SATH Teachmeet: Making and breaking the History mould- helping create outstanding lessons

As part of Scotland’s Firestarter festival

SATH Teachmeet: Making and breaking the History mould- helping create outstanding lessons

We want to change how students look at the past from learning about ‘stuff’ to thinking in questions that disrupt their assumptions and challenge them to look at the world in a new light. We will be running a series of mini workshops to look at how people have tried to do this and to develop new ways for us all to use. Last year’s event was a huge success, particularly for people new to teaching History.

The event runs 28th Saturday 2017, 10-12pm. Register here.

This event is organised by the Scottish Association of Teachers ofHistory (SATH) in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland. We are the leading voice for History teaching in Scotland. We aim to argue for the merits of great History and help practitioners and non-experts alike learn and communicate about History.

Sessions include:

Our Place 

Supporting young people access, explore, understand, share and celebrate their heritage to support pathways to learning, skills and employment. Find out where and how people have taken out every child in the school!

Judge and jury?! Building strong answers 

Most pupils demonstrate an ability to ‘play the examination game’ when answering questions like ‘Who was to blame for the Cold War?’ They know that they need to write ‘on the one hand X, but on the other hand Y’. However, pupils often struggle with the last part of the formal essay – making judgements that actually answer the question. This session suggests that this reluctance is due to a lack of confidence, not a lack of knowledge or ability. It uses ideas from the History of Art and an approach called ‘free form assessment’ to demonstrate how children can be encouraged to have faith in their own historical judgements. The session shares the outcomes of this approach and has practical ideas that you can use in class.

Enquiry questions – are they the answer to life the universe and everything?

For example: ‘Was World War I a success?’ ‘Why aren’t you dead?- a study of changes in Medicine.’ ‘How do we get S2 to look at interpretations of the Cold War?’ Bring lessons that work, or that don’t, and we’ll help you to create an enquiry that will make your term go with a (big) bang.