School Improvement Service in Partnership with ENSURING THE MOST EFFECTIVE HISTORY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS Dr Tim Lomas [email protected] London 8 th June 2010.

School Improvement Service in Partnership with

ENSURING THE MOST EFFECTIVE HISTORY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

Dr Tim [email protected]

London 8th June 2010GA/HA Conference


START WORRYING WHEN (1)

1. The time is squeezed even more – to a worse slot in the day;

2. I am told it can be done just through other subject areas;

3. Senior managers and others show no interest;

4. Resources are thin;

5. There is no enthusiasm for the subject leader or other staff;


START WORRYING WHEN (2)

6. Work done with the older children looks little different from that of the younger;

7. Pupils in the same class produce similar work;

8. Staff do not understand the key ideas;

9. There is little independent enquiry;

10. Any enquiry leads to a great deal of copying;

11. History hardly ever extends beyond the classroom;


START WORRYING WHEN (3) 12. There is no improvement or development planning;

13. The value of the subject is questioned;

14. The children forget quickly what has been covered;

15. There is no sense of chronology or sequence;

16. Pupils see the past as modern people doing silly things in fancy dress;

17. Pupils do not have loads of questions they want to ask;

18. Pupils know nothing worthwhile about the history of their local community.


CHARACTERISTICS OF EXCELLENT HISTORY (1)

1. Manageable investigations/problem solving;

2. Motivations;

3. Engaging with people;

4. Depth as well as overview;

5. Well-thought out tasks and questions;

6. Attention given to progression;


CHARACTERISTICS OF EXCELLENT HISTORY (2)

7. Awareness of pupil strengths and weaknesses (assessment);

8. Variety;

9. Balance – fair depictions;

10. Personalisation – working on misconceptions and attitudes;

11. Relevant and linked – map of the past;

12. Links to rest of the curriculum.


KEY ORGANISING CONCEPTS

1. Chronology, change and continuity;

2. Reasons and results (explanation);

3. Interpretations;

4. Evidence;

5. Significance;

6. Empathetic understanding;

7. Effective enquiry/communication.


KEY IDEAS FOR KS2: (1)

1. A world existed before they and those around them were born –

some things occurring many years ago;

2. The past can be described in different ways – dates, period labels, decade, century etc;

3. The past was different to today, some things have changed but some things are the same;

4. People in the past had feelings and emotions usually doing things for a reason and often for different reasons. Although there may be different reasons, some might be regarded as more important;

5. It is not always easy to work out why things happened and why people did things;



6. Reasons can be connected to results but things did not always turn out as planned;

7. People in the past did not know the same as we do today but they were not really more stupid. When things happened, it was often confusing and uncertain for people and they do not have what is called hindsight. They did not know how things would turn out;

8. We can put together a story about the past in different ways. This does not mean that one version is right and another wrong;

9. People in the past did not always think the same things were as important in their lives as you do today;

10. We find out about the past from different sorts of information such as written, artefacts, pictures. Some topics have lots of surviving information and some not very much;



11. Not all the information can be trusted. We always need to be careful when using any evidence from the past but it always tells us something;

12. It is often better when we can find more than one piece of information;

13. There is a difference between a source and evidence;

14. We never know everything that happened in the past so it means that we have to work out things that are likely to have happened and that means giving opinions and ideas rather than definite facts;

15. Because we need to tell a clear story, we need to choose which bits to use and this means deciding what is important.


1. Movement;

2. Journeys;

3. Communication;

4. Who are we;

5. Enjoyment, toys and games;

POSSIBLE THEMES (1)

6. Celebration and anniversaries;

7. Work;

8. War and peace;

9. Health;

10.Exploring;


1. Food and drink;

2. Time;

3. Homes and buildings;

4. Our local area;

5. Shops and shopping;

POSSIBLE THEMES (2)

6. Festivals and celebrations;

7. Seasons;

8. Childhood;

9. Heat and light;

10. Clothes.


WHAT ENGAGES PRIMARY CHILDREN IN HISTORY?

1. Looking at people and what they did;

2. Plenty of variety – especially with resources, activities and methods;

3. Stories;

4. Sensational but human content – blood, filth and gore BUT also uplifting tales;

5. Active and challenging work with sources such as historical pictures, videos;


WHAT ENGAGES PRIMARY CHILDREN IN HISTORY? (2)

6. Links with their own life experiences;

7. Engaging in the historical process particularly practical activities;

8. Depth work – time to probe;

9. Local and family history especially where associated with a visit or questioning people;

10.Attractive resources including artefacts, ICT, visits and visitors and making models.


WHAT PUTS PUPILS OFF HISTORY?

1. Simple extraction of information;

2. Meaningless copying and colouring;

3. Filling in worksheets;

4. Unstructured investigations and disorganised work;

5. Simplistic, closed questions;

6. Unattractive resources;

7. Pointless questions;

8. Too much information;

9. Unenthusiastic of know-it-all teachers and support staff;

10. Work not related to their world.


SOME TYPES OF QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES THAT WORK IN PRIMARY

HISTORY (1)

1. Differences for people in the past and today;

2. Using the senses;

3. Dilemmas;

4. Choices and perceptions;

5. Children in the past;



HISTORY (2)

6. Planning an investigation;

7. Personal and family changes and developments;

8. Linking evidence from 2+ sources;

9. Justifying a pupil choice, eg. a sequence, judgement;

10. Filling in part of a story;



HISTORY (3)

11. Representing different viewpoints;

12. Choosing good and bad points;

13. Solving a mystery, eg. suitcase;

14. Planning a display or event;

15. Changing media/communication;



HISTORY (4)

16. Sorting into a sequence;

17. Find deliberate mistakes;

18. Acting as advisers;

19. Highlighting parts of a source or story;

20. Labelling and captions.


MONITORING AND EVALUATION

1. Outcomes and not just plans/coverage;

2. Needs a good grasp of key features of effective history and progression;

3. Judgements should be best fit and in round and not just individual pieces of work;

4. Some assessment and monitoring is needed;

5. Analysis and feedback are essential – to pupils and teachers;

6. Development plans should include resources but not be dominated by them.


MONITORING TYPES

1. Plans, schemes and other documents including records;

2. Lessons – including joint observations, team teaching;

3. Pupil work;

4. Pupil feedback;

5. Teacher, parents and other perceptions;

6. Resources.


PROGRESSION IN HISTORY:

1. Being more selective;

2. Better use of their creative imagination;

3. Better links and connections;

4. Explaining rather than just describing why things were as they were;

5. Improved planning, organisation and communication – greater independence;

6. More confident users of the main concepts and vocabulary;

7. Growing emotional intelligence in understanding people and what makes them tick.

School Improvement Service in Partnership with ENSURING THE MOST EFFECTIVE HISTORY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS Dr Tim Lomas [email protected] London 8 th June 2010.

Documents

school improvement service

progression slide

classroom slide

silly things

different reasons

key ideas

gaha conference slide

modern people