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Active History Creative history History Thinking history

Residual memory, finger tip knowledge and weaving ‘Big’ history

Quite why it took me so long to make space in the diary for the SHP Conference at Leeds Trinity now seems difficult to explain but until 2013 this annual event had been something I had heard a lot about but not quite got around to attending. Having been blown away by the variety of ideas and experiences on offer in last year’s plenaries and workshops I was eagerly looking forward to a second helping this year and I was not disappointed.

I’d kind of chosen my workshops with a common theme and together with a little follow up reading I’ve started an experiment that I’ll be looking at again in the coming academic year. Outlined below are pen pictures of the sessions that provided the inspiration for the activity and brief comments on the task as delivered in a 50 minute lesson with a mixed ability Y7 class.

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Active History Creative history History Revision

3-D History – Active Revision with Playmobil

It is that time of year again when we’re scratching our heads trying to think of something different to do with revision classes. Well why not get a bit creative, raid the toy cupboard and see what you can find that is relevant to your schemes of work?

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Active History Creative history

Getting Creative – Puppet Theatres in the History Classroom

I’m not sure if this is in any way a new idea but I’ve had some really fun lessons using this idea. The pupils love it and other teachers are starting to use the same approach in other subjects. When you think about it its only a simple development of the tried and tested “create a story board to tell the story of…..” but more flexible. The pupils are hooked from the start as they have to research the detail so that they can put their character’s point of view across and of course they get the chance to create their puppet. The added twist of having to make the ‘scenery’ makes them think about the historical context and working with their team ensures they consider the inter-relationships. In this example we were looking at comparative experiences under dictatorships during the 1930s.