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Polychronicon 113: slavery in 20th-century America
Teaching History feature
Polychronicon was a fourteenth-century chronicle that brought together much of the knowledge of its own age. Our Polychronicon in Teaching History is a regular feature helping school history teachers to update their subject knowledge, with special emphasis on recent historiography and changing interpretation. This edition of 'Polychronicon' is on 'Interpreting...
Polychronicon 113: slavery in 20th-century America
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Move Me On 132: Already the best teacher in the department
Teaching History feature
This issue's problem: Phyllis Wheatley already seems to be the most effective teacher in the department. How can her mentor ensure that she goes on learning?
Phyllis Wheatley is several weeks into her second placement and her mentor, Selina, is acutely aware of how impressive her teaching is already. A degree in...
Move Me On 132: Already the best teacher in the department
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Triumphs Show 112: William Bent and family: a personal timeline of the Plains Wars
Article
Using the experiences of William Bent and his family in the 1860s, this resource was designed to develop different kinds of historical thinking. For example, it highlights what a turning point the Sand Creek massacre proved to be.
Triumphs Show 112: William Bent and family: a personal timeline of the Plains Wars
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Democracy is not boring
Teaching History article
Seán Lang argues that whilst history teachers have expressed much support for the citizenship education proposals, and whilst their practice already addresses the skills of evidence-weighing, debate and argument, there are huge gaps in our coverage of relevant content. He argues that the freedom with which teachers may currently interpret...
Democracy is not boring
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The Terror in the French Revolution
Classic Pamphlet
A natural reaction to the history of the French Revolution is to see it as a glorious movement for liberty which somehow ‘went wrong', ending in a nightmare of blood and chaos. This pamphlet explains what really happened, and why. It shows how the apparent achievements of the first two...
The Terror in the French Revolution
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Polychronicon 112: The Angevin Empire
Teaching History feature
Polychronicon was a fourteenth-century chronicle that brought together much of the knowledge of its ownage. Our Polychronicon in Teaching History is a regular feature helping school history teachers to update their subject knowledge, with special emphasis on recent historiography and changing interpretation. This edition of the 'Polychronicon' concentrates on the...
Polychronicon 112: The Angevin Empire
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Exploring change and continuity with Year 7
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
A great deal has been written about causation in the pages of Teaching History. From camels to linguistics, this is a second-order concept that teachers and pupils frequently deliberate.
Departments balance the need for substantive knowledge with explicit...
Exploring change and continuity with Year 7
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Exceptional performance at GCSE
Teaching History article
In the last edition of Teaching History (February 1999, Issue 94) Kate Hammond used her own planning and classroom practice to extract some principles for stretching the very able pupil at Key Stage 3. How should history teachers build on this at GCSE? One way of defining goals for such...
Exceptional performance at GCSE
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Drop the dead dictator: a Year 9 newsroom simulation
Teaching History article
Rosalind Stirzaker has big ambitions for her students. She wants them to do more than make a simple list of the key causes of the Second World War. Yes, she wants them to complete a piece of written work, but she wants – and gets – a great deal more...
Drop the dead dictator: a Year 9 newsroom simulation
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Henry VIII
Classis Pamphlet
What shall we think of Henry VIII? However that question has been or may be answered, one reply is apparently impossible. Not even the most resolute believer in deterministic interpretations of history seems able to escape the spell of that magnificent figure; I know of no book on the age...
Henry VIII
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Meeting the historian through the text
Teaching History article
Edna Shoham and Neomi Shiloah describe a process by which they taught their 15-year-old students to read historians’ accounts for sub-text, meaning and assumptions. In its emphasis on ‘meeting the historian’, their work overlaps with much of the thinking about teaching pupils about historical ‘interpretations’ as specifically required by the...
Meeting the historian through the text
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Using Medieval Sources
Using Medieval Sources
In this short video Professor Mark Ormrod, Dr Jessica Lutkin and Dr Jonathan Mackman discuss their work on the England's Immigrants 1330-1550 project and give an idea of how they use primary medieval sources in their historical research.
