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Main A Practical Guide to Teaching history in the Secondary School: Practical Guide to Teaching History (Routledge..
A Practical Guide to Teaching history in the Secondary School: Practical Guide to Teaching History (Routledge Teaching Guides)Martin Hunt
This practical workbook contains all the advice, guidance and resources new and student history teachers need to reflect on and develop their teaching practice, helping them to plan lessons across the subject in a variety of teaching situations. Helpful features include: case studies examples of pupils' work examples of existing good practice a range of tried-and-tested teaching strategies photocopiable resources and training materials activities in each chapter to help student history teachers analyze their learning and performance web links for further reading on evidence-based practice. Designed to be used independently or as an integrated extension of the popular textbook, Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School which provides detailed examples of theory in practice, this book is packed with examples of how to analyze practice to ensure maximized learning in the classroom.
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A Practical Guide to Teaching History in the Secondary School A Practical Guide to Teaching History in the Secondary School provides practical guidance, ideas and tasks to support trainee history teachers and their mentors. It will also help the development of imaginative lessons on aspects of history teaching in a variety of different content areas and teaching situations. Newly qualified and beginning teachers should also find it useful. This accessible workbook includes a range of features, designed to improve practical teaching skills, particularly in those areas of acknowledged concern and difficulty for the trainee history teacher. These features include: • • • • case studies examples of existing good practice a range of tried-and-tested strategies examples of the use of ICT Also provided is a wealth of helpful resources and training materials. Activities in each chapter provide a toolkit to help trainee history teachers analyse their learning and performance. The book has been designed to be written in directly, and so provide a useful record. This book complements and extends the best-selling textbook, Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School (also published by Routledge), providing detailed examples of theory in practice. The authors use their extensive experience of working in schools and with trainee history teachers to analyse and explain successful teaching approaches and show how current issues and debates influence decision making. In addition, this book has a companion website which provides further guidance, more exemplar material and links to further reading. This workbook will be invaluable to all trainee history teachers. Martin Hunt was a Principal Lecturer and PGCE Secondary Course Leader at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Routledge Teaching Guides Series Editors: Susan Capel and Marilyn Leask Other titles in the series: A Practical Guide to Teaching Physical Education in the Secondary School Edited by Susan Capel, Peter Breckon and Jean O'Neill A Practical Guide to Teaching Modern Foreign Languages in the Secondary School Edited by Norbert Pachler and Ana Redondo A Practical Guide to Teaching Citizenship in the Secondary School Edited by Liam Gearon A Practical Guide to Teaching ICT in the Secondary School Edited by Steve Kennewell These Practical Guides have been designed as companions to Learning to Teach (subject) in the Secondary School. For further information on the Routledge Teaching Guides series please visit our website at www.routledge.com/education A Practical Guide to Teaching History in the Secondary School Edited by Martin Hunt First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. "To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk." Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2007 Martin Hunt, selection and editorial matter; individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 10: 0–415–37024–8 (pbk) ISBN 10: 0–203–02983–6 (ebk) ISBN 13: 978–0–415–37024–0 (pbk) ISBN 13: 978–0–203–02983–1 (ebk) Contents Series editors' introduction List of illustrations Notes on contributors Acknowledgements 1 Introduction vii ix xi xiii 1 MARTIN HUNT 2 Why learn history? 3 MARTIN HUNT 3 Planning 15 GAIL WAKE AND MARTIN HUNT 4 Learning strategies and approaches 27 SIMON GOODWIN 5 Role play as active history 37 STEVE GUSCOTT 6 Teaching causal reasoning 49 CHRISTOPHER CHAMBERS 7 Teaching historical interpretations 59 YVONNE SINCLAIR 8 Ensuring inclusion in the classroom 70 ALISON STEPHEN 9 ICT: using presentation technology 81 BILL SMITH 10 Peer assessment 90 IAN DICKSEE AND MARTIN HUNT Bibliography Index 99 103 v Series Editors' Introduction This practical and accessible workbook is part of a series of textbooks for student teachers. It complements and extends the popular textbook entitled Learning to Teach in the Secondary School: A Companion to School Experience, as well as the subject-specific textbook Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School. We anticipate that you will want to use this book in conjunction with these other books. Teaching is rapidly becoming a more research- and evidence-informed profession. We have used research and professional evidence about what makes good practice to underpin the 'Learning to Teach in the Secondary School' series and these practical workbooks. Both the generic and subject-specific book in the series provide theoretical, research and professional evidence-based advice and guidance to support you as you focus on developing aspects of your teaching or your pupils' learning as you progress through your initial teacher education course and beyond. This book aims to reinforce your understanding of aspects of your teaching, support you in aspects of your development as a teacher and your teaching and enable you to analyse your success as a teacher in maximising pupils' learning by focusing on practical applications. The practical activities in this book can be used in a number of ways. Some activities are designed to be undertaken by you individually, others as a joint task in pairs and yet others as group work working with, for example, other student teachers or a school- or universitybased tutor. Your tutor may use the activities with a group of student teachers. The book has been designed so that you can write directly into it. In England, new ways of working for teachers are being developed through an initiative remodelling the school workforce. This may mean that you have a range of colleagues to support in your classroom. They also provide an additional resource on which you can draw. In any case, you will, of course, need to draw on additional resources to support your development and the Learning to Teach in the Secondary School, 4th edition website (http://www. routledge.com/textbooks/0415363926) lists key websites for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. For example, key websites relevant to teachers in England include the Teacher Training Resource Bank (www.ttrb.ac.uk). Others include: www.teachernet.gov.uk which is part of the DfES schools web initiative; www.becta.org.uk, which has ICT resources; and www.qca.org.uk which is the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority website. We do hope that this practical workbook will be useful in supporting your development as a teacher. Susan Capel Marilyn Leask May 2006 vii List of illustrations FIGURES 2.1 3.1 4.1 6.1 6.2 The slave trade and its abolition Four block model of objectives Mind map of trenches in the First World War Mind map of initial stimulus material Venn diagram of underlying reasons for the war 10 16 34 52 57 TABLES 6.1 7.1 8.1 8.2 9.1 Differentiating resources Assessment of sources Examples of starters using pictures Methods of differentiation Examples of starters using ICT 54 65 71 75 84 ix Contributors Christopher Chambers is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, teaching PGCE trainees. He was previously Head of Humanities at Prestwich High School, Bury. Ian Dicksee was Head of History and Quality Manager at Henbury High School, Macclesfield, and professional and subject mentor for Manchester Metropolitan University, before taking up his teaching post in Cyprus. Simon Goodwin is Head of Humanities at Great Sankey High School, Warrington with 12 years' experience as a subject mentor for Manchester Metropolitan University. Steve Guscott is Head of History and Citizenship at St James' Catholic Humanities College, Cheadle Hulme, Stockport. Martin Hunt was a Principal Lecturer in Education and PGCE Secondary Course Leader at Manchester Metropolitan University. Yvonne Sinclair is a Senior Lecturer in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, teaching PGCE trainees, and having previously taught in schools in Oldham. Bill Smith teaches history at Westhoughton High School, Bolton. He was a lecturer in medieval history at the Universities of Manchester and Sheffield. He is lead teacher in history for Bolton LEA. Alison Stephen is Head of History at Abraham Moss High School, Manchester, a school where 60 per cent of its pupils have EAL with 59 languages spoken. She previously taught history in Budapest, a grammar school and a comprehensive school. She also contributes to the PGCE course at Manchester Metropolitan University. Gail Wake was an AST and history teacher at Buile Hill High School, Salford, working with history departments across the LEA to promote quality history teaching. She is now KS3 co-ordinator in History at St. Mary's Catholic H. S, Wigan. xi Acknowledgements The editor would like to acknowledge with thanks the additional contributions of Christopher Chambers, Simon Goodwin, Ryder Hargreaves, Terry Haydn, Yvonne Sinclair, Alison Stephen and Lisa Whitby to this book. xiii Chapter 1 Introduction MARTIN HUNT In learning to teach history, the trainee teacher will experience a range of concerns, which change over the course of the training year; some are general to trainees of all subjects, others are specifically related to history and will differ from one person to another. This book attempts to offer guidance towards meeting the subject-specific concerns that surface during the course of the year. Also important is the work of practising teachers who also have experience of working as mentors with trainees. A book of this size has to be selective and no attempt has been made to cover several important areas such as post-16 teaching. The focus is rather on those years of the secondary school likely to involve the trainees for most of their time and the subject-specific challenges they are likely to face. To a degree, the sequence of chapters follows that of Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School, 2nd edn (also published by Routledge). However, this book confines itself to the practical dimension with an emphasis on activities for the trainee while offering practical advice. While all chapters could be of use to trainees at any time, it is intended that the first three chapters concentrate more on the concerns of the early stages of the training year, while the rest offer guidance for that time when the trainees feel more comfortable in the classroom. Thus the chapters range from the beginner's concerns with exposition and presenting a historical narrative, teaching content that they always thought uninspiring, identifying appropriate objectives, questioning, setting purposeful tasks and group work to the more sophisticated challenges of planning for inclusion, differentiation, teaching a second-order concept such as causation, historical interpretations and their significance and using formative assessment, several of which continue to challenge more established teachers. A further strand of the book is an attempt to encourage the trainee to use a range of approaches within a selection from larger topics; hence concentration on role play, presentation technology and peer assessment. All chapters contain exemplar material but most curriculum materials, which support the chapters have been placed on the companion website http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415370240. While it is not intended to present 'off the shelf' lessons, such examples show the application