Introducing the …
Filmed Activities on YouTube
Back in 2005 I made a DVD – it was the latest technology at the time! – which showed me demonstrating the use of six activities with trainee-teachers. This was done as a companion to the website and as part of my funded National Teaching Fellowship project.
Copies of the DVD were given free of charge to PGCE tutors and other organizations and the remainder were sold to individual schools. Happily, by the time all those DVDs had been distributed YouTube had come along and so, to give the material some longevity, we made the individual sections of the DVD available on YouTube.
See the activities on YouTube HERE …
The full playing time of all the items is 2 hours but they can be viewed individually.
The information below provides explanation of the content of the short films and offers suggestions for how to get the most of out of them.
Aims and Context
The purpose of these six filmed demonstrations is to show the sequence of movement in each activity, how students can be prompted to think through their answers and how structured and controlled the activities are - all the features that you have to visualise for yourself if you’re reading a text description of the activity. Interspersed amongst the demonstrations are interviews with five teachers who add practical advice and discuss the benefits and impact of using these techniques with their students in school.
Your first reaction may well be ‘these aren’t real students in a real school’ but, unfortunately reality wasn’t practically possible! Ideally I’d have filmed real 11 and 14 year olds but logistics and cost made this impossible to organize – re-takes are inevitable because of sound problems and a host of other reasons and would have made fitting into a school schedule of lessons impossible. Cost also dictated filming in two sessions, not over a much more expensive six sessions – so this was the best I could manage in budget.
That said, the choreography of the movement, the use of a room as a map and a host of other aspects of these techniques don’t change whatever the age of the students. The students in the films were trainee primary teachers, a few of whom I’d taught two years previously but the majority I didn’t know at all and they definitely wondered what they’d got themselves into! This lack of knowledge of the students and their awareness of the filming (cameras, mobile microphone etc) accounts for at least some of the wooden-ness of their responses. With hindsight I’d have filmed and cut it all somewhat differently but it wouldn’t be life if I’d got it all right and ideal first time!
Filmed Activities:
Contents
The six activities shown 'in action' are listed below. These are intended to exemplify teaching techniques and to explore how you can use these techniques to tackle particular problems students have in learning about many topics, not just these topics – so please don’t feel you have to teach these topics to watch the extracts.
The links below take you to the activity here on ThinkingHistory – providing a detailed description of the objectives, set-up, downloads etc. to complement the filming.
A structured role-play helping students to gain an initial understanding of events appreciate that events, that those events could have turned out differently and an understanding of why sources present particular viewpoints. |
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A structured role-play helping students understand the nature of conquest and occupation, why William may have taken the decisions he did and how e.g. the differences in languages may have affected how the two ‘sides’ felt about each other. |
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A washing line activity, used here to explore both the impact of a major event, to help students visualise the concept of change and continuity and to create a structure for extended writing. |
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This topic can feel to students to be about buildings and royal policy so it was constructed to focus on the people of a community and to explore their feelings about a monastery and about the effects of its closure. |
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A very simple example of a physical timeline which can help students overcome the problem of seeing a big picture across time. |
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This A level activity is an example of using a structured role-play to introduce a highly complex series of events to students so that they gain an initial knowledge and understanding of events, people and motives which will then enable them to read demanding texts more effectively and confidently. |
General points to consider while watching the extracts
Now for the main points to consider while watching the film extracts:
1. What are the main objectives of the activity and how do they relate to problems students have in learning and understanding?
2. How does physical movement and visual representation contribute to achieving those objectives?
3. What do you need to plan ahead in terms of room arrangements, props and resources, choice of students for roles and planning your own movements and questions as teacher?
4. What would you amend or improve in order to achieve the objectives more effectively?
5. Were any opportunities missed to achieve other objectives and outcomes?
6. Identify other topics where these techniques would help students improve their knowledge and understanding.
Some additional questions on individual activities
And now for some questions specific to each activity.
1066 – Could it have happened differently?
How would you keep the students acting as chroniclers more engaged and involved – e.g. ask them questions as you go along? Give them structured worksheets?
See the activity HERE …
Je Suis le Roi
When and why might you refer back to this activity, particularly the rebellions and treatment of conquered people, later in KS3?
See the activity HERE …
Norman Conquest: Change & Continuity ‘Washing Line’
How might you use this simple model in a more complex way, perhaps to stimulate research, with A level students?
How could you build on the physical representation of structuring writing e.g. paragraphs and essays?
See the activity HERE …
Dissolution of the Monasteries
One piece of feedback points out that only one student is engaged at any one moment (see Feedback section of activity) and suggests an alternative way round this problem. Would this suggestion be of benefit? How else might you increase overall involvement?
Why would this activity or something similar make a good way in to studying Henry VIII and the Reformation?
See the activity HERE …
Medicine Timeline
What other variations on this kind of timeline activity could you use?
How often and how speedily would you do this activity?
See the activity HERE …
A level Activity: Wars of the Roses
Put yourself in the position of students starting to study the topic introduced in this activity. In what ways does it help you develop understanding and confidence?
What are the problems and advantages of using this kind of activity with A level students?
See the activity HERE …
Wider Applications
Feedback shows that the uses of these extracts have been wider than I ever imagined - departmental CPD and mentoring of trainees were anticipated but others include the DVD being shown at parents' evenings to show teaching techniques and also at whole-school training to show what the history department does well.
Finally… Thanks, Nick
Finally – a big thank you to Nick Dennis for not only cajoling me into agreeing to put this material on YouTube but also for actually doing the work in transferring the DVD material to YouTube.