Using Medieval Sources
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Popular revolt and the rise of early modern states
Historian article
In the 1960s and 1970s, historians and sociologists who were not specialists in the Middle Ages constructed models of pre-industrial crowds and revolt to understand the distinctiveness of modern, post-French Revolutionary, Europe. Foremost among these scholars were George Rudé, a historian of eighteenth century England and France, and Charles Tilly,...
Popular revolt and the rise of early modern states
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Short cuts to deep knowledge
Teaching History article
Sam Pullan explains how a chance encounter has helped him to improve his introduction to the modern themes and founding documents of US politics. Working with a professional historian whom he met, by chance, over dinner, he was able to produce lessons at the cutting edge of subject knowledge to...
Short cuts to deep knowledge
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Move Me On 108: Reconciling sources and stories
Teaching History feature
This Issue's Problem: Indira is having problems reconciling sources and stories in teaching history.
Move Me On 108: Reconciling sources and stories
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Using this map and all your knowledge, become Bismarck
Teaching History article
Understanding the past is not an abstract exercise. Historical questions revolve around decisions made by real people under real pressure. As historians, we factor psychological pressure into our analysis. How, though, are we to enable our students to do the same? To study why Bismarck began a programme of overseas...
Using this map and all your knowledge, become Bismarck
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Progression & Assessment without Levels - Guide
Progression & Assessment
In the 2014 national curriculum for primary and secondary history one of the key differences is that, for the first time since 1991, there are no level descriptions against which you can assess pupils' progress. The new attainment target says simply that:
‘By the end of each key stage, pupils...
Progression & Assessment without Levels - Guide
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Basket weaving in Advanced level history...how to plan and teach the 100 year study
Teaching History article
The current specifications for AS/A2 history require students to study change over a period of at least 100 years. Given that the 100 year study represents just one module out of six and also that it may not complement any of the other modules selected and may therefore be wholly...
Basket weaving in Advanced level history...how to plan and teach the 100 year study
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Move Me On 126: Setting worthwhile homework
Teaching History feature
Val Messalina is a lively and engaging young student teacher who has come straight to the PGCE course after completing her history degree. She has made a positive start to teaching but is quite nervous and tends to look for very clear guidance and support. She is now half way...
Move Me On 126: Setting worthwhile homework
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Move Me On 122: Catering for different learning styles
Teaching History feature
This Issue's Problem: Maria Monte has decided that catering for different learning styles will solve all her problems of differentiation in history.
Move Me On 122: Catering for different learning styles
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Podcast: The Life and Significance of Alan Turing
Podcast
In this podcast Dr Tommy Dickinson of the University of Manchester discusses the life and significance of Alan Turing. Please note this is only the first section of the full podcast which is available to HA Members
Alan Mathison Turing, (23 June 1912–7 June 1954) was a British pioneering computer scientist, mathematician,...
Podcast: The Life and Significance of Alan Turing
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The T.E.A.C.H. Report
HA Report
The TEACH report outlines the sort of good practice in teaching sensitive topics which is available for teachers to share, not least through the Historical Association's programme of subject-specific training.
The T.E.A.C.H. Report
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Move Me On 119: Teaching EAL students
Teaching History feature
This Issue's Problem: Beth is worried about how to make history accessible to the students with English as an Additional Language (EAL) in her classes.
Move Me On 119: Teaching EAL students
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Past Forward: Keynote address: fulfilling history's potential
Article
How much is it possible to love a subject? “I get so excited about my next history lesson” wrote Peter in December, “that I find myself dreaming about it before it happens”.1 How much is it possible for a teacher to love a subject? You love it so much that...
Past Forward: Keynote address: fulfilling history's potential
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Late Medieval Taxation Records
Historian article
There are more than 23,000 medieval taxation records from England and Wales in the Public Record Office alone. For many years the vast majority of them have lain undisturbed in their archive boxes, but recent work is showing the true value of some of these as historical sources and making...
Late Medieval Taxation Records