of general principles into the everyday practice of experienced teachers. Thus the book is both a practical guide and a workbook. The activities are intended to complement exercises already offered by a course and to be used usually as part of the trainee's schoolbased work. They are designed to help trainees clarify their thoughts about the issues and the approaches they will meet, especially current debates and challenges of teaching history, to reflect on what is seen and done in the secondary school and to encourage experimentation. It is hoped that they will also help history subject mentors in their work with the trainees. While most chapters present a mixture of activities, they also reflect the separate individuality of the authors with their own ideas and enthusiasms. Even so, several themes recur across the chapters, which are of significance for the trainee history teacher. These include 1 MARTIN HUNT the necessity of ensuring students possess adequate historical knowledge before moving on to consider the second-order concepts; the need for precision and clarity in the articulation of objectives and outcomes to promote a better quality of learning and the assessment of that learning. Several authors stress and illustrate the importance of starters in lessons, the use of key questions, the relationship of lessons to larger themes and, as several exemplar lessons allocate what seems a generous amount of time to a topic, the conviction that this is time well spent if historical understanding is developed. The activities and ideas in the book are there for you to develop and apply to different content and contexts. Some will probably work at once but others will need refining. There are times when even the best-planned lesson does not meet your expectations, but do not be too hard on yourself, as some very able trainee teachers sometimes are. Think about the approach, analyse it, adjust and try again. Good luck! 2 Chapter 2 Why learn history? MARTIN HUNT INTRODUCTION There will be times when you feel you have to explain the value of learning history in the secondary school to a variety of people: senior staff, colleagues teaching other subjects, parents and your pupils, so it is important that you have a good grasp of the varied aims of history (see Haydn, Arthur and Hunt, 2001, Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School, Routledge, p. 20). However, here the concern is confined to establishing the value of learning history in the eyes of your pupils. Pupils need to know the answer to the question 'Why are we doing this?', especially if they are considering taking history beyond the age of 14 (see Biddulph and Adey, 2003). You need to have thought through those aims in such a way that they are easily understood by the pupils. Furthermore, the process of such articulation at the level of individual lessons, or a series of lessons, not only will clarify in your own mind what you are trying to achieve but will also enable you to emphasise those aims in the way in which you construct and deliver the lesson. Vagueness of purpose can lead to uninspiring lessons. Chapter aims By the end of the chapter you should be able to: • • • • • select from a variety of aims for the teaching of history those which are particularly related to a specific lesson or series of lessons; be precise in identifying the range of key concepts, which are fundamental to the learning of history within a lesson or series of lessons; be able to articulate the aims of history in everyday language, accessible to most secondary school pupils; be able to identify the key skills, i.e. communication, number, ICT, problem solving, learning to work with others, that require further development in a lesson or series of lessons; show how a history lesson or series of lessons has significance, noting precisely how events and issues in the past contribute to pupils' understanding of the world in which they live. 3 MARTIN HUNT THE VALUE OF LEARNING HISTORY www In this chapter, the focus will be on the value of learning history as it emerges from individual lessons. We begin by considering a couple of lessons on the Agricultural Revolution for a Year 8 or 9 class. This topic has been chosen as an example because in recent years there has been a tendency for trainee history teachers to view this topic as being dry and dull in the same way as the Industrial Revolution. One recent trainee wrote, in a questionnaire asking trainees to identify the challenges they had faced, of the difficulty of 'getting pupils to understand the relevance of farming in the eighteenth century to today's modern world', while admitting that his own lack of enthusiasm for the topic would not have helped. Thus there is a real challenge to trainees to realise just how relevant a topic such as the Agricultural Revolution can be to the development of the pupils' historical understanding. Without such conviction, lessons on the topic would indeed be dry and perfunctory. The contention here is that this topic offers plenty of scope for interesting and lively lessons and moreover provides good examples of why pupils should learn history. The two lessons involve the class using information to advise a fictitious farmer on how he could achieve the profits from his farm to improve his lifestyle. The two lessons used 13 PowerPoint slides and worksheets. For the curriculum material associated with these lessons, see: http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415370240 EXEMPLAR LESSON ONE 4 Starter Using the PowerPoint presentation, the class is presented with a decisionmaking exercise involving a tenant farmer, Jacob Newmarch, in the early eighteenth century. Slides 2, 3 and 4 describe his situation, his farming and his ambitions. The information on these slides may also be presented in a handout. Phase 2 Slide 5 shows Jacob's balance sheet for 1725. Pupils have a copy of this on a worksheet. After the items have been explained, pupils, using calculators, work out the total costs and sales and discover the annual profit. Differentiation is achieved by giving more or less information. Phase 3 Slide 6 moves the story on to 1730. The price of grain has fallen although costs and the yield per acre remain the same. The class work out, again with the information on the worksheet, details of the new sales and profit figures and realise Jacob faces a real threat to his ambitions, even to his livelihood. Phase 4 Jacob has a crisis. What can he do? In groups, pupils have five minutes to work out 'a business plan' at first without using textbooks. Then, using textbooks, they look for other suggestions. Each group needs to be able to present a six-point business plan for Jacob. Plenary Teacher fields responses and summarises what has been covered. WHY LEARN HISTORY? EXEMPLAR LESSON TWO Starter Recap Jacob's problems (slide 6) and the suggested improvements summarised on slide 7. Phase 2 Distribute second pupil worksheet. This includes a new balance sheet (slide 8), noting the increased costs but also the greatly increased yield from 12 bushels per acre to 24. (A bushel = 1⁄4 hundredweight or 28 lbs.) Pupils calculate the new income and profit. Can Jacob now meet his ambitions? Phase 3 Brief survey of pasture farming changes, using textbook. Phase 4 Matters arising: developing historical understanding Using notes on their worksheets, pupils in pairs suggest reasons for the farming improvements. Give target of five reasons. Field answers (slide 9 has some, there could be others). Ask supplementary related questions. What was the most important reason? Was there one single cause that would have produced these changes? Pupils note the points on the worksheet. Phase 5 Developing historical understanding Pupils asked to consider what the consequences of the changes were (slide 10). Question and answer to tease out five or six consequences, noting their long-term effects and thus their continuing impact. Pupils make notes. Plenary Developing historical understanding Show completed slide 11 (details on pupil worksheet 2). Explain each of the points in turn linked to 'why learn history?'. Set written work (slide 12). When these lessons were given to three mixed ability Year 9 classes in an inner city comprehensive, the teacher's preparation involved the simplification of some of the language on the slides, the addition of a couple of pictures and also the creation of a final slide (no. 13), which was printed as a helpsheet for less able pupils. Additionally and crucially a set of calculators was borrowed from the mathematics department. In their response the pupils were able to say why we sometimes need to be able to use numbers in history. Both the teacher and the class said that they had found it useful to focus on the problems facing one individual and the pupils showed that they did understand the significance of the agricultural changes. The following two activities consider two issues that arise from these lessons. Activity 2.1 Focusing on an individual Focusing on one individual and his family helped to make the changes in agriculture more meaningful to the pupils than generalised statements. Using your school's history department syllabus or a textbook with social and economic topics, try to identify other content areas, usually involving changing circumstances, which could similarly benefit from a focus on an individual family. In each case, consider how this approach would help you to explain the reasons for studying the topic. 5 MARTIN HUNT Activity 2.2 Use of numeracy In Numeracy across the Curriculum (DfEE, 2001), the DfEE has been encouraging subjects across the secondary curriculum to reinforce pupils' numeracy skills, e.g. Arithmetic, graphs and charts. Numeracy can play a part as a useful tool in the provision of stimulating history lessons and often can be used to draw out the significance of an event. 1 2 Consider in turn how the following National Curriculum topics could include such skills often through developing pupils' understanding of the economic factors that affect people in different classes of society and the impact of economic and technological developments on people at different times in the past: (i) nineteenth-century working and living conditions; (ii) decline of the handloom weavers; (iii) disease in the industrial town; (iv) factory and coal owners' profits. Read Ian Phillips (2002), 'History : Mathematics or History with Mathematics: does it add up?' How does he show the way the use of numeracy in history can be used to emphasise the significance of an event as well as the importance of studying the topic? See also Davies et al. (2003), Enlivening Secondary History: 40 Classroom Activities for Teachers and Pupils, also published by Routledge, for a set of activities using numeracy, as well as other examples on the website. After reading the details about the two lessons and the information on the PowerPoint slides, you are now in a position to attempt three associated activities. RELATING AIMS TO SPECIFIC LESSONS In the past 30 or more years many lists of school aims have appeared and over these years different emphases have been given to those aims. At times they have been subject to lengthy and sometimes acrimonious debate (see Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School, 2nd edn, Routledge, Chapter 2, for more on this debate). This book places emphasis on the more practical application of these aims. Activity 2.3 includes one of the lists of aims, the nine purposes of school history produced by the History Working Group in 1988 in anticipation of the National Curriculum. These are all worthy aims and some teachers will rate some more highly than others. Yet for you as a trainee teacher, their generality could limit their value. It is therefore a useful exercise to go through each one in turn and to ask 'What does this really mean in terms of the lessons I give to 9Y?' Certainly, the language of the general aims is not what you could use to answer a pupil asking the question, 'Why learn history?' And yet in order to have that precision of intent and conviction of value so necessary for a successful teacher, you need to be able to unpack these aims so they are more precise and can be expressed in everyday language accessible to most secondary students. The second and third parts of this activity make use of the lessons on the Agricultural Revolution. The aim of these exercises is to help you to make the connections between these general aims and specific lessons. Hopefully you will find the lessons can connect to more of the aims than you might have first realised and that in turn enhances your appreciation of what you are teaching and why it is important to learn history. 