Tag: empathy

substantive knowledge

The power and potential of Pratchett (for your History curriculum)

Thanks to Gemma Hargraves, deputy head of the Crypt School, Gloucester, and member of Secondary Committee for this blogpost focused on building students’ sense of period and place to help them imagine a past world with joy. With the increasing prominence of stories in history education, I wanted to make the case for the inclusion of one of Terry Pratchett’s stories in a KS3 curriculum. … Continue reading The power and potential of Pratchett (for your History curriculum)

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment1 Comment
diversity and inclusion, teaching and learning resources, teaching history

Resources for June – Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History month

This very short blogpost is to help spread the word about support and resources to help you take part in Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history month with your students. “Don’t teach nothing about Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history or culture. Makes you feel like no one understands.” This is a quote from a yong person that you can find in the Anti-Bullying Alliances 2019 report … Continue reading Resources for June – Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History month

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment1 Comment
curriculum and planning, diversity and inclusion, GCSE and A level, historic environment, KS3, local history, subject leadership, teaching history

Corners of foreign fields: ideas for making meaning and memory on a Battlefields Trips

Thanks to Hugh Richards, Head of History at Huntington School in York and leader of the HA’s Subject Leader Development Programme, for this blogpost. Hugh is a leading thinker about how to make history memorable and meaningful for young people, and he has a lot of experience in organising Battlefields Trips. Hopefully you will be inspired to get (back) to the Battlefields. This blog explains … Continue reading Corners of foreign fields: ideas for making meaning and memory on a Battlefields Trips

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment1 Comment
beginning teacher, disciplinary knowledge, historical interpretations, historical scholarship, teacher knowledge, teaching and learning ideas, teaching history

Smartphones and Mirrors: using presentisms constructively in the classroom.

Here, Jessie Phillips, History Teacher at Sawston Village College, takes her thinking about presentism in the history classroom further. She points out that this tendency to interpret the past through present values and concepts is used by historians as a conceptual scaffold. She challenges us to think about how presentism can help pupils make their own meanings out of history. She builds on David Armitage’s … Continue reading Smartphones and Mirrors: using presentisms constructively in the classroom.

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment1 Comment
disciplinary knowledge, KS3, sources and evidence, substantive knowledge

Saints and lice- unravelling the medieval past

Jessie Phillips, History Teacher at Sawston Village College, shares work that relates to cultural history/perspective but with a particular focus on the medieval. Her overarching ideas are based on Wineburg’s conception of finding the ‘familiar within the strange’ and the ‘strange within the familiar’ and using this approach she unravels the attitudes, ideas and values of people in the past. She also explores (very carefully) … Continue reading Saints and lice- unravelling the medieval past

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment1 Comment
historical literacy, KS3, reading listening watching

Bringing facts into the classroom through fiction

Thanks to Martyn Bajkowski, Head of History at Pleckgate High School and member of HA Secondary Committee for this blogpost. He encourages us to remember the joy of history and to use historical fiction to encourage our students. As someone with a surname that translates as ‘The son of a story teller’ it may not surprise you to learn that I love using stories in … Continue reading Bringing facts into the classroom through fiction

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment1 Comment
diversity and inclusion, subject leadership

It is time to update our Remembrance assemblies

Secondary Committee member Gemma Hargraves challenges us to think about Remembrance-tide afresh, to make it resonant for our pupils and to use stories of the past to support their knowledge of the people of today. Every year schools deliver Remembrance assemblies. Perhaps it’s the Headteacher, perhaps it’s the job of the History department. This time last year I wrote for One Big History Department about … Continue reading It is time to update our Remembrance assemblies

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment2 Comments
GCSE and A level, historic environment, local history

A Medieval Holiday

We are delighted to feature a blogpost from an A Level student that offers an insight into history learning beyond the classroom and how it raises achievement… While 2021 saw other people spending their ‘staycation’ at campsites or British beaches, one pupil spent several weekends camping inside a castle and on a battlefield! Melissa started doing Living History events in 2019, as part of the … Continue reading A Medieval Holiday

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment2 Comments
curriculum and planning, disciplinary knowledge, teacher knowledge

Inspiration about the most controversial of concepts: Empathy

Thanks to Dan Nuttall, who teaches history at Holy Cross College in Bury, for this blogpost. Dan continues our series where colleagues share how past Teaching History articles have made them think and encourage us to revisit them for ourselves.  Recently, I noticed that a decades-old debate between history educators had resurfaced on Twitter. The debate concerned whether it was appropriate or not to ask … Continue reading Inspiration about the most controversial of concepts: Empathy

Unknown's avataronebighistorydepartment1 Comment