For all the satisfaction I’ve got out of creating and using many ‘bigger’ activities such as structured role-plays, I’ve had just as much enjoyment out of developing much simpler but extremely effective activities which target specific problems students have with topics. I’ll start with a favourite example of turning your room into a map, in this case with the aim of helping A level students realise that Henry VIII was not the effortlessly powerful figure in Europe they assumed he was.

The problem that students had was their preconception of Henry VIII as all-powerful king in England was carrying this into how they saw England and Henry’s power in Europe – that he could do much as he liked and that it would be easy for him to achieve his aim of glorious successes. This of course meant students were very much under-estimating the comparative strengths of other nations. The solution was to create a map of Europe in the classroom as follows (this is a brief summary – there’s more detail in the activity description listed at the end of this article):

The first step was to set up the room as a map of western Europe by arranging the students into countries. Single students represented England and Scotland, France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope etc and were placed in geographical relation to each other. Next I added additional students to represent the military and financial strengths of the countries. There was still one Scot but three English – and eight for France and so on. It rapidly became clear that England was a relatively low-level power.

Thirdly, we identified the religion of each state and used coloured tabards to identify Catholic and Protestant states, again giving a strong visual sense of England being a minority state amongst much more powerful Catholic nations. Finally I explained that the focus of many events was in northern Italy and we represented this by turning everyone to face Italy – so suddenly nearly everyone had turned their backs on England. With England on the fringe of events and less powerful than expected how hard would it be for Henry to achieve the glory he was seeking?

This physical representation got this point across much more effectively than any amount of reading or exposition and students had built up their understandings of the geography of early modern Europe, the relative strengths of individual countries and the problems Henry VIII faced in having an impact on European events – and rethought their preconceptions about Henry VIII’s power in the context of Europe as a whole.

Where do some of the ideas come from?

Turning diagrams and tables in books into physical activities

That example of Henry VIII in Europe, along with quite a few other activities in this article (and yet more on ThinkingHistory) were developed from diagrams and tables I’d designed for textbooks – and then realised that the diagrams would work even better if turned into 3D activities using students and the space of the classroom. The whole point of a diagram or table containing statistics is to distil the essence of a topic or concept in order to achieve real clarity – but making the table or diagram physical adds extra dimensions of physicality and involvement which has far more impact on students’ understandings.

So, if you see a diagram or table of statistics in a book it’s worth thinking ‘would that work physically and would doing it physically (before students see it on paper) boost their understanding?’

In addition to the example on Henry VIII and the introduction (above) I've described this technique in more detail in a PDF.

It discusses a variety of ways in which you can use space and students to create physical maps, tables and family trees that identify patterns and relationships as clearly as possible, and overcome specific problems that students have with topics:

• Physical Maps – all kinds of possibilities!

• Who’s Who? Creating a map of people

• Family Trees – with real people in them!

• Creating Physical Charts and Tables – how fast did the population grow?

• Factors Diagrams

Download the PDF HERE …

Who’s round the table? HERE …

 

Population – continuity and change HERE …

 

Physical family trees HERE …

 

Which one if Piedmont again, sir? HERE …

 

Henry VIII, Wolsey and Europe HERE …

 

Elizabeth I and Europe in 1558 HERE …

 

Getting started with the Crusades HERE …

 

Pare – why did it happen then? HERE …

 

Bringing Medicine factors to life HERE …

 

Making sense of Hadrian’s Wall HERE …