6 WHY LEARN HISTORY? Activity 2.3 Relating aims to specific lessons Nine purposes of school history 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 To help understand the present in the context of the past. To arouse interest in the past. To help to give pupils a sense of identity. To help give pupils an understanding of their own cultural roots and shared inheritance. To contribute to the pupils' knowledge and understanding of other countries and other cultures in the modern world. To train the mind by means of disciplined study. To introduce pupils to the distinctive methodology of historians. To encourage other areas of the curriculum. To prepare pupils for adult life. (History Working Group 1988 ) Go through each of the nine purposes in turn and try to work out what these aims could mean in precise terms and in words, which are accessible to the majority of secondary school pupils. Using the above list of aims, select those which you think are applicable to the two Agricultural Revolution lessons, noting at which place that aim is being addressed. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 3 Are there any other aims, not on this list, which you think show the importance of learning history? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ CATEGORISING OUTCOMES The aim of Activity 2.4 is to develop your ability to identify and to categorise the various learning outcomes that can result from history lessons. You are asked to proceed through each of the phases of the two lessons on the Agricultural Revolution and to decide how that phase contributes to specific learning outcomes. For this task the outcomes are divided into three main areas – knowledge, key concepts and key skills – but you need to be precise about what knowledge, which key concepts and which key skills are being addressed by that phase. These three areas of knowledge, concepts and skills may be said to be at the heart of why we learn history; all are important and debates about the pre-eminence of one area over another obscure the reality of their interrelatedness. Before you begin to complete Activity 2.4, it may be helpful to make a few comments about these three areas. 7 MARTIN HUNT Activity 2.4 Categorising outcomes 1 Identify the specific learning outcomes that arise from each phase. Lesson One Knowledge Key Concepts Key Skills Knowledge Key Concepts Key Skills Phase 1 2 3 4 5 Lesson Two Phase 2 3 4 (i) 4 (ii) 4 (iii) 2 8 Try to identify what is unique about these two lessons that would not be covered by any other subject in the National Curriculum. WHY LEARN HISTORY? Activity 2.3 continued 3 Write an explanation in no more than 100 words of what the pupils are gaining from these two lessons in language that you think would be accessible to the majority of secondary school pupils. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Knowledge Consider the range of knowledge covered. This includes not just the broad terms such as the open field system but also new words such as Land Tax, bushel and fallow, and possibly new substantive concepts, in this case, many economic ones, such as profit, income, investment. It is important that you are aware of what new knowledge your pupils are to acquire in advance so that you will not make assumptions and will have thought through your explanation. In considering the nature of subject knowledge it is also useful if you have become familiar with the areas of knowledge and understanding related to subject knowledge as specified in the Revised Standards (http://tda.gov.uk/teachers/professional standards.aspx). Key concepts For the completion of this column of Activity 2.4, you will need to consider what are the key concepts in the learning of history (see Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School, 2nd edn, Routledge, Chapters 5 and 6, where these are discussed comprehensively). For the purposes of this exercise you will be looking to see how each phase can contribute to extending pupils' historical understanding about time and chronology, about the characteristic features of the past, cause and consequence, change and continuity, interpretations, evidence and historical significance. 9 MARTIN HUNT Key skills A more recent development in the changing curriculum has been the stipulation that all subjects should contribute to the development of 'key skills'. These include communication, number, ICT, problem solving, 'learning to learn' and 'learning to work with others'. One further area not covered by the activity concerns the contribution the learning of history could make to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils. However, the two lessons on the Agricultural Revolution could raise interesting questions such as 'Has Jacob Newmarch enhanced the quality of life not just for himself but also for his community? Was there more than self-interest involved?' LINKING A TOPIC TO OUTCOMES Activity 2.5 helps you to link a topic to learning outcomes for the pupils. The example of the abolition of the slave trade, while showing the range of such outcomes, includes further social and moral issues. Activity 2.5 Linking a topic to outcomes Study Figure 2.1, which shows a range of outcomes for the pupil, which could ensue from the study of the slave trade and its abolition. JUDGEMENT Slavers' motives and arguments to justify their trade. Could they have known better? WIDER PICTURE Black Peoples of America; Slavery; Civil War; Cotton Liverpool/Bristol Trade; Religious Revival PEOPLE IN GROUPS Slave traders; merchants Quakers; Evangelicals THE SLAVE TRADE and its ABOLITION ROLE OF THE INDIVIDUAL Clarkson, Wilberforce, Sharp CONCEPT/ISSUES Slavery; Freedom, Liberty Profit; Use of Public Opinion Cheap Labour EVIDENCE Diaries, diagrams, poems, pottery Speeches, pamphlets Figure 2.1 The slave trade and its abolition 1 2 3 10 Take a topic, which you will be teaching and try to construct a similar diagram based on that topic. How could you adapt the diagram you have constructed to indicate to the pupils why they have studied that topic? How could you use the information from your diagram to explain to an adult (parent, governor, headteacher) the value of studying such a topic? WHY LEARN HISTORY? DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN CONSEQUENCES AND SIGNIFICANCE Activity 2.6 highlights the importance of emphasising the value of each individual topic that is studied. The message is that, having made pupils aware of the principal details of a topic, this is not the time to move on to the next topic, but the time to reinforce the learning by concentrating the pupils' minds on those key concepts, which are related to the topic. Always remember the 'matters arising'! In this regard, such applications as reasons for change, most important cause, choice of one single cause that would have brought about change are well established. Less so are those of consequence and significance and yet in considering the question 'Why learn history?', these have a vital part to play. They are challenging to teach, but every effort should be made to develop them (see Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School, 2nd edn, Routledge, pp. 26–7, 119–23). Having taught the Agricultural Revolution lessons, the teacher was to return to the topic after the study of the Industrial Revolution to help reinforce pupils' overview of the topic, to help them to see the big picture, showing a topic can have significance for times other than today. In completing the exercise you may not always agree with the inclusion of some of the statements and may have better alternatives. You may also find that the distinction between consequence and significance is not always clear and this may prompt useful discussion with tutors, mentors and fellow trainees. Activity 2.6 Distinguishing between consequences and significance 1 Tick the appropriate column to indicate whether the statements below describe the consequences of changes in agriculture or the significance of those changes. Statement Consequence Significance Increased food production Helped Britain to become the first major industrial nation Improved the nation's health Shows the value of investment to reap, literally, a reward Shows the value of encouraging invention and preparedness for change More people were available for non-farming work, e.g. industry Showed that wealth creation in one area leads to better employment all round Revived the rural economy not just for farmers but others such as blacksmiths and millers Showed the value of spreading new ideas Changed the landscape with hedges, fences, walls, farmhouses built away from the village Showed how changes occur because of the variety of pressures, e.g. personal ambition, invention, economic necessity. 11 MARTIN HUNT Activity 2.6 continued 2 Enter your choices of 'significance' in the left-hand column and then try to think of present-day examples of the same statement. Significance of the study of the Agricultural Revolution for the present day Present-day Examples The aim of the second exercise in this activity is to encourage you to continue to think about that relationship between the historical topic being studied and the present. Thus, in the case of the exemplar lessons, it is important for pupils to develop further their understanding of current developments such as the impact of new inventions and technology on local employment and communities and how people responded to those changes. LINKING PAST AND PRESENT This final activity pursues further the linking of past and present as an aid to answering the question, 'Why learn history?' 12 WHY LEARN HISTORY? Activity 2.7 Linking past and present High on the list of aims for the teaching and learning of history is the claim that the subject helps students to understand the present from the study of the past. It is always useful to be able to link the topics you teach to the present. It need not be an ephemeral exercise as, often sadly, the same topics recur and can be built into your planning of starters and plenaries. 1 Using television Ceefax or Teletext select a series of items over a few days and (a) work out the wider issue, the bigger picture to which it belongs, and (b) work out the historical links and themes. Three are completed below as examples. News item Wider issues Historical links A&E Depts. warned over care Role of the state; NHS; private medicine. Costs of provision Provision of care for the ill and injured in earlier times; development of hospitals; growth of the welfare state Race to save 102 Chinese miners in flooded mine Use of energy resources; Dangers of mining Dangers of mining – water, gas etc., Mines Act 1842; Child and female labour; Changing sources of energy Space shuttle return held up 24 hours Technological advances; pioneering, exploration Impact of technological change; dangers to explorers; achievements of pioneers 2 Discuss with your mentor the potential value of compiling a file of newspaper articles. 13 MARTIN HUNT Strategies for emphasising the purpose of studying a topic include: 1 2 3 4 Placing the topic in the wider context, e.g. the effect of technical change on the livelihood of individual and communities. Identifying the learning of new words, new ideas, concepts and their use today. Giving imaginative written work, e.g. Jacob Newmarch writes an article for Annals of Agriculture encouraging others to do what he did. Re-visiting. Returning to the topic after later ones have been covered, using diagrams and possibly a concept map to show the bigger picture. SUMMARY This chapter has considered the question 'Why learn history?' and some of the reasons have arisen from the exemplar lessons, but not all. Little reference has been made to two aspects, use of evidence and interpretations, which are very important in answering that question. These are covered later in the book. You will find particularly in the early stages of your training that you are very preoccupied with the knowledge aspect of your teaching but do not let this distract you from the need to be aware of that tripartite combination of knowledge, concepts and skills. Due attention to the last two could well encourage a more imaginative approach to your lessons, while total concentration on knowledge could produce the opposite. You should note the value of taking the opportunity, where appropriate, of explaining why the pupils are learning a particular topic and be prepared to do so in a way the pupils will understand. Finally, you might consider the value of including in your lesson plans the identification of the significance of the topic being studied at least to yourself, showing how it can relate to events and issues in today's world. