A Practical Guide to Teaching History in the Secondary School

Chapter Three - Example Bosplan

Example B: Understanding the Concept of Historical Evidence

Class: 7B Ability: mixed

(Bold text shows where an objective has been ‘tracked through’ into the lesson itself.)

Previous knowledge: History at KS2.

Aim: To develop further (from KS2) the pupils’ understanding of the concept of historical evidence.

Objectives for the pupils: To enable the pupils to do the following:

To give some indication of their understanding of historical evidence gained at KS2.
To consider the significance of evidence from 1998 to historians living in 2098.
In groups, to compile a list of the range of historical evidence from an examination of a set of photographs and to add to this list from their own knowledge (KSU 4a).
To complete a spray diagram using guidance from the board.
In groups, to analyse another set of pictures to find out what may be discovered about the people and the times depicted (Key Element 4b).

Objectives	Teacher activity	Pupil activity
1	Classroom rules reminder. Questions re. knowledge of evidence from KS2.	Answer questions.
2	Introduce pupils to ‘chest’ of items to be discovered in 2098. What would they learn about 2006?	Answer questions.
3	Place pupils in groups. Describe first task.	Pupils help to compile a list of the range of historical evidence, using both the photos, and their own knowledge.
4	Feedback including the construction of a spray diagram on the board.	Answer questions and then complete a spray diagram.
5	Introduce final task re. analysis and interpretation of evidence.	Pupils in groups try to find out what can be learned of the times and people in the photos.
5	Final feedback on the conclusions; summary on the board.	Answer questions.
	Re-cap questions: what have we learned from this lesson?	Answer questions.