Paula Lobo speaking about sources, who have been thinking about the challenge that we have to bring people to life in words. We discuss this briefly.

When students are making inferences from sources, it is really tricky to judge what is a valid inference. We read the literature review of this topic and discuss the problem of language in written sources – does it reflect reality? – and can comprehension and evaluation be divorced?

We look at a range of sources on Churchill, that Paula used with y9 and now at A-level. Students pull out some of the words and discuss whether they are positive or negative, by placing it on a continuum and discussing whether the meaning of the word might have changed over time (eg the word dictator might not have been such a negative one at the start of the 20th century).

Once students have played around with the words on a continuum, they can start thinking about who might use those words to describe Churchill and why. Using Wiltshire’s language of uncertainty, students can use the sources to write about what people thought of Churchill at the time.

Tudors. We look at Paula’s inspiring work on using multiple choice questions to help students assess sources which you can read here: https://lobworth.com/2017/10/21/so-thats-what-you-mean-miss-sourcework-and-multiple-choice-statements/ – this would be an excellent way of helping students to summarise the message of an interpretation, I think, which my lost struggle with for far longer than they should.

Paula has applied this to visual sources in year 9. She gives students statements that forces them to look back at the caption, consider the purpose etc – things they will need to do automatically as they move through their history education.

She also uses knowledge testing alongside source evaluation: in this test demo, the knowledge they need to answer the questions on the first page is required to help them analyse the source on the second page.

This very clearly spells out the importance of contextual knowledge when analysing historical sources.

Lots of really helpful things to think about here!