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My thanks go to Alison Stephen for teaching the lessons on the agricultural changes at Abraham Moss High School, Manchester. FURTHER READING Counsell, C. (2004) 'Looking through a Josephine Butler shaped window: focusing pupils' thinking on historical significance', Teaching History 114. Evans, R.J. (1997) In Defence of History, London: Granta Books. Hunt, M. (2000) 'Teaching historical significance', Chapter 4 in J. Arthur and R. Phillips (eds) Issues in History Teaching, London: Routledge. Husbands, C. (1996) What Is History Teaching? Language, Ideas and Meaning in Learning about the Past, Buckingham: Open University Press. 14 Chapter 3 Planning GAIL WAKE AND MARTIN HUNT INTRODUCTION It would be an exaggeration to claim that the various challenges trainee teachers experience in the classroom can all be attributed to inadequate planning. Situations are more complex than that. However, it is possible to argue that many difficulties can be eliminated or substantially reduced by good planning. Trainee teachers will be mostly concerned with short-term planning, particularly in the early stages of a course, and then the medium-term planning as the course progresses to placement in another school. In the later stages it is more likely you will be given greater freedom to use your initiative in the planning of your lessons. The aim of this chapter is to offer some guidance for both short- and medium-term planning with associated activities, which you could use to help you with this planning. The experiences of tutors, mentors and indeed HMI have shown that a recurrent and prevailing problem is the difficulty some trainees have in 'thinking through' their lesson planning from the initial statement of an objective or outcome right through to the confirmation that all, or most, of the students have achieved the intended outcome. At their worst, lesson plans have one, vague statement of content or objectives, which have little connection with the rest of the lesson or with what actually takes place. The challenge is fourfold. It involves: 1 2 3 4 the formulation of precise objectives; the linking of an objective or outcome to specific phases and tasks within the lesson or tracking an objective; the assessment of whether an objective or outcome has been achieved; the planning either to remedy any limited achievement or to reinforce the learning that has taken place. Chapter aims By the end of this chapter you should be able to: • • • formulate precise lesson objectives; ensure that your lesson objectives are clearly linked to specific phases and tasks within the lesson; plan the ways by which you can determine whether your objectives have been achieved; 15 GAIL WAKE AND MARTIN HUNT • • understand how to plan and develop resources for a unit of interrelated lessons, which includes overarching skills and understanding, has a variety of approaches and the assessment of progress; devise ways of evaluating your planning. SHORT-TERM PLANNING There are many factors involved in successful planning and many issues to consider. The breadth of these is well documented in Chapter 3 of Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School, 2nd edn, Routledge, 2001. Here we seek to emphasise the importance of precise thinking in your lesson planning, the ability to think through a lesson. You have been given a topic to teach to a class. Having researched the topic, checked how it is treated in available textbooks and available resources, the ability range of the class, the first challenge you have to meet is working out the objectives or the intended outcomes of your lesson. As you begin this, you need to have some rough preliminary ideas about the phases of the lesson, your role, what the students will be doing and what resources you are likely to use and/or to create. Selecting and formulating objectives The key word is again 'precision'. Problems can occur when this is missing. For example, a phrase such as 'to look at a picture' is not very helpful. It does not indicate why pupils are looking at the picture and is certainly too vague to present any opportunity for assessing either understanding or skill. Even statements such as 'to develop source skills' are too vague. It can be argued that useful objectives can be built into a basic model of four blocks or phrases (Figure 3.1). THE STEM THE INFINITIVE OR ACTION WORD CONTENT DETAILS METHOD OF ACHIEVEMENT Figure 3.1 Four block model of objectives Activity 3.1 helps you to identify your lesson objectives. Activity 3.1 Identifying objectives In the early days of your placement, before you observe a lesson, ask the history teacher to write down the objectives of the lesson but not show them to you. While observing the lesson and using the guidance which follows, try to work out what you think are the objectives of the lesson. After the lesson, compare and discuss the two lists. 16 PLANNING The stem The stem refers to the group of words you can use to begin every statement of objective. If you are producing duplicated lesson plan proformas, these can be built in to reduce the time you spend on lesson planning. Usual items are: To enable the pupils to . . . At the end of the lesson the students should be able to . . . Such stems ensure your focus is on your expectations of the pupils and should prevent a mixture of objectives for the teacher as well as those for the pupils. Though important, it is better to keep separate the objectives for your own learning and achievement. The infinitive or action words These words are crucial to your precise thinking. Avoid statements such as 'to be aware of'. Some will be less tangible than others because of their limited means of assessment, e.g. a class recalling events by giving oral answers or those that relate to developing understanding of attitudes and values over a period of time, which again are not easy to assess. Even so, there is a wide selection of infinitives available to you and accurate selection will clarify what you may be trying to do in any given phase of a lesson. Activity 3.2 encourages you to assess the utility or otherwise of a range of action words, which in turn should help you to think through the whole of your lesson plan. Vague words could lead to indecision in the classroom. Activity 3.2 Choosing action words Precision in lesson planning can be a challenge for the trainee teacher especially in the early stages of a course. Vagueness can lead to ill-conceived lessons and often that is associated with not thinking through the specific activities you are asking of the pupils, hence the importance of action words. Get these right and that usually helps you to work out the pupil activities. Below is a list of 24 verbs, stating what the lesson should enable the pupils to do. Some are very much more useful than others in formulating helpful objectives. Try to identify those which you think are too vague and would not easily enable you to assess their success. Underline Evaluate Identify Notice Study Read Digest Examine Discuss Compare Understand Ponder Watch Analyse Sort Recall Consider Write Choose Show Draw Measure Listen Know 17 GAIL WAKE AND MARTIN HUNT Content details 'Content' here means 'material to be taught'. This could be historical information, e.g. 'the main phases of the French Revolution' or historical understanding, e.g. 'the background of the author of an interpretation', or a precise skill, e.g. 'the sufficiency of a source for the study of a topic'. Content could also describe practical skills such as drawing a time-line or making a summary within a specified word limit. Method of achievement This fourth block in the model describes the means by which the objective or outcome is to be achieved, as for example in 'by creating a time-chart'. This emphasises the importance of selecting methods or learning experiences, which are appropriate for the other three parts of the basic model. How many objectives? Given the wide variety of objectives available for selection, how many would you need for a lesson? This will vary according to the ability of the class, the length of the lesson and how selective you are about what you want to emphasise. As a general principle, you may find it practicable to restrict the number to about five or six objectives for a lesson lasting an hour to 70 minutes. These are likely to be a mixture though often there will be three main categories: www 1 2 3 Content-based objectives, including subject specific objectives. Objectives, which seek to extend students' historical understanding. Objectives relating to the students' ability to organise and communicate. There is a detailed objectives/outcomes 'bank' available and exemplar lesson plans on http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415370240 Tracking an objective through a lesson Even the most precise objectives are of little use if they are not related to what actually happens in the classroom, so it is important that your lesson plan shows exactly where a specified objective will be addressed within the lesson. A common practice is to indicate alongside your description of the phase of a lesson, which objective is being met at that point. Assessing the objectives A characteristic of most objectives, though not all, is that they are capable of being assessed. Assessment is a vast, complex and at times in history, inexact activity. It is important as part of your lesson planning that you think through how you intend to assess whether your students have achieved the desired outcomes, although this will not necessarily be possible within the lesson itself but quite often after written work has been completed. In the later discussion of lesson evaluations, on p. 24, we will return to planning for assessing the quality of the learning achieved in lessons, remedying limited achievement and reinforcing what has been learned. In Activity 3.3, you are asked to consider the merits and limitations of four approaches to evaluating your objectives. 18 PLANNING Activity 3.3 Evaluating the achievement of your objectives It is tempting to make assumptions about the extent to which your pupils achieve what you intended. Build into a succession of lessons that you have been asked to give the four examples of assessment and for each consider their merits and limitations as a means of finding out if your objectives have been achieved. Discuss with your mentor your conclusions about their reliability and validity. 1 Whole class question and answer in the end of lesson plenary. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 2 Pupils creating diagrammatic or pictorial representations of knowledge and concepts, e.g. mind maps, graphs. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 3 Written work: answering questions in simple sentences using information in the textbook or a duplicated sheet. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 4 Written work: writing an imaginative piece in which they write from the point of view of a participant in an event. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ MEDIUM-TERM PLANNING Following a successful first placement, most trainee teachers will be hoping to develop their medium-term planning skills at their next school. A longer second placement offers the opportunity to attempt planning in a more 'joined-up' way, employing a greater range of different activities within each lesson than you may have delivered at your first school. Medium-term planning demands that you craft separate lessons within a cohesive unit that also fits neatly into the school's overarching long-term plan for the Key Stage which might also encompass the wider issues of literacy, numeracy, ICT, assessment for learning and citizenship. You will also use a variety of strategies to allow all pupils to achieve their best work. Increasingly the focus shifts towards the quality of learning taking place in your classroom as well as your own performance (see Activity 3.4). Quality medium-term planning balances the need to maintain the interest of your students while adding rigour to your teaching. 