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Teaching History 107: Little Stories, Big Pictures
The HA's journal for secondary history teachers
This edition deals with the complex relationship between depth work and overview work. Revealing the big picture: patterns, shapes and images at Key Stage 3, Slavery, Learning and teaching about the history of Europe in the 20th Century, Teaching the history of 20th women in Europe, Using Ethel and Ernest...
Teaching History 107: Little Stories, Big Pictures
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Progression - more than 'could do better'?
E-CPD
Some notion of progression underpins all teaching as well as curriculum, course design, work scheme construction lesson planning, evaluation and assessment. But what do we mean by progression and how do we help our students achieve it? Does our assessment reflect progression? Do our reports to parents comment on progression? In this E-CPD...
Progression - more than 'could do better'?
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Polychronicon 133: The Crusader States in the Levant
Teaching History feature
In my first Polychronicon article on ‘The Crusades' I pointed out that research historians are increasingly specialising either on the crusades themselves or on the crusader states. There are good reasons for this, but in my opinion it makes little sense for school or university teachers to treat these topics...
Polychronicon 133: The Crusader States in the Levant
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Raising the bar: developing meaningful historical consciousness at Key Stage 3
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
How can we help pupils make sense of the history that they learn so that the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts? How can we help pupils develop and sophisticate...
Raising the bar: developing meaningful historical consciousness at Key Stage 3
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11 Ways to Use Multimedia Videos in History Lessons
Article
Dan Moorhouse provides:
11 ways to use multimedia videos in lessons:
1) To develop an understanding of the ways in which different interpretations of events are formed. For example, pupils may study Cromwell and his times and may then be asked to consider how and for what purpose a particular interpretation...
11 Ways to Use Multimedia Videos in History Lessons
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Challenging not balancing: developing Year 7's grasp of historical argument through online discussion and a virtual book
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
This article is about using story to construct a learning journey for a Year 7 class. It reports an innovative use of a virtual learning environment to construct a narrative e-book into which argument tasks...
Challenging not balancing: developing Year 7's grasp of historical argument through online discussion and a virtual book
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Stories and their sources: the need for historical thinking in an information age
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Information technology is of no value in itself or by itself: it needs questions to drive it and disciplined forms of thinking to make sense of the answers that it can provide. Inspired by the...
Stories and their sources: the need for historical thinking in an information age
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History and Journalism (1): Kristallnacht - How studying history can help with a career as an investigative journalist
History & Careers Unit 1
The aim of this enquiry is to show students that a history education teaches many of the skills that are vital if they want to pursue and career as a journalist.
History and Journalism (1): Kristallnacht - How studying history can help with a career as an investigative journalist
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British Defence and Appeasement Between the Wars 1919-1939
Classic Pamphlet
Armed forces never exist in isolation, but always operate against a background of political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual and ideological conditions and attitudes, as well as in relation to diplomatic and strategic factors. Some governments regards their military forces especially their armies, more as instruments for maintaining internal order than...
British Defence and Appeasement Between the Wars 1919-1939
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Thomas Muir and the 'Scottish Martyrs' of the 1790s
Article
From the 1750s, after more than a century of intense political and religious disputes and of economic stagnation, Scotland began to enjoy several decades of almost unprecedented political stability, religious harmony, economic growth and cultural achievements. Jacobitism had been crushed and most propertied and influential Scots rallied to the Hanoverian...
Thomas Muir and the 'Scottish Martyrs' of the 1790s
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Developing Citizenship in Schools
Article
The HA would like to thank the Association for Citizenship Teaching for allowing us to reproduce this article on the HA Website!
In a novel and revealing 'dialogue', Scott Harrison HMI, specialist adviser for history and citizenship at Ofsterd, and Liz Craft, lead consultant for citizenship at QCA, discuss the...
Developing Citizenship in Schools
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Triumphs Show 133: Getting more pupils choosing History at GCSE
Teaching History feature
It is often remarked that history is under pressure nationally at GCSE. Our history numbers have never been enormous, and we have recently gone down from 2 sets to one set. The crunch came in 2007 when we collapsed to a dismal 12 students. A variety of factors may have...
