My Problem: My A-Level class are about to begin revising for the brand new A-Level. They need a decent set of revision notes but I do not have time to make fancy pants knowledge organisers. My Solution: Get the students to make a fully stocked revision website. Here’s how I did it at no cost (well except a bit of my time). Step 1: Create … Continue reading Getting the kids to make their own revision guide!
This week a post to help teach tricky concepts at GCSE… Left-wing and right-wing are not easy concepts for GCSE students. Every year I make my students laugh by pacing from side-to-side of my classroom being the political positions on an imaginary political line from left to right. I am not good at impersonations, but I try to put politicians on the line in a … Continue reading Substantive concepts: ‘Left-wing? Right-wing? Do you mean like in hockey, miss?’
Practical advice from a colleague wrestling with how to ensure students learn and retain sense of place… I’ve been working hard with my Year 11s to make their knowledge secure. This is so that they can feel confident forming their arguments, both in discussion in class and ultimately for their written answers in the exam. The new Making of America unit on the OCR SHP … Continue reading Building schema: Maps and Mnemonics
I am currently mentoring two Troops to Teachers – one for History, the other for RE. I think these subjects have a lot in common. One thing I know is that both trainees need to be on top of behaviour from the beginning of every lesson. That is helped enormously if they get the pupils into the class room in an orderly fashion and get … Continue reading Getting them in and getting them started
It was my TA that did it. Whilst working on a series of revision sessions for a small intervention group that I did not personally teach, and juggling a number of absences, I got into the habit of sending her what I had planned a day in advance. She would look things over and generally agree that what I had planned would be suitable, and … Continue reading Misconception, misconception, misconception!
This week we’re sharing a lovely resource, with thanks to Hugh Richards and the Huntington School York History Department. They are sharing with us the resources they give their students to explain thinking historically. This is the product of engrossing and lengthy discussions over several months, within and beyond their department. They enable clear classsroom conversations about what it means to think like a historian. … Continue reading Think like a historian!
Our students need to gain and retain a lot of knowledge if they are going to make progress in History. They need to be able to deploy that knowledge in an organised way. We have probably all taught students who have lots of factual knowledge, but who really struggle to organise that knowledge to use it to think historically. Being able to make links and … Continue reading Quite literally making links!
Here’s a good idea for helping your students by adapting a great idea for change and continuity to really engage with the course of a key character’s life. Teaching the Normans at GCSE has given me more time to spend on the rather interesting character of Edward the Confessor. I wanted students to know something of his life story but I didn’t want to get … Continue reading Signposting change in Edward the Confessor’s Life
Recently we’ve been trying to shake up how we use sources in our History lessons. We decided that our Key Stage 3 students might be getting the impression that sources are just something History teachers use to get them curious about an enquiry question. There’s nothing at all wrong with using a fascinating picture, artefact or intriguing text to get students’ engaged. However, historians don’t … Continue reading Knowledge to use sources as evidence
‘I don’t do dates’ is a frequent excuse used by my GCSE students and it shows in their written answers, which often lack specific subject knowledge. For the last two years’ our department has experimented with frequent, low stakes, testing of chronological knowledge. As suggested by Michael Fordham in his blogs on: Assessment Beyond Levels A list of key dates and facts can be set as … Continue reading Retaining knowledge: I don’t do dates!
OBHD 