Lesson Plan: History ages 13-16

Information

Test yourself

Classroom Activity

Learning objectives

  • To be able to comprehend that history is constructed from a variety of sources.
  • To be able to differentiate between fact and fiction and discuss if there is a role for fiction in understanding history.
  • To be able to construct a timeline using Internet research by finding and crosschecking historical sources.

Success criteria

  • Can compare fact and fiction in history and discuss if fiction has a role in the understanding of history.
  • Can construct a timeline using a range of Internet sources.
  • Can constructively review work, and make recommendations, in order to make improvements.

Thinking skills

  • Analysing: discriminate, examine, question, test, criticise
  • Understanding: select, paraphrase, report, locate, explain
  • Remembering: reproduce, list, state, define, express

Resources

  • Internet.
  • Exercise books and writing equipment.
  • References to the story of Sindbad the Sailor, which may include Internet references to the works, copies of films, animated cartoons or novels.  Teachers will need to source these themselves.

Starter activity

  • Discuss the story of Sindbad the Sailor, one of the stories that appears in editions of A Thousand and One Nights, and discuss what role it and other fictional accounts have in the understanding of history.

Main activities

  • Introduce the concept of timelines and why they help in understanding history.
  • Reinforce the concept of crosschecking Internet sources before adding information to your timeline.
  • Guide and monitor the students through the activity sheet.

Plenary

  • Peer assessment:  What improvements could be made to each group’s presentation:
  • Give constructive feedback in the form of 2 positives and 1 recommendation, or ‘2 stars and a wish’.