Category Archives: History

Threshold Concepts in History, part 1

Posted on May 10, 2015 by sallythorne

I’ve been thinking a lot about progress in history and assessing it this year. There are lots of reasons for this. Firstly the demise of NC levels requires it, as we’re having to build a new model to assess progress at … Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment, History | Tagged , | 10 Comments

History revision for parents

Posted on May 1, 2015 by sallythorne

Last night I invited the parents of our year 11 cohort to a workshop to give them some tips for helping their children revise for GCSE History. A couple of weeks ago I sent home a set of American West … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged , | 1 Comment

What I’m Teaching This Week

Posted on March 16, 2015 by sallythorne

I read some blogs recently under the 28 days of blogging hashtag and it struck me that I quite often think a lot about blog posts, mentally compiling them during my commute, but very rarely put anything down. Now, I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Planning | Leave a comment

American West revision: Three Truths and a Lie

Posted on March 2, 2015 by sallythorne

I created these quizzes to use with my Y11s last year and have just got round to writing the answer sheets to go with them. Each question has 4 facts, one of which is, in some way or another, not … Continue reading →

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Christmas History Lessons: William the Conqueror

Posted on December 17, 2014 by sallythorne

I’m following Richard Kennett’s quest to ensure there is no let up to the beautiful acquisition of history knowledge, in spite of the festive season being upon us. As last year, Y12 have done their Fascist Christmas Dopolavoro program (this … Continue reading →

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Adventures in Assessment #1

Posted on November 6, 2014 by sallythorne

I have developed a pathological hatred of timelines. My old colleague, an extremely bright and gifted historian who has since left teaching to pursue a slightly mysterious career path, loved a timeline. Our schemes of work are littered with them, … Continue reading →

Posted in AfL, History | 1 Comment

More Potatoes: following up on “Tough Reading”

Posted on October 16, 2014 by sallythorne

(What is it in my brain that makes me always spell tough with a t at the end when I’m typing it?) I have finished the potato lessons. I am a bit sick of potatoes now, if I’m honest. However, … Continue reading →

Posted in History, lesshelpful | 1 Comment

Less Teacher Talk

Posted on October 15, 2014 by sallythorne

Last year, for my self-directed appraisal target, I picked to focus on talking less in class. I have a good teacher voice and I like to wax lyrical; sometimes I rely on this too heavily, particularly when I am tired. … Continue reading →

Posted in History | 1 Comment

The History Department at Open Evening

Posted on September 28, 2014 by sallythorne

We’ve had some very successful History open evening activities in the past, my favourite being a version of Call My Bluff where students challenged visitors to guess what various artefacts were and what they were used for. I still have … Continue reading →

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The Development of British Democracy

Posted on March 15, 2014 by sallythorne

We decided, a few years back, to have a go at teaching this to year 9. We like to have a couple of chronological units in each year, but year 9 was lacking and I think we’d all got a … Continue reading →

Posted in History | 1 Comment