Last summer my history team began the gargantuan task of revising our KS3 curriculum. When we had agreed bits I often shared our work on Twitter (I tweet under the stupid name @kenradical). I had posted our Year 7 overview one evening and Ben Walsh (@History_Ben) replied asking where the global history was. He was right, we had hardly any. The next day I went back … Continue reading Meanwhile, elsewhere – a great team effort!
In this year’s March issue of Teaching History, Helen Snelson wrote in the Secondary Committee pages about making a ‘connecting with historical scholarship’ resolution. Richard Kerridge has picked up this theme in his blog about his summer reading… Like most history teachers, and teachers of other subjects, I read a lot. I guess mainly it’s to increase my knowledge of a period or topic although … Continue reading What did you read this summer?
It’s Department Improvement Planning time in many schools. At Millthorpe School the History department have chosen to focus upon mapping where students at Key Stage 3 encounter specific substantive concepts, such as monarchy, parliament and church. They are focusing their planning on what the students are thinking rather than what they are doing. They started by highlighting where each concept appears on their current Key … Continue reading Planning substantive concepts over time
As history teachers we put a great deal of time and effort into our work to make learning about the past enjoyable, meaningful and relevant. One our greatest challenges is in finding out what to do when we start teaching a topic that is without joy and indeed especially horrific. The Holocaust and transatlantic slavery are the two topics that best fit this description and … Continue reading Rethinking how we teach about transatlantic slavery
The Historical Association at Stratford last weekend was a happy and enriching experience. So many people passionate about history teaching learning from each other. We had chance to update our subject knowledge, share great teaching strategies, think about progression, talk to examiners, find out about new resources, feel less alone… One session I was inspired by was Sally Burnham’s session (@salburnham) about teaching interpretations at … Continue reading Historians for your classroom – free resource!
I was talking to a scientist this week who told me a great story about Isidor Rabi who is a Nobel Prize winner for his work on nuclear magnetic resonance. Apparently, when Rabi was working on a device that created microwaves specifically for use with radar, someone in the group asked the pertinent question: How does it work? After much scratching of heads one member … Continue reading ‘Imagine it as a pizza…’ and other dodgy analogies!
Update Oct 22 with a Open Spotify playlist of history teacher subject knowledge podcasts created by a University of York PGCE trainee. This term’s Teaching History is on the topic of ‘Historians’. It’s full of ideas about ways to ensure that your students encounter historians in your History classroom. If you haven’t read your copy, and term is feeling crazy already, there’s the Bank Holiday … Continue reading Subject knowledge as you commute!
The Norman Conquest marked the start of a new long evolutionary process. Those living in The Middle Ages were sophisticated people. It was a time of building. Building not just in the sense of undertaking the construction of magnificent cathedrals and impregnable castles made from stone, but building ways of organising life, faith, government and society. If it’s time to refresh your teaching and build … Continue reading Fixed ideas about teaching the Feudal System? Time to change!
You might have seen @TomRogers writing in the TES this week about getting outside the classroom and doing history specific schools visits. Here at #OBHD we know from many years of experience the power of school trips. Tom is right when he says: “Educational visits in history have a special curriculum value and they don’t have to be super costly or tough to organise.” As … Continue reading Learning history outside the classroom
If you’re finding it difficult to teach students in any Key Stage what an argued piece of writing that offers a substantiated judgement looks like, you need to meet someone. She’s called the Old Lady in the Post Office and nothing I’ve tried has been more effective in helping students understand what a line of argument looks like when it runs throughout an essay. Here … Continue reading The Old Lady in the Post Office – how to teach writing a strong line of argument to any key stage
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