Category: Subject development

Hidden in Plain Sight – resources for teaching the history of people with disability

by YorkClio, posted in Resources, Subject development

Following on from our HA conference session in Stratford, here are the copies of the resources. We have a duty to reflect the pasts of all people in society in our classrooms. Our session focused on subject knowledge about the history of disability and ideas for teaching. We worked with a mini-thematic activity exploring disability through time. You can find a Word file of these resources here: Timeline headings and text  Pics for timeline

We suggest that you can first match headings and pictures, then sort the material onto a timeline, then ask questions about continuity and change in attitudes. For example, how complex are attitudes across the medieval period? When was the worst time to be a person with disability in the past? What is the role of factors such as religion, the state, war etc in the story.

This sort of mini-thematic could be used at KS3 (to help students learng to think thematically) or at the start of teaching ‘Medicine Through Time’ (as it explores some very relevant themes to that topic).

The image featured on this blog is a Bruegel called ‘Carnival and Lent’. We ask students to imagine walking through the scene noticing the people. Disability is not hidden away.

We have also developed the idea of ‘slot-ins’. Recognising that the history curriculum is jam-packed, we want to encourage you to recognise the stories that are within the topics you already teach. Slot-ins (not bolt-ons) allow you to introduce richness and diversity to topics from the Tudor court, to slavery abolition, and to civil rights post 1945. You can find these materials here.

Thanks to the team who worked with us yesterday and please do share great ideas for bringing more of these important pasts into our history lessons.

Another useful timeline is here: Disability timeline

Why is Europe so many different countries?

by YorkClio, posted in Resources, Subject development
Reading Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography over the Easter holidays developed my thinking and questioning as to why certain countries perpetually seemed to be at war. I always knew that France and Germany had historic disagreements, but never stopped to consider how the physical geography of the countries, combined with individuals’ desire for power, could influence this.
With this in mind, I created this two-lesson sequence, aiming to draw together elements of historical and geographical teaching in a way to help develop students’ schema of the medieval period, as well as to understand why countries perpetually seem to be at war. It is designed for Year 7, which is why I have combined some regions (notably France) into more of a nation state than it was.
As a non-geography expert, I am sure that there are many elements of the discipline that I could have included but did not. If you happen to think of any ways to improve this resource, please let me know.
The resources are here:
Victoria Bettney
University of York/Pathfinder TSA trainee 2017-18 and York High from September 2018

Teaching bigger history – great free resources!

by YorkClio, posted in Resources, Subject development

Huge thanks to Dan Nuttall and Laura Goodyear for sharing their resources with everyone in the history teacher tribe. We are really pleased to publish the link here. People at the HA’s recent Yorkshire History Forum were able to hear them explain their work. If you missed it, do get in touch with Dan and he will happily explain the thinking behind these resources in more depth.

Frameworks and teaching bigger history
The link below will take you to five units that all deploy a frameworks approach as a method for teaching big/bigger history. The units cover:
– Big History (covering the development of humankind from hunter-gatherers to the present). Eight KS3 lessons with resources.
– C20 international relations. Seven KS3 lessons with resources.
– Power and the monarchy c.1000-present. Eight KS3 lessons with resources. Could be adapted for GCSE Power and the People.
– Big History of slavery (from Palaeolithic to the present). Seven KS3 lessons with resources (intended to be taught as well as, not instead of, transatlantic slavery).
– France 1776-1830. A framework with diagrams, not a complete unit, for A Level.
These are shared to encourage further experimentation and discussion into the ways in which students can be taught to comprehend larger scales of time, and thereby develop greater historical consciousness.  Please see the ‘Further reading’ bibliography.
Please feel free to share with colleagues and the wider history teaching community.*
Feedback and discussion more than welcome, to danielnuttall1981@gmail.com.
Thanks and happy experimentation!
Dan Nuttall
* – no commercial use please without permission.
– please credit the authors. ‘Power and Monarchy in Britain’ unit by Rick Rogers and Dan Nuttall. ‘France 1176-1830’ by Dan Nuttall, images by Laura Goodyear. ‘C20 International Relations’ by Dan Nuttall, images by Laura Goodyear. ‘Big Story of Us’ by Rick Rogers (framework/grid), Laura Goodyear and Dan Nuttall (lessons and resources). ‘Big History of Slavery’ by Denis Shemilt (framework), Laura Goodyear and Dan Nuttall (lessons and resources).
– I do not own copyright for any images that may be contained within the resources.

 

The Old Lady in the Post Office – how to teach writing a strong line of argument to any key stage

by YorkClio, posted in Resources, Subject development

Screenshot (253)

If you’re finding it difficult to teach students in any Key Stage what an argued piece of writing that offers a substantiated judgement looks like, you need to meet someone. She’s called the Old Lady in the Post Office and nothing I’ve tried has been more effective in helping students understand what a line of argument looks like when it runs throughout an essay. Here is the monologue as a PPT: The Old Lady in the Post Office . It has a screen and handout version.

