Pupils are pitched straight into the role as history detectives using mainly visual clues to piece together the possible reasons why Rosa Parks might be famous to then have their initial thoughts confirmed by a teacher told story of the seminal event of 1955 which pupils then act out.

The lesson concludes with pupils actively watching a short video of the event to see if it has been accurately portrayed.

Learning objectives

  • Children make sensible deductions from clues e.g.something to do with a bus, white and black people, not nowadays
  • They draw on the clues to create an accurate reconstruction of events through drama
  • They are able to make sensible evaluative comments about the way a short video portrays the event thereby grasping the idea that there might be more than one interpretation of an iconic event

Activity 1

History detectives

11 large colourful images are displayed around the room (downloaded and printed from the PowerPoint below). These constitute the evidence the pupils will investigate. They work in teams of detectives, 4 per team each with their own clipboard (not provided) and make ‘history detective’ visors (optional) to add to the sense of drama. Their job is to find as

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