    Click to view
  • Cunning Plan 151: When and for whom has 1688 been 'Glorious'?

    Article

    This enquiry is about how interpretations are formed and why they change. It aims to show Year 9, right at the end of their study of British history, the ways in which meanings of 1688 have shifted over time. It will test students' knowledge and strengthen their chronology of 300...

    Click to view
  • Move Me On 151: Getting past a plateau in development

    Article

    This issue's problem: Nancy Astor seems to have reached a plateau in her development as a history teacher. After a difficult start to her training year, Nancy seemed to be making rapid progress, but her development has now slowed and her mentor is concerned that she may not achieve her full...

    Click to view
  • Historical reasoning in the classroom

    Article

    Historical reasoning in the classroom: What does it look like and how can we enhance it? The history education community has long recognised that historical thinking depends on the interplay between substantive knowledge about the past and the procedural, or second-order, concepts that historians use to construct, shape and give...

    Click to view
  • Teaching the iGeneration

    Article

    Teaching the iGeneration: what possibilities exist in and beyond the history classroom? The development of communications technology in recent years has not only changed the ways in which students can access their world: it also changes the way they think about it. Sheldrake and Watkin draw here upon work that...

    Click to view
  • Enquiries to engage Year 7 in medieval anarchy

    Article

    Wrestling with Stephen and Matilda: planning challenging enquiries to engage Year 7 in medieval anarchy McDougall found learning about Stephen and Matilda fascinating, was sure that her pupils would also and designed an enquiry to engage them in ‘the anarchy' of 1139-1153 AD. Pupils enjoyed exploring ‘the anarchy' and learning...

    Click to view
  • An attempt to make Year 9 Masters of Learning

    Article

    ‘Much to learn you still have!' An attempt to make Year 9 Masters of Learning How can history teachers structure learning pathways through historical content in ways that engage and challenge all pupils, that enable them to work at an appropriate pace and that also encourage pupils to self-assess and...

    Click to view
  • Improving Year 12's extended writing

    Article

    From Muddleton Manor to Clarity Cathedral: improving Year 12's extended writing through an enhanced sense of the reader Mary Brown recognised that her A-level students were finding extended writing difficult, particularly in terms of guiding the reader through the argument with appropriate ‘signposting'. To help her students manage this, Brown...

    Click to view
  • Helping Year 7 put some flesh on Roman bones

    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...

    Click to view
  • Cunning Plan 149.1: a Year 7 lesson on Gladiators

    Article

    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...

    Click to view
  • Designing an enquiry in a challenging setting

    Article

    The Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) is a Cyprus-based organization that works to foster dialogue among history teachers and other educators across the divide in Cyprus. In one of their UN-funded projects, ADHR members worked with UK colleagues to shape a lesson sequence and resources on the Ottoman period...

    Click to view
  • Move Me On 149: how to provide appropriate support for particular students

    Article

    This issue's problem: Helen Troy is uncertain how to provide appropriate support for certain students without restricting what they can achieve. Helen showed considerable determination in securing her teacher training place. Her own education had been within a highly selective school system and her first application was unsuccessful because of...

    Click to view
  • Where are we? The place of women in history curricula

    Article

    Joanne Pearson reflects on her experiences as a history teacher and teacher educator, considering the ways in which she has seen women represented in the history curricula of different schools in England. She makes the case that greater attention needs to be paid by history teachers to the criteria against...

    Click to view
  • Teaching History 147: Curriculum Architecture

    Article

    02 Editorial  03 HA Secondary News  04 HA Update  08 Beth Baker and Steven Mastin - Did Alexander really ask, ‘Do I appear to you to be a bastard?' Using ancient texts to improve pupils' critical thinking (Read article) 14 Cunning Plan: Getting students to use classical texts - Beth Baker...

    Click to view
  • 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....

    Click to view
  • 'Doing justice to history': the learning of African history in a North London secondary school

    Article

    ‘Doing justice to history': the learning of African history in a North London secondary school and teacher development in the spirit of ubuntu The medium is the message, Marshall McLuhan observed many years ago and the ‘form' of what we do carries ‘content' as Hayden White has argued. This article...

    Click to view
  • Developing Year 8 students' conceptual thinking about diversity in Victorian society

    Article

    Developing Year 8 students' conceptual thinking about diversity in Victorian society Elizabeth Carr writes here about a new scheme of work she developed to teach students about diversity in Victorian society. When dealing with a concept such as diversity, it can be easy for students to slip into stereotypes based...

    Click to view
  • Key Concepts at Key Stage 3

    Multipage Article

    Please note: This unit was produced before the 2014 National Curriculum and therefore while much of the advice is still useful, there may be some out of date references or links. For more recent resources on key concepts, see our What's the Wisdom on series. The key concepts can be divided into three...

    Click to view