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SHP History for New Key Stage 3

Series editors: Dale Banham, Chris Culpin, Ian Dawson

SHP’s new series for the revised KS3 National Curriculum has been several years in development, not rushed together once the draft NC was made public. Many of the ideas in the revised orders were being discussed and tried out in SHP Inset and resources before the new Programme of Study was drafted and, in many ways, the new PoS is built on ideas formulated by SHP. Therefore these resources have been through several stages of redrafting and refinement and the result is a true course - coherent and cohesive across KS3 - rather than a set of books linked only by a set of design principles.

Y7 Update

The Y7 book is being published now (April 08) and, if you've ordered an inspection copy or the evaluation pack, you will receive your copy by the end of the month.

If you wish to order an evaluation pack [ click here ].

If you are evaluating the book for purchase then the notes on this page may help, particularly the Key Points below.

And lastly, if you have any queries, please contact me using the contact form on this website [ click here ].

Key Points for Teachers Reviewing the Y7 Book

1. There is Far More Here Than You Need

We haven’t assumed that any one class will do all this. Instead we've included lots of material to offer choice and variety – plus the teachers’ book describes lots of strategies for saving time and being more effective.

e.g. Everyday Life (pp. 134-153)

You would divide topics up amongst class to re-write the guidebook on page 132. It’s not intended that pupils would do all topics.

e.g. Roman Empire (pp. 34-41)

Each group within the class would tackle a different person.

There are also sections which are optional – some teachers might do them with some classes – others might not:

e.g. The Crusades section (pp. 88-97); visit to Baghdad (pp. 158-165)

e.g. Norman Conquest – you can tackle the Bayeux Tapestry activities (pp. 60-63) or the work on the longer sources (pp. 64-69 )

e.g. choice of concluding activities (pp. 208-217)

2. The 'Big Story' Pages Provide Coherence Across the Whole Series

The Big Story pages sum up the key points and keep the story going across time:

e.g. Empire (pp. 46-47) and see the examples from Y8 and Y9 in the Evaluation Pack

e.g. Also pp. 124-125, 188-189 and other Big Story pages

3. The 'Doing History' Pages Focus on Concepts and Skills and Help Pupils Progress across the Series

We’ve headlined these concepts and skills to help pupils do better and help with assessment:

e.g. pp. 70-71 and pp. 112-113

4. There’s Lots of Fun

Good teaching and learning don’t eradicate fun!

e.g. Top Trumps cards (pp. 120-123)

e.g. True or False game (pp. 128-129)

5. The CD is Far More than Just the Book on a Screen

There are lots of extra activities e.g. quizzes and decision-making activities.

You can listen to sources to make them far more accessible:

e.g. long sources on 1066 (pp. 64-69)

The people in artwork speak to you:

e.g. villagers of Allton (pp. 170-173)

Making the Series Cohesive

How have we made the series so cohesive?

1. The story of each strand of history laid down in the NC is built explicitly across KS3 (e.g. political power, conflict). At the end of each unit, the Big Story page summarises or asks pupils to summarise the key developments in the relevant strand so pupils can re-use those points when returning to that strand later in KS3

2. Pupils’ understanding of Key processes and Key concepts laid down in the NC is developed progressively in Doing History pages. Each concept and process emerges naturally from an enquiry (e.g. using evidence from work on 1066) with new challenges appearing in each year

Our Aim

Our aim is that, by the end of KS3, pupils will have gained a real sense of achievement from being able to tell these Big Stories across time, at a level appropriate to their abilities and they will be also able to use the full range of processes and concepts as a springboard for GCSE success. Instead of ending their compulsory history armed with a range of interesting but often isolated details and stories they will have a coherent sense of the past and may even have created their own histories using Moviemaker and other elements of our IT package.

We have taken advantage of the range of new technologies to integrate the use of books, CDs and websites, using each where it is most appropriate as you can see below.

The Pupils’ Books

The Pupils’ books provide the core material that:

• covers of the statutory content, processes and concepts
• shows how to incorporate existing widely-taught topics within the newly-defined ‘range & content’
• mixes enjoyable, active, effective overviews with enthusing depth studies to reduce the pressure on curriculum time
• provides a series of memorable and engaging activities because, if pupils are to re-use their learning, it first has to be made memorable for them
• explicitly develops and consolidates pupils' understanding of chronological frameworks
• demonstrates how to integrate content coverage with developing understanding of processes and concepts
• shows how to split aspects of topics among the class to save much-needed time but still produce worthwhile learning and end-products
• develops literacy, oracy and communications skills and links fully to citizenship targets

The CDs

The CDs provide you with:

• an interactive version of many of the activities in the Pupils’ book
• together with a range of other activities that are better suited to presentation on whiteboards
• many of the key images from the pupils’ book with, for example, audio files recorded by professional actors replacing speech bubbles and text.
• activities which enable pupils to record and save key points from the Big Stories pages (content strands) and Doing History pages (processes and concepts)
• ready-created Big Stories across time and the images to enable pupils to create their own Big Stories using Moviemaker or similar packages
• a vast resource bank of images for use however you wish

The Teachers’ Books

 The teachers’ books guide you through each section of material, showing:

• how the various resources can be integrated,
• identifying teaching strategies and linking to material on our associated websites
• explaining how each section fits into the bigger picture of the whole KS3 History course
• suggesting activities for assessment
• providing a wealth of photocopiable resources

The Websites

The websites concerned are this one (ThinkingHistory) and the SHP site.

We will use these sites to provide full scripts for kinaesthetic activities, best described and resourced on a website rather than crammed into a teachers’ book.

For example you can already find several activities on this site that are linked to the new SHP Year 7 book:

Becket Mystery

Wars in the Middle Ages - an outline

Black Death comes to Allton

Over time we will also be able to use the websites to up-date resources with suggestions from teachers and add new materials or versions of activities.

And finally – a subjective editorial response …

As one of the editors and authors of this series I’m not exactly the most objective witness but I might as well say this – that of the 70-plus books I’ve written and edited, this series excites me more than any before. It’s partly because of the melding of books, CDs and websites, partly because of the promise of real coherence across KS3 which will enable pupils’ to emerge with far more than a range of quite separate bits of knowledge, partly because of the willingness of the Hodder-Murray editorial team to cope with our many drafts and improvements because they know it leads to better resources and therefore more effective learning. So this series is really worth looking at. You may not buy into it but I think it will help you in adjusting to the new NC and your pupils to enjoy their history and learn more effectively.

Series details - scroll down to view

Top of the page

Titles

Introduction

Update

Evaluation – Key Points

Series Cohesion

Series Aims

Pupil Books

CDs

Teacher Books

Websites

And finally ...

 

Year 7 Resources

Year 8 Resources

Year 9 Resources

 

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