19 GAIL WAKE AND MARTIN HUNT Activity 3.4 Matching content to key elements Using the History department's programme of content to be covered at KS3, try to identify which topics would be most suitable for the delivery of which Key Elements. When completed, compare with the department's actual scheme. Discuss the results with your mentor and state the reasons for your choice. The example of medium-term planning is a five-lesson unit based on Henry II and Becket. The main question the unit seeks to answer is the apparently enigmatic 'Why did Hugh and Edward come to blows on 29 December 1170?' What do you need to consider when faced with the planning of such a unit? 1 How will you decide what to teach? As a trainee teacher there will be necessary constraints on what topics you are asked to teach. The degree of choice you have will vary between placements. Some departments may be heavily prescriptive, others more flexible. Some will allow you greater freedom of choice in your planning in the later stages of the course. Some may invite you to contribute a new unit for the department in your final placement. More often there is some flexibility given within a prescribed topic. You may be able to conflate or intersperse several topics as is the case in our exemplar material. Here the prescription is the story of Henry II and Becket to be used to develop the pupils' understanding of historical interpretations. In order to appreciate fully the subtleties and intricacies of the relationship between Henry II and Thomas Becket, the pupils are offered a look at the contrasting lifestyles of monks and knights in the twelfth century. In this way, two other frequently taught topics are also covered and in a way that shows the influence of their lifestyles on their interpretation of an event. This justifies the length of time spent concentrating on the unit by widening the scope of the content and learning objectives. 2 What will the outcomes be? When planning a unit of work, the long-term objectives can then be broken down into shortterm 'steps along the way' which become the objectives for each lesson. Often, there will be one or two over-arching objectives for the unit, and then accompanying objectives for the individual lesson. At first glance, this enquiry would appear to be based on the key historical skill of causation and that concept is involved. Indeed, the pupils must acquire a sound appreciation of how the long-term, short-term and trigger events contribute to Becket's death if they are to address what is the central thrust of the unit – interpretations. Such is the nature of studying history that it is very unlikely you will be able to isolate one Key Element and that has implications for assessment as well. The two men named in the question are Hugh of Horsea – one of the killer knights, and Edward Grim – the monk who witnessed the event. Year 7 pupils can often recognise that it is possible to have different versions of the same event, but find it harder to begin to explain how and why these differences can arise. In Year 7, therefore, this enquiry clearly shows how two characters interpret a series of events differently because of their friendships, lifestyles and beliefs. Thus the outcomes sought can be summarised as follows: That by the end of this unit the pupils should be able to understand that: (i) (ii) 20 historical events can be interpreted in different ways and such differences will often depend upon (a) the author's background and (b) the evidence to which the author has access. PLANNING The final task, seeking to reinforce the desired outcomes, concentrates on literacy and pupils' listening skills and assessment for learning because they arise naturally from the planned series of lessons. 3 Where will I find my resources? Selective use of textbooks can be an easy way of structuring and resourcing a unit of work. Increasingly textbooks offer chapters that provide work for several lessons and have a major task at the end, and that are designed to target specific Key Elements throughout the chapter (see Activity 3.5). However, if the guidelines suggested thus far are used, then it is rare to find a textbook that can wholly address your objectives without compromising coherence. Often pre-designed worksheets and sections of textbooks can contribute in a meaningful way to a unit, but teachers should be wary of using a favourite activity or source when it does not completely meet the needs of the lesson sequence. In these cases, it is better to design new worksheets and trawl the Internet for fresh source material (see Chapters 7 and 9 in this book for guidance). By creating your own resources, you can be sure that they comprehensively meet your objectives and have increased ownership over your planning. Although creating resources and photocopying can be draining on time and have financial implications within departments, a well-presented worksheet or laminated card sort can be reused. Careful use of technology can also increase the lifespan of a resource. Additionally, always be on the look-out for 'bits and pieces' – cartoons, newspaper articles, video extracts, which will make an impact. Activity 3.5 Planning with a textbook Choose a textbook with a double-page coverage of a topic. Read the page carefully and then consider the following: 1 2 3 4 What you want the pupils to gain from the material displayed on these pages in terms of (i) knowledge; (ii) skills; and (iii) an aspect of a Key Element. When and how you could use the text in the lesson. What you need to do to supplement and adapt the textbook information. What do you recognise as being the dangers and possible pitfalls involved in using the textbook in your lessons? There are many good quality resources available to assist teaching the story of Becket and Henry II, such as play scripts and chronology activities (see Activity 3.6). Most textbooks offer source material and a basic outline of the events; this lesson sequence draws on one of these accounts and uses a variety of textbooks for the research phase of Lesson Two. However, most other resources were created within the department for this unit and its specifically intended outcomes. Principal among these were the 'Voice of the Past' taped accounts. These were a series of pre-recorded imaginary conversations between Hugh and Edward that narrate the highs and lows of the relationship between Henry II and Thomas Becket at key intervals from 1162 when Becket became Archbishop, until his murder in 1170. Hugh and Edward's accounts contain obvious bias in attitude and language and pupils are regularly asked 'How would Hugh or Edward explain this event?' and pupils are constantly referred back to the idea that the 'friendship' between Hugh and Henry II, and Edward and Becket, colours the interpretations of the events described. Another important resource was the story board. From this pupils examine a hypothetical 'day in the life' of a medieval knight. 21 GAIL WAKE AND MARTIN HUNT Activity 3.6 Investigating resources 1 2 Collect together a range of textbooks, worksheets and other resources on one topic. Sort the resources into piles determined by the skill that they are focused on. Does your topic seem to lend itself to one specific skill? Is this the skill that you would have chosen? Using your collection of resources, make a checklist of the characteristics of a good classroom resource, to be used when you create resources. ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ 4 How can I provide quality individual lessons as well as give coherence across the unit? Try to remember that each lesson should build on the previous one, in terms of knowledge, skill and progress towards the end task. Both teacher and pupils should be constantly aware of the long-term objectives throughout the teaching of the unit – and the teacher should make it clear to the pupils how each activity and piece of information contributes to the end product. The exemplar lessons rely heavily on the reinforcement of the characters' identities, their allegiances, biased opinions and reasons for these at the start and end of most lessons. Whilst designing the separate lessons, teachers must be conscious of the activities that they are using. A delicate balance between providing new, exciting tasks each time you ask the pupils to do something, and giving them the chance to practise and revisit certain tasks must be struck. The exemplar unit recycles the 'listening comprehension' idea to foster good listening skills in younger students while exploring different ways of learning factual information. Yet the challenge remains that, however engrossing the activity, it is important pupils see how it contributes to their historical understanding. Use of the starter and plenary activities to remind pupils of their progress within a series of lessons is particularly useful in maintaining the flow of a longer lesson sequence. Teachers have to consider how factual knowledge is to be retained from one lesson to the next; it is not always appropriate or possible to revisit key information as a class. Activity 3.7 is useful in creating an ideas bank of task ideas. Activity 3.7 Compiling an ideas bank 1 2 22 During your placements, keep a list of innovative task ideas that you come across within your department. Ask colleagues with other subject specialisms to suggest ideas that work in their departments. Can they be adapted to be used in history lessons? Be careful to make sure that these tasks meet history learning objectives once they are altered. PLANNING 5 How will you assess the pupils' progress? From the initial starting point of planning a unit, it is helpful to be aware of what piece or pieces of work you will assess and how. Try to be imaginative here; essays and formal GCSEstyle responses to historical sources need to be practised, but mix in presentations using ICT, newspaper articles, and more innovative ideas such as asking pupils to judge a 'competition' for most efficient industry in 1850, or provide 'interview questions' for key historical figures after famous events to elicit their actions and explanations with pupils responding 'in character'. Just as the content and the treatment of the main concept are developed over the five lessons, so also coherence is developed by anticipating the final piece of work with which the pupils will conclude the unit. Once you have a clear idea what this will be, it is easier to plan individual lessons that will allow students to practise the skills required in the final piece or build sections towards it. Writing Edward's version of the murder in the cathedral at the end of the unit provides an opportunity for all pupils to show how much they have learned over the series of lessons, but this is built on the foundations of previous oral attempts to explain events from Edward's point of view. Your school and departmental assessment policies will have a major impact on the number and type of assessment opportunities needed within each unit of work. However, you should not aim to provide comprehensive written feedback for every activity that pupils undertake. Focus instead on those activities that directly show a pupil's competence in the dominant Key Element within the lesson sequence and provide clear guidance for the pupils on how their work has impressed you, and how they can further improve next time, adding marks, grades or levels as is appropriate within your school context. Over the course of a unit of work, it is appropriate to provide informal assessment comments to indicate how a pupil is progressing towards acquiring the skills that will be tested in the final piece and to make certain that every pupil has sufficient factual knowledge to use as a basis to demonstrate those higher-order skills, in this case, the explanation of interpretations. Thus, in the final lesson, the pupils are to write the priest's version of events and try to explain them from his perspective based on evidence available to him, such as information he had gained from his conversations with Becket. THE EXEMPLAR LESSONS www Enquiry question: 'Why did Hugh and Edward come to blows on the 29 December 1170?' The five lessons, given to a mixed ability Year 7 class, each lasted one hour. For the curriculum material associated with these lessons, see: http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415370240 First lesson The pupils