Lesson 1: Part 3

NOW give out the documents from within Resource D which include extracts from British accounts of the First Anglo Sikh War.

(Note: The original references within these extracts to the Battle of Ferozepore as it was then known have been altered to Ferozeshah for the sake of consistency - for the historical background on the Anglo-Sikh Wars refer to Resource G.)

Set groups time to read the extracts and highlight or underline words or phrases which might help them answer the following questions:

  • What did the British think of themselves during the Anglo-Sikh Wars? (i.e. Were they proud of how they fought? Did they think that they were superior to Sikhs? Did they think that they ought to have been superior? Did some British soldiers enjoy being in battle? etc. )
  • What did the British think of their Sikh enemies? (i.e. Did they fear them? Did they despise them? Did they admire and respect them? If so why? Did they hate them? Did they pity them? Did they think they think they were cruel? etc.) 
  • Note: As a form of differentiation pupils could be given a list of different qualities matched to different colours which might indicate how the British felt about Sikh soldiers and the way they fought. e. g Fear, Hatred, Admiration ,Courage, Loyalty, Strength, Cruelty, etc.  Pupils could use these colours to underline words or phrases in the sources which indicate particular qualities.

NEXT display two separate number lines from one to ten on opposite walls of the classroom with one labelled "Sikh attitude to the British" over one number line and "British attitude to Sikhs" over the other number line.

Under the number 1 of each number line put the label "Complete distrust" and under the number 10, "Complete trust". Ensure that the number tens of both number lines are close to each other. Select a pupil to stand by the number 1 on each number line.

NOW download Resource E1 (or E2 which is a shortened version of the same chronology)  and cut it up, giving different paragraphs to fluent readers across the class. Display the PowerPoint from Resource F which shows a series of images, each one accompanying a particular paragraph describing the events of particular years from Resource E1 or E2.

Ask pupils who have been allocated to read particular paragraphs from Resource E to read these in out in date order, one by one. As a particular paragraph is being read display the matching image from Resource F.

AFTER each reading set a strict time for pairs of pupils to decide how the events of a particular year might affect British attitudes to the Sikhs and Sikh attitudes to the British.

THEN lead class discussion taking suggestions from pairs in reaching an agreement so the pupil standing on each number line can be instructed to shift backwards or forwards along each one depending on whether the events might lead Sikhs to greater or less trust of the British in a particular year and the British greater or less trust of Sikhs in the same year.

LASTLY give out the sheets of paper that pupils annotated in groups from the lesson starter which noted possible links between
the initial images shown to pupils from Resources A and B. Hold a discussion about:

  • how correct pupil's original suggestions were for how the images linked proved to be;
  • how images actually linked given what pupils have just studied.

Attached files:


Previous page     Next page