Triumphs Show 133: Getting more pupils choosing History at GCSE
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Making pupils want to explain: using Movie Maker to foster thoroughness and self-monitoring
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Sally Burnham shares her practice and reflections on the value of the software, ‘Movie Maker', for developing particular aspects of historical thinking and learning. In Teaching History 130, in the context of her Key Stage...
Making pupils want to explain: using Movie Maker to foster thoroughness and self-monitoring
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What do you think? Using online forums to improve students' historical knowledge and understanding
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In Teaching History 126, the Open University's Arguing in History project team demonstrated the power that discussion fora can have to develop pupil thinking. In this article, Dave Martin revisits this theme through a discussion...
What do you think? Using online forums to improve students' historical knowledge and understanding
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Triumphs Show 133: Little Miss Cold War
Teaching History feature
Students can find it hard to understand and remember the differing schools of interpretation that they encounter at A2. The process of studying differing historiographic claims can also seem rather dry and tedious. It is crucial that they grasp differences in interpretation if they are to succeed in their examinations,...
Triumphs Show 133: Little Miss Cold War
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Using remote voting to involve everyone in classroom thinking at AS and A2
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Diana Laffin shares her findings on an action research project into the use of remote voting systems in the AS and A2 classroom. She was particularly interested in examining the impact of such devices on...
Using remote voting to involve everyone in classroom thinking at AS and A2
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Nutshell 133
Article
Did we really need a new Attainment Target?
Yes. The first one, developed in 1995, was a best effort to craft the old 1991 ‘statements of attainment' into holistic, ‘best fit' Level Descriptions. Since then, the history education community has learned a lot and some of the goals for pupils'...
Nutshell 133
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Getting Year 7 to set their own questions about the Islamic Empire, 600-1600
Teaching History article
Sometimes particular problems can lead to unexpected solutions. In this case, Sally Burnham decided to solve a problem that she had identified among her Year 12 students by changing the way in which she teaches Year 7. Her Year 12s were finding it difficult to set appropriate questions for their...
Getting Year 7 to set their own questions about the Islamic Empire, 600-1600
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How to make historical simulations adaptable, engaging and manageable
Teaching History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Dan Moorhouse suggests that history teachers are sometimes put off role-play or simulations because the amount of preparation - intellectual and practical - appears both time-consuming and expensive. He argues that effective simulations need be...
How to make historical simulations adaptable, engaging and manageable
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Where do I begin?
Article
Planning a new Key Stage 3 Curriculum: A Powerpoint presentation from the Regional Subject CfBT/HA Conferences 3 Curriculum aims are: successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society...
Where do I begin?
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What is Bias?
Article
There is a nice story about how Calvin Coolidge went to hear a clergyman preach on sin. "What did he say?" he was asked. 'He said he was against it', Coolidge replied. The history teacher or student, well used by now to the normal form of questions at GCSE, might...
What is Bias?
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Analytic and Discursive Writing at Key Stage 3
HA Guide
Christine Counsell's core message is that, because analytical and discursive writing is seen as difficult, it is often considered impossible. Instead, those very difficulties should be the focus of continuous professional analysis by all history teachers. Counsell argues that only a thorough analysis of those difficulties will yield suitable creative...
Analytic and Discursive Writing at Key Stage 3
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Brazil and the two World Wars
Article
Brazil and the outbreak of the First World War At the beginning of the twentieth century Brazil was on the periphery of a world order that revolved around decisions made by the great European powers. Although it was the largest and most populated nation in South America, Brazil possessed an...
Brazil and the two World Wars
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The great Liberal landslide: the 1906 General Election in perspective
Historian article
On 1 May 1997 the Conservative party suffered an electoral defeat so overwhelming that political commentators were left rummaging through the statistics of the previous two centuries to find anything similar. The Times concluded on 3 May that it was the party's worst performance since 1832, though 'The disaster suffered...
The great Liberal landslide: the 1906 General Election in perspective
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OCR History A Level History: Democracy and Dictatorship in Germany 1919-63
Review
Professor Mary Fulbrook and David Williamson with Nick Fellows and Mike Wells
Review by Barbara Hibbert
This resource is one of a series produced by Heinemann to support the new OCR History A AS course. It claims that it ‘exactly reflects the key issues and skills in the specification topics'. ...
OCR History A Level History: Democracy and Dictatorship in Germany 1919-63