were introduced to Hugh and Edward. The pupil activities included: identifying the jobs shown on two pictures of a monk and a knight; using comprehension sheets as they listened to a tape of conversations and interviews involving Hugh and Edward; studying an A3 storyboard about Hugh's life and answering a question sheet about Hugh's life and finally doing a differentiated wordsearch. Second lesson The lifestyle of monks and priests is considered. Pupil tasks included the structured creation using textbooks of a storyboard about Edward to match that of Hugh. This anticipates and prepares the pupils for the written task at the end of the unit. 23 GAIL WAKE AND MARTIN HUNT Third lesson The question 'Who were Henry II and Becket?' is introduced. Pupil tasks included making notes as a tape is played of a conversation between Hugh and Edward, giving information about Henry and Becket; discussing an OHT showing Henry's aims; reading and answering questions using an information sheet. There was an important plenary on the fall-out between Henry and Becket asking how Hugh and Edward in turn might explain it. The pupils were encouraged to look for different interpretations and to explain them. Fourth lesson Why Becket and Henry fell out. The pupil activities included listening to further information from another taped conversation between Hugh and Edward; making a list of reasons for the fall-out; looking at a textbook's account of the event; using and making a graph, which plotted the changing relationship between the king and his archbishop and discussing further Hugh and Edward's different explanation of events covered so far. Using graphs is a very useful way of transferring or summarising information, offering a welcome alternative to a written record. Final lesson The pupils learn how the story ends for the first time. By listening to Hugh's pre-recorded 'voice from the past', pupils learn that Thomas Becket is murdered and that Edward is injured. Hugh's account weaves the facts of 29 December together with his own reasons for attacking the archbishop. Hugh's account relies heavily on past occasions where Henry II has been displeased with Becket and explains his violence with the argument that it was ordered by the king. It purports to have been written one day after the murder. The lesson plan directs the teacher to ask pupils to examine the style and content of Hugh's account in preparation for writing their own account from Edward's point of view. Pupils with a wide range of abilities can access this task when the guidance points are reduced and all pupils enjoy writing in detail about Becket's death. It is not a struggle to get pupils to put pen to paper when they are describing such a gruesome event! The final task draws heavily on assessment for learning techniques and pupils use the structure of Hugh's account as a writing frame for their own. PLANNING FOR LESSON EVALUATION It is important to evaluate lessons primarily on the basis of whether the students learned what you wanted them to, rather than whether they behaved. Referring back to the five stages of planning and comparing your intentions with the actual outcomes of the lesson sequence is one way of evaluating your teaching. After reviewing each stage thoroughly, you should be able to articulate the progress made by your students, why they made it (or didn't), the next steps for this class and how you will use what you have learned in future planning for all your classes. There will be times when it is helpful to concentrate on one particular aspect of your teaching or one feature of the lesson for your evaluation. Activity 3.8 will help you to consider the key questions that you might ask to evaluate the planning of a unit. 24 PLANNING Activity 3.8 Evaluating the planning The aim of this activity is to help you explore the processes by which you can evaluate the effectiveness of your planning with the use of the unit described in the chapter. 1 Devise a set of specific questions you would ask about the planning of this unit. You might consider: (i) the claims made for the pupils' learning; ___________________________________________________________ (ii) the structure of the unit, its coherence and development; ___________________________________________________________ (iii) the requirements made of the pupils; ___________________________________________________________ (iv) the resources; ___________________________________________________________ (v) the opportunities for formative assessment. ___________________________________________________________ 2 What would be the assessment criteria for the final piece of work? ________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY Good lesson planning usually brings its rewards in terms of successful lessons, although there is no guarantee of success every time. Yet lesson planning is time-consuming and the more you can utilise strategies to reduce time, the better it will be. Trainees have found it valuable to make a lesson plan template, particularly where plans can be adapted for different abilities; some recommend the use of autotext on MS Word. It is advisable to keep any content notes separate from your lesson plans, which usually can be limited to one page of A4. Other strategies that are helpful include keeping your evaluation of previous lessons to hand, planning schemes of work as fully as the information given to you allows including ideas for possible activities and likely resources. This will reduce the time spent on the individual plans. Finally, even though historians are great accumulators, always keep plans of successful lessons beyond your training year. They can often be adapted for future lessons. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Thanks are due to Matthew Little, John Kirkham and Lisa Whitby for their help in the creation of the resources, used to teach the story of Becket and Henry II. 25 GAIL WAKE AND MARTIN HUNT FURTHER READING Lomas T. (1990) Teaching and Assessing Historical Understanding, Historical Association. Steele, I. (1976) Developments in History Teaching, Chapter 4. The Teaching History problem page also has useful discussions on lesson objectives in issues 100 (2000) and 104 (2001). 26 Chapter 4 Learning strategies and approaches SIMON GOODWIN INTRODUCTION The aim of this chapter is to help you design learning activities for your first lessons. It should encourage you to experiment with different methods and assess their suitability for different individuals, classes and topics. Exemplar material involving the First World War has been used, which could be modified for those topics you are asked to teach. Towards the end of the chapter there are some more advanced activities that you might like to try later, all of which complement the discussion covered in Chapter 4 of Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School, 2nd edn, Routledge, 2001. This chapter will consider three basic activities familiar to most history lessons: • • • Reading/research/exposition Questioning/discussion Presentation (oral or written). Chapter aims By the end of the chapter you should be able to: • • • • • • • design learning activities for your first lessons; apply guidance on the creation of appropriate materials for reading in the classroom; understand the strengths and limitations of a range of approaches involving the use of reading; take steps to develop your exposition skills; employ a range of questions in your teaching and use them in a variety of ways; understand the strategies for successful group work; use a variety of approaches to written tasks including the use of mind maps. Think of any lesson you have observed so far. Frequently, the class will have read a text or listened to a story or looked at a picture, then discussed it before doing some writing about it. Each activity could be for individuals, groups or whole classes. Before you experiment with more complex teaching strategies, you need to feel confident in managing these activities. Do not worry about 'starters' and 'plenaries' (where pupils review their learning) at this stage. If you put these three basic activities together, you have a sound 'bread and butter' 27 SIMON GOODWIN lesson. Your early priority should be to experiment with a variety of simple strategies and find the ones with which you are most comfortable. Every teacher has a battery of teaching methods upon which to draw in any given lesson situation. The following activities are designed to help you develop a range of teaching methods. READING/EXPOSITION/RESEARCH In order to discuss the more interesting questions raised by the study of history, students have to acquire some basic knowledge first. For the most part, this means reading a text, watching a film or listening to a teacher exposition. The success of this activity will make or break your lesson. Reading Reading activities can be crucial to the success of your lesson. Early on, it is easier to rely on a textbook narrative. However, re-typing the narrative can simplify both language and layout and can help you to take ownership of the detail. The following guidance will help: 1 2 3 4 5 6 www 7 Avoid over-loading a page with information. Add a clear title and make it a question (thus emphasising the aim of your lesson). Add an illustration. At all times remember: the simpler the text, the fewer problems, interruptions and awkward questions you will have to deal with. Tasks should be 'boxed off' separately. Each question should be short, clear and should give an indication of the detail needed in the answer. Finally, one blindingly obvious (but often ignored) tip is to attempt the tasks yourself before teaching the lesson. For trench warfare exemplar material to support the activities see http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415370240 Try the different tasks in Activity 4.1, which are designed to encourage you to experiment with different approaches to reading. Exposition Exposition or story telling is an aspect of learning history that all students enjoy, whatever their age or ability. Telling a story without a text can be an effective way to keep a class focused, involved and stimulated, without putting stress on their reading skills. However, this can be a nerve-wracking experience for the beginning teacher trainee: 1 2 3 4 28 If students have a written text to refer to, this will give you reassurance. If you feel you are losing your thread, you can take the students back to the text. You will feel much more comfortable if you have a series of pictures around which to build your story. This could be in the form of overhead transparencies (OHTs) or PowerPoint slides. Lowering the classroom lights will help focus their attention on the visuals and on you. Furthermore, they will signify a move to a different type of activity. Move around the room, to emphasise the movement of the narrative but stay absolutely still to emphasise the key events. LEARNING STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES Activity 4.1 Evaluating approaches to reading For this Activity, you are asked to experiment with the three reading activities. 1 2 Either prepare some reading material on topics you have been asked to teach to KS3 classes. It would be helpful if you could use the same material with each class but this is unlikely. The material should include a combination of text and tasks using the principles set out on p. 28. The text should have about 300 words of detailed, factual prose, highlighting key words. Add a picture and then include a set of short, clear, mainly comprehension questions. Or, should circumstances permit, you could use the First World War exemplar material available on: http://routledge.com/textbooks/9780415370240 Using your information sheet, experiment with each of the three approaches described below: A. Try reading the extract to the class or asking for volunteers to read. This is a very common method of engaging with a text. Then, ask the questions from section (1) one by one. Students should put their hand up to speak and be silent until called upon. Be firm on this but don't be disheartened if some students don't comply at first. Take volunteers at first, then try to involve some other students who seem more reluctant. This will take about 5 minutes. B. Ask another class to read the story individually in silence or at least quietly. Give them a precise time limit, for example, 3 minutes. Tell them that after 3 minutes you are going to ask them about the story. Tell them to put their hand up if they find a difficult word. Then, repeat the questioning process. A variation on this task could be to ask students to read in pairs, and thus support each other. C. Try repeating the above activity again, but this time give every student a coloured pen or pencil. This time they have 3 minutes to highlight all the problems of trench life that they can find. Alternatively, they can make a list of problems in the back of their exercise books, on paper, or even on a mini white board. Varying the method will keep their interest in the task. 1 What were the advantages and limitations of each of the three approaches? