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Triumphs Show 119: bringing the big picture to life using a 3D rollercoaster
Teaching History feature
In this edition of 'Triumphs Show' Kate Dacey demonstrates the effectiveness of visual stimuli in improving pupils' historical understanding. Dacey achieved this by using a 3D wall display to depict the turbulent period of the Reformation.
Triumphs Show 119: bringing the big picture to life using a 3D rollercoaster
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Triumphs Show 158: interactive learning walls and substantive vocabulary
Teaching History feature
Year 10 use an interactive learning wall to cement their understanding of substantive vocabulary
It is the first term of their GCSE course and Year 10 are already starting to flag a little. They are enjoying studying the Russian Revolution, but are struggling to remember all the new words they...
Triumphs Show 158: interactive learning walls and substantive vocabulary
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New, Novice or Nervous? 156: Analysing interpretations
Teaching History feature
This page 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 in which others...
New, Novice or Nervous? 156: Analysing interpretations
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Cunning Plan 111: Year 8 lesson on C.V. Wedgwood's writing
Teaching History feature
This edition of 'Cunning Plan' is a Year 8 lesson on C.V. Wedgwood's writing. There is also a supplementary download commenting on the C.V. Wedgwood text used.
Cunning Plan 111: Year 8 lesson on C.V. Wedgwood's writing
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New, Novice or Nervous? 153: Good Enquiry Questions
Teaching History feature
This page 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 in which...
New, Novice or Nervous? 153: Good Enquiry Questions
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Cunning Plan 151: When and for whom has 1688 been 'Glorious'?
Teaching History feature
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...
Cunning Plan 151: When and for whom has 1688 been 'Glorious'?
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Reading with other readers in mind
Teaching History article
Peter Turner, along with his colleagues, wished to design a cross-curricular activity for post-16 students in history and English. The enquiry they devised addressed the issue of the changing reception of the classic novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich in the immediate aftermath of its publication, and...
Reading with other readers in mind
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New, Novice or Nervous? 150: Getting pupils to see change over time
Teaching History feature
This page is the starting point for all who are new to the published writings of history teachers. Every problem you wrestle with, other history 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...
New, Novice or Nervous? 150: Getting pupils to see change over time
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Why do we continue to study the Holocaust?
Teaching History article
Educators at Imperial War Museums (IWM) have been leading voices in Holocaust education since the Holocaust Exhibition opened at IWM London in June 2000. In this article, Clare Lawlor shares the design of IWM’s new Holocaust Learning Programme for schools, and the pedagogic research that underpinned the design process. The...
Why do we continue to study the Holocaust?
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Cunning Plan 132: Year 7 and the new National Curriculum
Teaching History feature
How can we plan for a coherent Year 7 that makes the most of the new National Curriculum freedom and its almost limitless possible content? Answer: borders, boundaries (and books)
Please note: this article was published before the current 2014 National Curriculum.
Cunning Plan 132: Year 7 and the new National Curriculum
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Studying our own school’s archives to promote historical understanding in Year 7
Teaching History article
Helen Southwood here sets out an example of a hyperlocal history study the focus of which is her own school. She presents a rationale both for the study of hyperlocal history as a means of engaging students and developing their skills, and for the pedagogical use of previously uncatalogued school archives....
Studying our own school’s archives to promote historical understanding in Year 7
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Using visual sources to generate conversation
Teaching History article
Jane Card has long been fascinated by the power of visual sources to stimulate pupil thought and discussion. In previous articles she has shared insights from her own expert practice, fusing deep subject knowledge with careful planning to generate highly skilful questioning. Here she presents another rich example of classroom...
Using visual sources to generate conversation
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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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Cunning Plan 192: A suggested itinerary for visiting Berlin
Teaching History feature
The principles and approaches outlined in our article on Pages 59 to 64 of this edition can be applied to any site, although not necessarily all on the same trip! If you are visiting Berlin, and you want to examine it as a contested space, in what order might you...
Cunning Plan 192: A suggested itinerary for visiting Berlin
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Using metaphor to highlight causal processes with Year 13
Article
Alarmed by his students’ random use of causal language in their essays, James Edward Carroll resolved to help his students improve their understanding of causal processes. Carroll decided to introduce his students to the metaphors that historians use to describe causation in the historiography of the Salem witch trials. By modelling...
Using metaphor to highlight causal processes with Year 13
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Creating a progression model for teaching historical perspectives in Key Stage 3
Teaching History article
Jacob Olivey set out to design enquiries which would enable his pupils to reconstruct, using evidence, the perspectives of people in the past. In this article he shares in detail the planning and outcomes of two enquiries: one for Year 7 and one for Year 8. Olivey offers a example...
Creating a progression model for teaching historical perspectives in Key Stage 3
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Dialogue, engagement and generative interaction in the history classroom
Teaching History article
Michael Bird has a long-standing interest in the power of classroom dialogue, not only as a means of elicting students’ prior knowledge or checking their understanding of new ideas and information, but also as a powerful tool for generating new knowledge through a collective process of meaning-making. In this article, he...
Dialogue, engagement and generative interaction in the history classroom
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Where are we and where are we going?
Teaching History article
Richard Harris draws on their own and others’ research to take stock of where the history teaching community is in terms of curriculum thinking. Harris argues that despite a number of positive developments in recent years, certain issues continue to have undesirable effects on curriculum design. Such issues include inertia...
Where are we and where are we going?
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Creating confident historical readers at A-level
Teaching History article
How can we help pupils learn to read historically? Gary Howells explores this question by explaining how he builds reading challenges into the course of his pupils' post-16 studies and by describing some of the tasks that pupils are set and the principles that underpin them. Howells argues that over...
Creating confident historical readers at A-level
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Using oral history to enhance a local history partnership
Teaching History article
Eliza West and Emily Toettcher explain how a partnership between school and museum has evolved into a four-year enquiry into local history. The article focuses on the successful introduction of an oral history element in the GCSE syllabus and how the investigation into ‘remembered’ history helps students to appreciate the complexities of truth...
Using oral history to enhance a local history partnership
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Curating the imagined past: world building in the history curriculum
Teaching History article
Mike Hill was concerned that his students were unable to genuinely inhabit the historical places they encountered in his lessons. Drawing on fields as varied as history-teacher research, philosophy, and literary and media theory, Hill identified ways to curate his students’ constructions of ‘secondary worlds’ in the historical past, including...
Curating the imagined past: world building in the history curriculum
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How history learners can ‘dig school’ under lockdown
Teaching History article
In March 2020, when Covid-19’s lockdown restrictions saw schools closed to the majority of children, Carenza Lewis quickly began thinking of ways to help both teachers and parents. Drawing on extensive experience of enabling children and young people to learn from practical engagement in archaeology, she came up with a...
How history learners can ‘dig school’ under lockdown
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Cunning Plan 140: bringing history to life
Teaching History feature
Whether you are have been inspired to emulate the achievements of the Living History group described in this issue's Triumphs Show, or are simply seeking to create some ‘authentic' props for an intriguing starter, or exploratory role-play, Jonathan Davies here explains how you can find out more about historical re-enactment...
Cunning Plan 140: bringing history to life
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Cunning Plan 175: Using the England's Immigrants database
Teaching History feature
Ever wondered if there is a streak of masochism in those designing A-level history syllabi? The absence of the Spanish Armada from the current Edexcel breadth study in favour of (among other delights) ‘the new draperies’ prompts this question. But the challenge of enthusing modern teenagers with woollen cloth can...
Cunning Plan 175: Using the England's Immigrants database
