Advance notice of books to support the ‘strengthened’ GCSE specifications.
Across the summer we have been revising three books to meet the requirements of the new specifications. These books will be published later this term and further information on publication dates will be made available here as soon as possible. The three books are:
Keep an eye on the Hodder website for further details:
www.hoddereducation.co.uk/History
Ian
Frequent holidays on Hadrian’s Wall have made me an enthusiastic explorer of evidence from Roman Britain. One particularly intriguing aspect is the extent of travel around the empire which led to people from all regions of the empire spending time or settling in Britain. Sadly there’s never been enough space in the KS3 books I’ve written to explore this in enough depth. However a new website created by the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading, provides a wonderful opportunity to investigate life in Roman Britain and particularly the issue of migration and the diversity of the Roman empire.
The website www.romansrevealed.com has been created in collaboration with the Runnymede Trust (an educational race equality charity) and Caroline Lawrence (author of The Roman Mysteries). It enables students to explore life in Roman Britain through four individuals, either through ‘excavating’ their graves or by following short stories written by Caroline Lawrence. Through videos, they can also hear from the research team and learn about the work of archaeologists. A teaching resource pack and activity sheets can be downloaded from the website.
In fact it’s a really interesting exploration of what recent archaeological research can tell us for people of any age. The department at the University of Reading examined more than 150 skeletons from Roman Britain, identifying a significant number of migrants, particularly in late Roman York and Winchester. Scientific analysis indicated that up to a third of the individuals sampled could be classed as non-local, with a smaller number possibly from outside the UK from both warmer and colder climates. Women and children were amongst these migrants, clearly contradicting the perception of ‘The Romans’ as just Italian soldiers.
Visit Romans Revealed [ HERE … ]
Ian
Many thanks to everyone who contributed so brilliantly to Saturday evening’s plenary session at SHP Conference 2012. And if anyone wants to follow up some of the activities see the following links:
The Timeline Activity (with multiple variants) is on the ThinkingHistory website at:
And the ‘Summarise a Period in 200 Words’ activity is also there at:
If anyone wants a copy of the ‘script’ from Saturday I’m happy to email it – just email me at ThinkingHistory but remember that it’s a hazy guide to what really happened!
Ian
How do you want a conference to begin? A worthy lecture?
If so, this session would not have suited you. Richard and Neil provided 50 minutes of practical, engaging activities for GCSE – all designed and proven to deepen students’ thinking, knowledge and enjoyment of History.
All activities are a product of classroom experiences AND listening to and thinking carefully about students’ reactions to their lessons.
A key point about the activities is not that they are an alternative to preparing and writing answers to GCSE questions but that they are a necessary precursor of successful ‘exam practice’!
For more of Neil and Richard’s work see:
www. historyresourcecupboard.co.uk
Ian
The second book in SHP’s Enquiring History series is now available – Chris Culpin’s The Russian Revolution.
You’ll see straightaway that the book provides the accessible, readable approach we’ve been aiming for as Chris introduces early 20th century Russia by recreating a train journey across Russia, illustrated by some remarkable colour photographs.
However don’t be fooled into thinking that accessibility means an absence of challenge. This book will challenge the best A level candidates, exploring in depth the key issues of the period up to 1924 and reflecting the latest academic research thanks to the advice of Dr. Matthias Neumann of The University of East Anglia.
To see a sample chapter on the Hodder Education site see:
www.hoddereducation.co.uk Russian Revolution
For more information on the book, also on Hodder’s site, see:
www.hoddereducation.co.uk Enquiring_History_The_Russian_Revolution
Whilst the teachers’ support material is available on-line here, on the SHP site, free of charge.
www.schoolshistoryproject.org.uk
The book is found on Amazon at: The-Russian-Revolution-1894-1924
Ian
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer … well, spring really
By the publication of the first book
In our new A level series.
Mmmm. Possibly not rivalling Shakespeare but hopefully useful to teachers far and wide. With the publication of the first book in a new series we realize how hard we’ve been paddling for the last three years to reach this point. From first thinking to finding authors to approving individual book plans to identifying academic consultants to editing and rewrites and, yes, more rewrites and now – a book. And there’s only another twelve in the pipeline from “nearly–published next off the assembly” line to first drafts.
So, as you may have read in an earlier blog, we are aiming to do something different – create readable, challenging, up-to-date with modern scholarship books that focus on the history and on developing students’ skills as independent learners. Each chapter is an enquiry with an overarching activity set up at the beginning, guiding students through the chapter so they can be confident of reaching a well-evidenced conclusion. These can be used at home, individually or with friends or they can be used in the classroom, supported by the teachers’ resources that are available FREE here on the SHP site.
The first book out is The Wars of the Roses and you can get a preview of what a chapter looks like here
This is a whole sample chapter – look out for the Enquiry Focus panel on p.117, the blue boxes helping students build their answers to the overarching activity, use of colour to help students make sense of family trees,
You don’t do The Wars of the Roses – well, look anyway as it may provide ideas for teaching and show what to expect in later books in the series. Later this year we’ll publish
For more on the approach of the series as a whole click here.
And for those of you who do teach The Wars of the Roses – or who are tempted to do so – keep an eye on the Thinkinghistory website over the summer where I’ll be adding new resources for teaching this most fascinating of topics.
Ian
Fed up with reading historians and politicians pontificating about History teaching without having any respect for the evidence or even trying to look at the evidence in the first place?
For a refreshing change read Richard J Evans in the New Statesman
www.newstatesman.com/education/2012/01/british-history-schools
Ian
Saturday 26 November saw our first London conference in the excellent conference facilities at the British Library. This was a tremendous venue and our thanks go to the very helpful and supportive team at the British Library – we can certainly look forward to next year’s London event with great confidence.
It’s never easy to decide how best to report a conference and its workshops. Putting a workshop PowerPoint on-line is almost always unsatisfactory as the discussion that makes sense of it and brings it to life can’t be recaptured. There’s also the moral debate about whether it’s fair to those who paid to give away resources for free.
So this year we’ve experimented with a series of subjective ‘reflections’ on aspects of the London Conference:
• one was posted on the day - about Michael Wood’s plenary
• the second the following day - Christine Counsell’s plenary
• and the final review, the longest, a few days later – see these reflections
If you have any comments or responses to any of these reflections we’d be delighted to hear from you through the reply panel below.
Ian
It’s impossible to imagine anyone better than Christine Counsell to keep the conference bubbling to the end – vitality, positive tone, body language, utter conviction. Impossible as ever for mere words to do justice to her session – unless I was transformed into John Milton at his ‘Paradise Lost’-writing peak.
The full title was “Disciplinary history for all: Why it matters, why it is so difficult and why we should not give up” – and the best I can do is just note down some of my jottings:
(sounds like a Christmas present which has been wrapped up to look like one thing but then turns out to be another – much more pleasurable and rewarding for working through the extra layers of wrapping paper
(and bright ideas have to be integrated not isolated – how will they become part of the warp and weft of your course?)
As ever I was left feeling both inspire and humbled. I’ve seen George Best play football, David Gower score 100 and Ian McKellen on stage. And listening to Christine has the same effect – you know you’ll never match what you’ve seen but you’re inspired to have a go.
Ian