Tom Cox explains his rationale for teaching a short unit of work about The Silk Roads.
Why I decided to Teach The Silk Roads
Teaching Issues
8 examples of big picture overviews
History teachers in England seem to agree that planning and teaching is best achieved through the Enquiry Question. And they are right to. A Rileyesque enquiry works (Riley 2000). Full stop! It is all very well to be looking for that killer enquiry question. But if you never show your[…]
Have we been blinded by the cognitive science?
Are you using retrieval practice, dual coding and interleaving? How do you know they actually work? The evidence base is actually a little shaky.
What strategies work best to boost learning?
What strategies work best to boost learning? This is the million dollar question that teachers and students need to answer to so they can be successful at school/university/ in life. Here at HRC we believe that the knowledge required to do well in history – the substantive ‘stuff” and disciplinary[…]
5 ways to use retrieval tests to make knowledge stick
So, Ofsted published some research recently which underpins their new inspection framework. It’s reassuring that they agree with us about what makes good assessment. The research states, ‘Teachers can use assessment to help them plan lessons, adapt lessons to measured gaps in knowledge and skills, and if necessary re-teach where[…]
Five New Year’s resolutions for SLT
Fingers crossed!? This is what one successful head of history hopes SLT will do in the New Year: Cancel your PiXL subscription and stop spending money on exam board spec courses. Put the £s of savings into department budgets. Give time for teachers to digest the spec materials and other[…]
Using enquiry to succeed at 9-1 GCSE history
I think I might be out of fashion. Come to think of it, on a sartorial level I have never been in fashion. But that is a digression. You see I have always been an advocate of enquiry based history. I gardened in Michael Riley’s enquiry garden way back in[…]
Catering for student curiosity outside the classroom
Advice on how to stimulate and cater for students’ curiosity about history outside the classroom – with reading list download.
So what is ‘powerful knowledge’?
Recently, with the focus centring on the curriculum again, the term ‘powerful knowledge’ seems to have entered educational parlance. It appears in discussions on in the echo-chamber that is Edutwitter. The phrase ‘powerful knowledge’ seems to hold magical, untouchable qualities in general, and in particular when it comes to history teaching. It seems[…]
Ofsted’s research into the curriculum – a quick summary
As you know Ofsted are changing their focus. They are proposing they look much more closely at the quality of the curriculum in schools. Over the last two years, they have conducted 3 research projects in schools. Knowing what their findings here are is really helpful. We live in a[…]
How to plan a broad and balanced curriculum 4: What about substantive knowledge?
Thanks to the changes proposed by Ofsted to their framework and handbook, the history teacher should be thinking hard about curriculum planning. To be honest, the history department should always be thinking about curriculum planning as curriculum intent, implementation and evaluation as this is their core business. One essential aspect[…]
Two different approaches to collaborative planning in history
I have always been a big fan of collaborative planning. The best lessons or enquiries I have ever taught have been collaboratively planned. Many of them appear on this site. The best schemes of work and curriculum models I have been involved in creating have been the product of two[…]
Ten tried and tested tips for teaching historical key terms
L.P. Hartley famously stated that ‘the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.’ The more time I spend in history classrooms the more I agree. I would go further, I don’t just think the past is a foreign country, I also think that history to many students[…]
Reducing your workload and raising attainment with low stakes tests
HistoryHomework.com’s approach has been taken directly from research into how students best learn and retain knowledge in the long term. Cognitive science tells us that the two best strategies to boost learning are practised/ repeat testing and distributed practice. You can find out more about them here. Historyhomework.com has been[…]
How to plan a broad and balanced history curriculum – sequencing learning (part 3)
So, how do you go about planning a broad and balanced history curriculum? Or to put it another way, how do you create a coherent curriculum plan? Well this has been on our agenda for years now. We have blogged about it before. Curriculum planning is going to be of[…]
How to plan a broad and balanced history curriculum – part 2
As I said in my previous post, there has been lots of interest in history curriculum planning again. This can only be a good thing. Recently, Ofsted has viewed many of the schools they inspect as exam factories where pupils are taught to pass the test at the cost of[…]
How to plan a broad and balanced history curriculum – part 1
Praise be! In the last few months, there has been lots of interest in curriculum planning again. Recently, Ofsted has viewed many of the schools they inspect as exam factories where pupils are taught to pass the test at the cost of a high-quality education. The latest Ofsted framework focuses[…]
Starting a new school (after 25 years) – a short survival guide
I often meet teachers who have this (to me) weird compulsion to get a job, do three years, move on to a new school, three years, move…and repeat. In the interests of full disclosure, I am not one of these people. I got a job in the mid-90s and[…]
A key gap analysis tool for the GCSE history classroom
HistoryHomework.com has been designed to help you raise standards in your GCSE classes, dramatically cut your workload and provide you with crucial information about your individual students’ progress. Much thought and planning have gone into creating an assessment for learning tool that works for the GCSE history teacher. Unlike some[…]
www.historyhomework.com is live
www.historyhomework.com is live and ready for you to access. You can use it to help your students revise all of the content and many of the skills required for the most popular Edexcel 9-1 GCSE courses. AQA will be launching in September. To find out which topics are covered[…]
Enquiry Questions at Key Stage 3: A necessity not a luxury.
I am often late to the party. Fact. Sometimes I don’t even turn up. The curse of the socially awkward and the residue of an inferiority complex perhaps? I know I am very late to one particularly party but why change the habits of a life time? The party I[…]
What is history? Interpretations of course.
There has been some debate recently about whether or not we should use textbooks to teach history in secondary school. And, if we should use such books, which one should be the ‘core’ text, the one that might provide the backbone of a school’s KS3 history course. Let me start[…]
Don’t tell me interpretations are too difficult for Key Stage 3
As stated in a previous blog, the teaching of historical interpretations is a crucial element of developing your student’s historical thinking. If you want to play the game where your teaching is solely about getting kids to ‘pass the test’, to do well in the 9-1 GCSEs then this is[…]
Key Stage 3 curriculum map
Neil Bates and I have been working together from afar for many years. However, we are lucky enough to have been working together in the same school recently. We have used our frees carefully and have met once a week in the late Spring and early in the summer term,[…]
7 steps to raising and sustaining attainment through curriculum planning
Are interventions worth it? How much time do you spend on ‘interventions’? How busy are you with year 11/12/13 weekly intervention, after school revision sessions, lunch time drop ins, emails home for those who haven’t and probably won’t ever attend, logging this attendance on SIMs… All of these things take[…]
Giving effective written feedback and still managing workload
We are all told how important feedback is. Written feedback especially. The research. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) research states “feedback studies tend to show very high effects on learning”. We know feedback is important. SLTs love looking for this feedback as they can make it part of their accountability[…]
How does the history teacher help increase the progress of pupil premium students?
The progress of pupil premium students has been a hot topic over the last few years, even for the humble history teacher. Arms length control The government have spent millions on this vulnerable group of students and want to see bang for their buck. This pressure has been passed down[…]
A Traveller’s guide to planning for success in the 9-1 GCSE
A Traveller’s guide to planning for success in the 9-1 GCSE: I have recently become fascinated by the history of the American West. There are so many great personalities and stories when you start to look. Visiting a number of these sites in the summer really made this history resonate[…]
Helping students to write the dreaded ‘narrative account analysing’ question
Struggling to answer Edexcel’s new narrative account analysing question? Here’s how one teacher tried to make the abstract concrete in her students’ brains.
The Giddy Guide to Oral History
A guide to conducting and oral history project from Giddy – a brilliant new resource which, explores teenage memories from the post-war era
