Now that all schools have to teach a thematic study I thought I’d share my experience of observing hundreds of GCSE SHP lessons over almost 20 years. I have distilled them down to just my top ten. They don’t claim to be unique ideas; they are merely my analysis of what works best. And it’s not just me that thinks so. I would like to acknowledge my debt to Ian Dawson whose intelligent ideas pervade this article.
1. Work on chronology in all its forms in a fun way
I’m not just talking sequencing here, or tedious timelines, but interactive tasks which require students to discuss concepts such as: Duration, Interval, Contemporaneity
We all know the consequences of students who don’t have a firm grasp of different periods. Not only do they risk writing about the wrong period, they also fail to see the links between key individuals, events and developments.
One