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 2 Were there any particular reasons for the weakness of any one approach? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 3 Consider which approach is the most suitable for the classes you are currently working with. Discuss your conclusions with your mentor. ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 29 SIMON GOODWIN Activity 4.1 continued 4 Are there any other approaches to reading in the classroom, which you have observed? How do they compare with the three approaches above? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ 5 Changing the tone and volume of your voice will add further emphasis. Once you have their attention, try lowering your voice so they have to strain just a little to hear you. Every so often, pause to ask a question. Activity 4.2 encourages you to develop your exposition skills. Activity 4.2 Developing your exposition skills In this Activity you are invited to make a presentation/exposition to a class directly, that is without reference to a text. So, you will find it easier to develop these skills if this is accompanied by a picture or diagram on an OHT or a PowerPoint slide, the content of which encourages you to move about as your narrative unravels. The following list merely illustrates the vast variety of possibilities for such energetic exposition. Consider the possible impact of: attacking a medieval castle; the feudal system; various execution scenes including the guillotine; battle plans; road building; the Elizabethan theatre; four-crop rotation; cartoons; cross-sections, e.g. ships and for the exemplar material on the website, First World War trenches and, if you are up to it, Newcomen's Steam Engine. 1 2 3 4 Select an appropriate picture or diagram. List the key features and key words you will wish to emphasise. Think through how you will try to make a physical impact with your exposition. For example, with the cross-section of the trench, the depth of the trench was roughly the same height as a classroom ceiling. You could use a wall for your pararpet and a chair for your firestep. All through your story the students can see an actual trench on the screen. Don't be afraid to stand on a chair or point at an imaginary barbed wire. As you explain each element of the trench, ask them what its purpose was. Then consider: (i) Was this more or less successful than using a text-book description? ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ (ii) What might be the strengths and limitations of both approaches? ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ 30 LEARNING STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES Research Research in the sense used here means finding out facts. This often means the students finding information from textbooks, worksheets, library books or the Internet. This is most commonly used as a homework task, but it can be a valid classroom activity, if you have the resources to hand. The danger here is that students merely regurgitate material without understanding it or even that they find the task too demanding. Three strategies will help you here. First, pose questions to be researched rather than topics or headings. Second, give one accessible text as an example but make it clear that good researchers will look at more than one source of information. Third, ask students to present their information in a different format. This could be a mind map (explained later on in this chapter), a table or a diagram. This means they have to process the information to transfer it to the new format. QUESTIONING/DISCUSSION If you have carried out the above activities then you have already questioned a class and managed a short discussion. You will have observed many questioning activities, but do not be fooled into thinking that this is an easy skill to master. History teachers are natural questioners and know through experience what works and what does not. Developing your questioning technique There are a few principles to bear in mind here. First, you should ask a mixture of 'open' and 'closed' questions. Closed questions are usually factual and have one answer. For example, when studying the First World War trenches: What was a duckboard for? or What was trench foot? Open questions are usually more reflective, open to debate and need to be answered at greater length, with supporting evidence. For example: What would have been the most hated aspect of trench life? All classes appreciate a mixture. Closed questions build confidence and help to get everyone involved. Open questions involve higher-order thinking. Second, you should aim for a mixture of 'volunteers' and 'conscripts' to answer your questioners. Volunteers are enthusiastic and need to feel involved. Conscripts need and deserve the opportunity to join in too. Try to involve all areas of the classroom, both genders and all abilities. Third, think about pace and pauses. Some learners revel in a quick-fire question and answer. Others need time to reflect before raising their hand. After asking a question, get into the habit of counting to two or three before taking a response. At first, you might like to prepare a list of questions to ask, or at least to fall back upon if needed. This will help you to think about the important issue of sequencing questions. However, do not be afraid to let the class lead you away from your script. That will not be a problem if you stick to the above principles. You will also find that student participation will increase if you provide a stimulus. This could be a picture or diagram, for example. Activity 4.3 has questioning activities for you to try (the First World War trenches again provide examples). 31 SIMON GOODWIN Activity 4.3 Encouraging question and answer For this Activity you are asked to experiment with the following three questioning activities. Each time consider the strategies and weaknesses of each approach. However, if there are weaknesses, consider why. Different activities may suit different individuals, classes and situations: 1 2 3 4 5 Select a picture, map or diagram, which is not too cluttered but which has enough information to be the basis for several questions. You could use your choice for Activity 4.2, applying what is exemplified in the First World War trench cross-section to your own material. Give the students 1 minute to make a list or a mind map of the trench problems in the back of their book or on paper. Start the discussion by asking some closed factual questions about trenches and then allow them to share their ideas. Finally, ask them to make a judgement of the worst problems. Alternatively, give the students 23 minutes to draw and label the diagram of the trench from memory on a mini-white board. Then start the discussion as above. With a white board it is easier to ask students to put ideas in a rank or chronological order. Finally, re-enact your exposition on trenches (with the chair, etc.) but this time ask the students what you are doing or pointing at. (i) Which approach engaged most learners? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ (ii) Which approach made classroom management easier? ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Encouraging question and answer Once you feel confident with these activities, try to use oral questioning to access some higherorder thinking skills. Most of your questions will probably have been factual, descriptive, recall questions. You might like to try the following (dependent on your lesson objectives) and in order of difficulty: Inference Comparison Categorisation Analysis Evaluation What can we learn about . . .? How are x and y similar/different? Which causes are social/economic/ political factors? Which effect was the most important? Why do historians disagree about this issue? Do not feel you have to use each style of question in one lesson. Pick and choose, but bear in mind the increasing difficulty. STUDENT PRESENTATION (ORAL OR WRITTEN) Many would argue that it is vital that you give students the opportunity to present their own response to the material you have given them. This could take many forms, some of which 32 LEARNING STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES will be discussed in later chapters. Here, we will concentrate on the most simple – note-taking and oral presentations. Bear in mind that some students find written work boring, so aim for a variety of tasks and only ask for detail/length when it is appropriate for the task. Look back at the examples of trench warfare tasks. What written activities could you ask the students to do? Many teachers would commonly ask students to write out answers to the questions. If you do this, ask students not to copy the question out but write all their answers in sentences. Give students an indication of the length of answer required. For example, 'write a paragraph' or 'explain your answer'. Note-taking can take many forms. However, if you just ask students to 'write up the information in your own words', without modelling, guidance and structure, it is likely that you will not get the response you want. Try the different written tasks in Activity 4.4. Activity 4.4 Evaluating approaches to written tasks The aim of this Activity is for you to analyse and evaluate a variety of alternative written tasks, all of them in common use in the history classroom. For this exercise you could use the material you devised for Activity 4.1 or create new material from another topic. Use the principles in this chapter to help you to create your tasks using questions, structured notes and a cloze exercise. You may find the 3-part exemplar material on questioning on the website helpful for this task: 1 2 3 4 5 Ask the students to write out the answers to the set of short questions based on the information sheet as exemplified in part (i). Ask the students not to copy the question out and to write their answers in sentences. Give them an indication of the length of the answer required such as 'write at least four lines', 'write a paragraph' or 'explain your answer'. Ask the students to write out at least one sentence about each of the bullet points, which list details of the content of the infromation sheet, this time exemplified in part (ii). Note-taking can take many forms. However, if you ask the students to 'write up the information in your own words', it is unlikely you will get the response you want. Ask the students to copy out a cloze paragraph, see part (iii), and fill in the gaps using the words from the word box. Ask them either to underline the missing words or to write them in a different colour. (i) Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each task. (ii) How would you use these tasks at different times with different classes? (iii) How could the tasks be combined to provide for individual differences? Discuss your conclusions with your mentor or Head of Department. Using a mind map Mind maps have already been mentioned in the chapter and deserve fuller treatment. A mind map is a more sophisticated learning tool and has a number of rules: 1 2 3 4 The title should be highlighted for emphasis. All words should be written on the line, so long words need long lines. Each word must be linked to another word or to the title. Students can also add their own symbols or illustrations or use colour. Mind maps can serve several functions. They can be short-hand notes. If you do this, make sure the students include specific information such as proper nouns, statistics, etc. 33 SIMON GOODWIN Second, they can be used as a plan for a piece of extended writing. Students read through the chains of words to create sentences. Third, they can be used as a revision tool. Students read the mind maps aloud to a partner and then try to re-create them on a blank sheet