Fri-dea 2: Getting Critical with Historians I wanted to get my Year 12 group to use historians more critically in their lessons. Essentially they were just reading them and using them like facts. To help tackle this I got them to pre-read 3 or 4 short extracts. In groups they then had to summarise the interpretation of each historian. The real challenge came when I asked them to put supporting or challenging evidence from their previously developed knowledge against each historian to weigh up the validity of their argument. The more advanced ones were asked to connect up historians making similar points. Led to a much more valuable discussion about the historiography of the topic. |
Ford's Fri-dea Choice: Mixing up Quick Fire Questions Each week I will endeavour to select a great idea I have seen in a lesson in schools and share it with you. This week I was quite taken by a simple but effective extension of end of class questioning. This is for those situations where you find yourself with 5 minutes left for whatever reasons. Instead of the usual approach of the teacher asking various pupils to answer questions on the day's topic, the onus was put on the student. The teacher began the chain by asking a question. The chosen pupil then had to answer the question and come up with a relevant question of their own. A nice way to get them to think about the lesson content in a different way. |