Inspired by the work of Daisy Christodoulou, and her argument that we can teach and formatively assess specific elements within longer pieces of writing, the Old Lady is an attempt to characterise the line of argument, helping students self- and peer-assess this particular element of writing judgement essays in History.

The task is simple – the student with the best ‘Old Lady’ voice reads out the argument and the other students have to identify the core problem she has with the Post Office. They can then identify how she acknowledges subsidiary factors and how she brings them into her argument and builds her opinion from start to finish.

Once they have done this ten-minute task, they are able to identify the line of argument in their own and other essays by answering questions like ‘Can you ‘hear’ the Old Lady coming through?’ and ‘Has she got a clear answer to this question?’ Consequently students are far quicker at identifying their own and other lines of argument.

Bonus Tip 1: To exemplify a ‘real historian’ doing this, look no further than The Old Man in the Army Uniform. He can be found presenting an argued case about the causes of the American Civil War on YouTube for Prager University. (YouTube clip)

Bonus Tip 2: This characterisation of a line of argument as the ‘Old Lady in the Post Office’ is showing promising signs in the task of analysing written interpretations and looking for the overarching interpretation. It seems particularly useful for distinguishing between the interpretation and the evidence offered in support of it.

Hugh Richards

for YorkClio in Feb 2018

YHEP is launched!

by YorkClio, posted in News, Subject development

This week we have launched YHEP: the Yorkshire History Education Partnership 

It is intended to be a site for drawing together, celebrating and promoting history subject-specific ITT and CPD. YorkClio is, of course, a fantastic example of Yorkshire based partnership in action. You can follow on Twitter @YHEPnews and a Facebook group is arriving next week. Meanwhile, we hope Yorkies are enjoying Residents’ First Weekend despite the drizzle.

History Pedagogy as 5 features

by YorkClio, posted in Subject development, Uncategorized

One of our YorkClio team, Hugh Richards, was asked by SLT to define the subject specific pedagogy of History in 5 features. Definitely a ‘phone a friend(s)’ moment! This has really started us thinking – hard! We have pasted below our working thoughts after 36 hours batting it about. We’d love to get a wider discussion going on about this. There is comment function on this blog page. Or tweet with #historyhydra. Please chip in!

History Pedagogy as Five Features – first stab at the Hydra. 

Note this was a collaborative effort with some other Heads of History across the city – Helen Snelson at the Mount/University of York and Ruth Lingard at Millthorpe. 

Preface: The nature of school history is that there is considerable overlap with academic history. They are not the same, but it is fair to say that there is more overlap than is the case with many/most other school subjects.  

1) Making learning enquiry based: usually the teacher will define the enquiry. It should be framed as a question over which there is genuine historical debate. To be successful it will require students to fully engage with the relevant narratives and with the relevant disciplinary and substantive concepts. It is sometimes possible and desirable at KS3 for students to define the enquiry themselves (more in the manner of university level of history.) (In Denmark this is what they do at their equivalent of history A-level!) Crucially, enquiries will end with clear, conditional conclusions or judgements about the past (see point 4). 

2) Presenting narratives of the past: this is about what is generally accepted to be known about ‘what happened’ and we underestimate the need for contextual knowledge at our peril. It is the teacher role to make clear champion, and to model, the status of a narrative. That is, to use language of certainty / uncertainty, as defined by the fragmentary/contested nature of the evidence on which it is based.  

3) Conceptual learning: to teach students so that they can define disciplinary and substantive concepts as tools to unpick and explain the historical narrative. To teach them how to engage with these concepts in the manner of a historian, for example to test hypotheses, organise thoughts and weigh up evidence – all in relation to the historical narrative.  

4) Conditional conclusions: to teach in a way that makes it clear that all conclusions made by historians are open to evidence-based debate. The debate is ongoing. This links back to 1) that the enquiries in school should be areas of genuine historical debate. It also requires history teachers to continue to be engaged in this debate by constantly updating their subject knowledge. At the higher levels of the school curriculum this involves engagement with the ‘multi-voicedness’ of the past and the nature of historical truth.  

5) Historical communication: to teach the accepted vocabulary, register, structures and modes used by historians to communicate. This should enable students to feel confident in expressing their own evidence-based views in relation to historical debate.  

Endnote: This assumes entitlement and equity – the aspiration that all should be given the opportunity to be able to go as far as they wish with academic learning about the past. Additionally, there is a huge contribution of history as a subject to citizens who are happy and fulfilled in a thriving multi-perspective democracy.  

 

 

Talking History with SLT

by YorkClio, posted in Subject development, Uncategorized

Christine Counsell gave a really helpful session on ‘Talking History with SLT’ at the SHP conference this year. Here is a summary note. Any lack of sense is the fault of the note-taker! Hopefully it will be useful for prompting thoughts and ideas about how to explain our subject to SLT colleagues.

CC on Talking History with SLT