of paper. This is particularly effective because the learner reads, speaks and writes the material in one activity, which aids the process of memorisation. You could combine all these functions in Activity 4.5. Activity 4.5 Using a mind map The aim of this Activity is to analyse and evaluate how mind maps can be used in place of traditional written notes, how they can be used to commit information to memory and how they can be used to plan more extended written work: 1 2 3 4 5 Study the mind map below, noting how it develops. Replace the title 'Trenches' with that of your own topic and your detail for that of the exemplar material, which follows. Give students a blank piece of paper and a copy of the word box. Write 'Trenches' on the white board and ask students to do the same on their sheet. Ask them for a word that describes what 'trenches' were like. They may say 'cramped' or 'waterlogged'. Add the word to the mind map. Next ask them whether 'trench foot' should link to 'cramped' or 'waterlogged' and add their choice to the map. Now they can see the rules of mind-mapping they can work individually for five minutes to complete their own mind map using all 20 words. Emphasise that the maps are individual and that there are no right or wrong answers. Now ask the students to read their mind maps aloud to themselves or to their neighbour (in turn). Emphasise that this is a vital part of the process. Give them 2 minutes for this. They can now either write out their plans in sentences and paragraphs or they can try to commit it to memory. To do this, ask students to turn their sheets of paper over to the blank side. Give them 5 minutes to recreate their mind map, aiming for 20 words. You will find that all the class will be able to recreate at least 75 per cent of the map. (i) Does the mind map approach suit all pupils? (ii) What are the strengths and limitations of mind-mapping when compared to traditional note-taking? Figure 4.1 Mind map of trenches in the First World War 34 LEARNING STRATEGIES AND APPROACHES www Other mind map activities may be seen at: http//:www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415370240 or at: http://www.mindmap.com Many trainees shy away from oral presentations by the students because they fear losing control of a group. You may be surprised at how attentively students listen to their peers. You will also find that some reluctant or challenging individuals suddenly start to shine. Activity 4.6 enables you to experiment with this strategy with classes with whom you feel comfortable. Activity 4.6 Using presentations 1 2 3 4 Make a 2-minute presentation to the class on any topic, even a non-historical one. Write a list of bullet points on prompt cards and use a visual aid. Ask the class to tell you what made the presentation go well. They may highlight eye contact, the cue cards and the visual aid. You have now modelled a simple presentation style. Divide the class into groups of two, three or four. You will achieve better results if you choose the groups. Ask their regular teacher for advice. Assign a topic to each group and give them time to research it (see research section). Give each group at least one OHT around which to build their presentation and give them a time limit. They will want to work at length on this but 45 minutes should be enough. With 5 minutes to go, ask each group to do a rehearsal. It will take at least 45 minutes for eight groups of four to make a 2-minute presentation. After each one ask the others to give a strength of each presentation. You could even design a prompt sheet for them to fill in. (i) What practical problems did you encounter in organising this activity? (ii) How could these problems be anticipated or avoided in future? (iii) How could you encourage the pupils to assess each other's work? Group work Group work can be a thorny topic for trainees. The benefits of group work are often heard: it encourages co-operation, negotiating, builds language skills and provides an environment for providing for individual differences. In practice, the thought of encouraging pupil chatter and movement around the room can deter the trainee. Here are some practical tips for successful group work: 1 2 3 4 Choose the composition of groups yourself instead of letting pupils choose. They may complain at first but will soon just get on with things. Better still, put them into groups before entering the room, or have place cards on desks. Consider how to create good working groups, with mixtures of ability, temperament and work ethic. Effective group selection can transform the atmosphere in a classroom. Start with small groups (pairs, for example) before getting more ambitious. Give groups clear instructions, better still, assign every group member to a particular task (e.g.: chair, scribe, reporter, etc.). 35 SIMON GOODWIN 5 Pupils will work with more enthusiasm if they have individual roles, and if they can contribute to a whole class activity. For example, to gather evidence for a trial of Charles I. SUMMARY The aim of this chapter has been to help you find a basic teaching style that suits you. By experimenting with a variety of reading, discussion and writing activities you should be able to see which activities suit different situations and classes. Your students will appreciate variety in the tasks you ask them to complete. As you move through your training course you may want to revisit this chapter and re-assess some of the approaches. Ten tried and tested tips from this chapter (in no particular order) are: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Choose short, simple texts for students to read. For higher-order questions, ask students to rank factors or judge importance. To judge relative importance, ask students to find links between factors. If you design a task, do it yourself first. Use pictures for exposition. Collect interesting anecdotes and quirky facts for your expositions. Don't worry about 'starters and plenaries' at first. Concentrate on the three types of activities discussed in this chapter. Use the same questioning principles for oral and written work. Keep questions short and make it clear what length of response is required. Consider the use of a set of mini white boards. These are A4 sized double-sided white boards for individual students to use, with a conventional white board marker. These can transform group work, starter activities and essay planning. FURTHER READING Counsell, C. (1997) Analytical and Discursive Writing in History at Key Stage 3, Historical Association. Lewis, M. and Wray, D. (1997) Extending Literacy: Children Reading and Writing Non-Fiction, London: Routledge. McCully, A. (1997) 'Key questions, planning and extended writing', Teaching History, 89, October, 31–5. Please also see the bibliography on http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415370240 36 Chapter 5 Role play as active history STEVE GUSCOTT INTRODUCTION This chapter considers one way of enriching the teaching of history – role play. For the purposes of this chapter, role play means the active engagement of both teacher and pupils in the interpretation of the past. Despite the promotion of 'active history' in the past twenty years, role play remains an under-utilised method of delivering history. Much of this stems from a perception that 'acting out' an aspect of history is a distraction from the development of pupils' historical understanding. In addition, some teachers may believe that preparation and classroom management issues make drama a time-consuming luxury. These concerns, it will be shown, can be avoided if lessons and activities are properly prepared and pupils understand why they are engaged in a particular activity. Some obvious concerns that trainee teachers might feel about role play are: • • • • pressure on organisational and classroom management skills – 'kids can go bonkers'; managing different groups at the same time; the assessment of pupils using this approach, that is, all pupils; ensuring that pupils learn from the experience and that it adds to their historical knowledge and understanding; time to prepare properly. • As a trainee teacher, you may feel reluctant to consider role plays. Quite rightly you might feel that lesson planning, classroom management and developing pupils' historical understanding should be your main priorities. This chapter, however, will argue that role play can enhance your teaching. The use of drama can stimulate 'problem' classes. The paradox is that, especially for trainees, discipline considerations might deter the use of the very approach which could well produce a positive change of attitude. It can facilitate the understanding of difficult subject-specific concepts, improve extended writing across the ability range, raise the status of history in schools, and make the subject both challenging and fun. Chapter aims By the end of this chapter you should be able to: • • understand how the use of role play offers opportunities for pupils who respond to different ways of learning including kinaesthetic learners; be able to identify opportunities for role play within the history curriculum; 37 STEVE GUSCOTT • • be able to design learning materials for the successful use of role plays including improvisation, scripted plays and teacher-led activities; link role play activities to the assessment of pupils. PLANNING FOR ROLE PLAY One of the most common misconceptions about role play is that it needs to be an 'all singing, all dancing' festival of active drama, with all pupils having to write and act their parts. It does not, as may be seen in the simple use of role play used in Chapter 2 and in the excellent, short sharp 'practical demonstration' type activities advocated by Ian Luff (2000). Before you plan any role play, though, it would be useful to consider some basic guidelines. As outlined in Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School, 2nd edn, Routledge, 2001, pp. 75–6, subject knowledge, preparation time, organisation and follow-up work are crucial. Consider Activity 5.1. This depth of planning is vital before any role play activity is attempted within the classroom. Whatever format the activity is going to take, the use of drama should never be unplanned – both pupils and teachers should be made fully aware of the purpose of what they are doing. Active History lessons should be like any other history activity – clearly focused, tied to what pupils already know and understand, with concise aims and objectives and a way of helping pupils to make further progress. Role play can take a variety of different forms – • • Role play as consolidator of knowledge – pre-written plays, full drama work. Role play as fun – teaching historical skills – invigorating source work/interpretations/ significance activities. Role play as assessment – mock trials, debates, pupil-created plays. Role play as deliverer of knowledge and understanding – teacher-led role play activities. • • The rest of this chapter will consider each of these role play styles in turn. Activity 5.1 Planning for role play over two lessons Think of a topic that you are due to teach either at Key Stage 3 or Key Stage 4. How could you transform that topic into a vehicle for role play? Some questions to consider are: • • • • • • • • • What are the learning objectives? What will the role play be about? What form will the role play take – play, debate, discussion? What will pupils need to know and understand before they do the activity? Will the whole class be involved or just a selection of pupils? What resources will pupils need to prepare for the activity? How long will they need to prepare? How long will the role play take? What will pupils who are not involved be doing while preparation/ performance is taking place? • Will the role play be tied to assessment? The proforma will help you to work out where you might consider using role play in the classroom. 38 39 Unit of work Lesson objective Activity 5.1 continued Type of role play Characters/scenes to be written Resources Assessment focus STEVE GUSCOTT ROLE PLAY AS CONSOLIDATOR OF KNOWLEDGE – DRAMA Role play can achieve a high impact when pupils know and understand what historical characters are doing and why they are doing it. In this sense, it consolidates knowledge. Historical characters, events, turning points and entire epochs can be brought alive. Understanding of previous work in a unit can be tested and challenged, and pupils' interest can be reawak