Author: onebighistorydepartment

curriculum and planning, disciplinary knowledge, GCSE and A level, historical interpretations, historical scholarship, KS3, local networks, subject leadership, teacher knowledge, teaching and learning ideas

Teaching interpretations – maximising potential and avoiding pitfalls!

Thanks to Warren Valentine (@warrenvalentine), head of history and politics at Mayfield Grammar School for Girls, for this blogpost about a day spent thinking about the teaching of historical interpretations. This is an area that has been extensively discussed and theorised about for many years. You can find more help with this tricky concept on the HA website.   In June a collection of history teachers … Continue reading Teaching interpretations – maximising potential and avoiding pitfalls!

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display materials, teaching and learning resources

Free 20thC Britain timeline

Sometimes on #OBHD we get the chance to share quality resources that colleagues have made. Thanks to Mary Brown (@MissBHist) for this one: C20th overview card sort      C20th overview glossary It’s designed to address the themes of: conflict, empire, ideas and beliefs, migration, everyday life and power across the century. It’s been planned for one lesson and every image/event covers more that one of … Continue reading Free 20thC Britain timeline

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CPD, diversity and inclusion, substantive knowledge, substantive knowledge, teacher knowledge, teaching and learning ideas, websites and publications

Revisiting Chartism: The importance of teaching about the ‘Black Man and his Party’

The Secondary Committee at the HA is keen to challenge and support all history teachers to teach about the rich and multi-faceted past. Gemma Hargraves (@History__Girls) has written this blogpost to help colleagues teaching Chartism. In it she provides some interpretations and ideas for resources. As she says: “this isn’t just about pupils seeing themselves in the narratives of the past; be they working class, black … Continue reading Revisiting Chartism: The importance of teaching about the ‘Black Man and his Party’

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curriculum and planning, GCSE and A level, KS3, subject leadership

Making sense of the past: history curriculum and the education inspection framework

Thanks to Heather Fearn, Inspector Curriculum and Professional Development Lead, Ofsted for this blogpost… What images come into your head when I say the word ‘Egyptians’? Probably multiple thoughts and ideas of pyramids, pharaohs and hieroglyphics. Or perhaps the word triggers more modern connotations? When I spoke at the Historical Association Annual Conference recently, as you might expect, I felt very assured of the audience’s … Continue reading Making sense of the past: history curriculum and the education inspection framework

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CPD, curriculum and planning, diversity and inclusion, GCSE and A level, historical scholarship, KS3, teacher knowledge, teaching and learning resources, websites and publications

Women’s Suffrage: history and citizenship resources for schools

When the Historical Association invited me and several other teachers to design new schemes of work for the website, we had two new resources upon which to draw. The first was the new and exciting scholarship that had emerged to coincide with the centenary, including works like Jane Robinson’s Hearts and Minds and Fern Riddell’s Death in Ten Minutes; the second a database designed by … Continue reading Women’s Suffrage: history and citizenship resources for schools

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beginning teacher, disciplinary knowledge, GCSE and A level, historical interpretations, historical scholarship, KS3, reading listening watching, speaking and listening, substantive knowledge, teacher knowledge, teaching and learning resources

Historians: short film clips

There is currently lots of really good practice around the use of historians’ work in classrooms. Last weekend at SHP a few of us were talking about how useful it would be to have a list of short clips of historians in one place. This list has been started and is shared here as a Google-Doc that can be accessed, added to and improved. Google … Continue reading Historians: short film clips

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beginning teacher, CPD, curriculum and planning, historical enquiry, subject leadership, teaching and learning ideas, teaching history

Ringing the changes: the power of enquiry questions that both chime and resonate

Enquiry questions – the back story! Editors’ note: Thanks to Hugh Richards for organising all of us and co-ordinating this post. His lovely tables had to be posted as screen-shots. The Word Doc of the same material is here: Enquiry Questions Continue reading Ringing the changes: the power of enquiry questions that both chime and resonate

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beginning teacher, KS3, sources and evidence, speaking and listening, teaching and learning ideas, teaching history

Building ‘Botheredness’ making reluctant learners care about History

Thanks so much to Carmel Bones for writing this blogpost. Carmel shares with us loads of great strategies for motivating our students. Why not have a go at some of these and also share some of your favourites? #OBHD  It might be surprising to discover that History is not everybody’s favourite subject?! And even if it is ‘building botheredness’ is still important to ensure learner … Continue reading Building ‘Botheredness’ making reluctant learners care about History

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KS3, local networks, subject leadership, teaching and learning ideas, teaching history

North of Scotch Corner – a cross country approach to developing explicit explanations

This blogpost describes a really effective school link up as a result of discussions at Teach Meet History Icons back in March 2018. Here, Martyn Bajkowski, HA Secondary Committee, describes how he and Alex Fairlamb, lead coordinator of TMHistoryIcons, worked together to motivate their students to put in effort and develop clarity with their historical explanations. A brilliant idea that is easily copied – thank … Continue reading North of Scotch Corner – a cross country approach to developing explicit explanations

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CPD, teacher knowledge, teaching history

History teachers’ sources of support – part 3 – TMHistoryIcons

Thanks to Alex Fairlamb and Andrew Sweet for this blogpost about the wonderful TMHistoryIcons. What a superb example of subject specialist community in action and the next in our series of blogposts about sources of support for history teachers: History and history teachers are at the heart of TMHistoryIcons, a not for profit organisation, founded by Tom Rogers four years ago. The philosophy of the … Continue reading History teachers’ sources of support – part 3 – TMHistoryIcons

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