Using the Activities - Key Points
This page provides the key points about using the activities.
Don't just print & use
This page is summed up by this heading – don’t just print off an activity on this site and hope it will work five minutes later. You need to think about
- what you want to achieve with the activity
- the individual nature of the class
- where the lesson fits into the class’s week
and a variety of other things! Each activity needs personalizing to you and each of your classes. That’s the trouble with good teaching. It isn’t easy. It requires lots of thinking and planning and the headings below deal with different aspects of this planning.
What works with one class ...
… doesn’t necessarily work with another. I had a conversation with a young teacher a couple of years ago who was concerned that an activity that had worked well with his Y7 class the previous year had just gone disappointingly. He was focussing on the fact that it was another Year 7 class with a similar spread of ability – but there’s lots more variables to take into account, as you can see from the ‘it depends’ list below. What works with one class on a Tuesday morning after Maths may not work with a very similar class last thing on a Thursday afternoon after PE. And classes can look similar but be deceptively different – you don’t have to change ten personalities in a class of thirty to change the whole class’s outlook. Sometimes one of two different characters can affect the attitude of a whole class.
So … think about whether an activity will help an individual class, not if it’s suitable for a year 7 or 10.
It depends ...
PGCE trainees have used these activities successfully but you should first think carefully about the following:
- What teaching styles are the class used to?
- Do you know enough names to stay in control?
- What is their previous lesson and how will it affect their behaviour?
- What is the room like and the time of day?
- What day of the week is it and is a holiday in the offing?
- And even – what will the weather be like? (Beware windy days!)
Even then there’s still the ‘it depends’ question. Some classes aren’t at all comfortable with a change of style of lesson so they may not like you doing something different. Others really take to the chance to stop writing and get on their feet. The trouble is you can only learn by talking to your mentor and by experimenting – taking risks – but, in part, that’s what being a trainee or NQT is about.
What does the activity link to?
Adapt each activity to fit the needs of the course. You need to know WHY you’re using an activity – how it fits into an overall course, be it KS3, GCSE or A level and what you hope it will achieve in terms of learning. History courses, no matter whether they’re at KS2 or university level, should never be just a collection of individual ‘greatest hits’ lessons. You could put together such a course from the activities on this site and the lessons might be very popular – lots of fun – but what would they add up to? It’s vital that activities should be integrated into a whole course and this means being very clear what you hope to achieve with an activity – and your objectives should encompass two areas - linking the topic into the students' knowledge and understanding of course content and of the process of doing history.
Linking the topic into students’ knowledge and understanding of the course content
For example, in terms of the NC KS3 operating from 2008, you might use Je Suis le Roi to develop understanding of the power of the crown in the Middle Ages, to reflect on the impact of conflict on ordinary people and to think about why some rebellions and protests fail.
Linking the topic into students’ understanding of the process of doing history
For example, you could use Events of 1066 – could it have happened differently? to develop students’ understanding of both sources and of interpretations.
Using that link
In both cases the crucial question to ask yourself is ‘when, in the rest of the course, will I ask the class ‘Do you remember when we did ….?’ If you’re never going to refer back to something – what does that say about the value of the activity or topic within your course?
How often should I use these activities?
Not every lesson – or you’d be exhausted by the end of the first week! But it depends on the activity. Playing the role of King John in a hot-seating activity is likely to be much more demanding on you than a ‘washing line’ activity. And a class doesn’t need a hyper-active lesson every time – one really good involving role-play may set up four or five weeks of more ordinary (but highly focussed and demanding) lessons. So you don’t need to win an Oscar for activity every session – think about the ebb and flow of a course across a term and think about the variety of activities students will undertake. Too much variety can be confusing, too little risks boredom.
In that context, activities need to be repeated frequently enough for students to get used to a style of activity. The first time they do a living graph or washing line activity they’ll be adjusting to the style of activity as well as the content – next time they’ll be more confident and better able to focus on the content and next time …
And afterwards ...
You also need to reflect on an activity afterwards whether it’s gone well or less well! What determined that success or failure – this is vital for using the activity another time. Don’t just assume that what worked (or didn’t) with one class is therefore a guaranteed success or doomed to failure with all other classes. That’s what the Reflections section in each activity is for – to prompt thinking about the use and effectiveness – and how to improve the impact of an activity.
