Teaching history: ideas for classes

Dionysus

Hi,

Any other history teachers around here? I'm doing the PGDE and teaching the life in ancient Rome module to 1st years for the next few weeks and I'm wondering what sort of ideas you all may have.

I'm currently planning on dividing the class into 7 groups of 3 or 4 students and directing each group as it researches, writes and acts out a famous scene from Roman life. I'm envisaging that the planning will take four classes with the actual scenes, where the pupils will be dressed up and have made their shields/swords etc, being c. 5 minutes each in the fifth class.


I'm not sure if this is too much time to devote to planning this. But any ideas that will make for interesting classes will be much appreciated. I can't find a single website that could be helpful in making these lesson plans.

eager tortoise

I did my PGDE last year and also taught Ancient Rome. Its quite nice to teach because its an isolated topic that you can cover on your own and doesn't impinge on whatever the co-operating teacher is doing. Also its quite fun with a lot of scope for projects etc like the one you're describing

A great site for teaching Ancient Rome is www.schoolhistory.co.uk It's fantastic with lots of worksheets and powerpoint presentations. I got lots of ideas from it - I used some of the worksheets etc directly and others I tailored a bit to suit myself and the classes I was teaching. From memory I got some nice bits and pieces like the menu for a Roman dinner party (full of disgusting-sounding things - useful when you're doing food, the kids loved it ), a worksheet for writing an imaginary interview with a gladiator, and a worksheet about designing a recruitment poster for the Roman army. I got lots of other stull too, those are just the ones that stick out in my memory.

At the end of doing Rome with the kids they each made a project describing life in Rome under the headings such as food, entertainment, houses, burial customs etc. This is useful because these are the types of headings that are given on the JC paper when students are asked to write about a person from an ancient civilisation outside of Ireland. We did the whole business of staining paper with tea and binding them etc so they would keep them.

Your project idea sounds really good - from my experience supervisors definitely love anything different and also things that bring drama and movement into typically bookish subjects. The one thing about group projects is that it can be really difficult when it comes to ensuring that all students are on task. If you pursue it I would advise giving each student in each group a specific job (e.g. all number 1s are in charge of something, number 2s etc...) Four classes seems like a lot of time to devote to the project alright, but maybe it depends on what exactly you have in mind in terms of famous roman scenes? I also would probably limit the time they spend on group projects in case you have a supervised visit. I had a visit last year when I was doing a group project and I thought I had planned it well with every student working on a specific task etc but when it was over and she was giving me feedback she had spotted several students dossing when I was trying to advise other groups. Not saying to shy away from group work cos the kids and supervisors love it, just to exercise caution!

Hope this helps

Dionysus

eager tortoise wrote: »

I did my PGDE last year and also taught Ancient Rome. Its quite nice to teach because its an isolated topic that you can cover on your own and doesn't impinge on whatever the co-operating teacher is doing. Also its quite fun with a lot of scope for projects etc like the one you're describing

A great site for teaching Ancient Rome is www.schoolhistory.co.uk It's fantastic with lots of worksheets and powerpoint presentations. I got lots of ideas from it - I used some of the worksheets etc directly and others I tailored a bit to suit myself and the classes I was teaching. From memory I got some nice bits and pieces like the menu for a Roman dinner party (full of disgusting-sounding things - useful when you're doing food, the kids loved it ), a worksheet for writing an imaginary interview with a gladiator, and a worksheet about designing a recruitment poster for the Roman army. I got lots of other stull too, those are just the ones that stick out in my memory.

At the end of doing Rome with the kids they each made a project describing life in Rome under the headings such as food, entertainment, houses, burial customs etc. This is useful because these are the types of headings that are given on the JC paper when students are asked to write about a person from an ancient civilisation outside of Ireland. We did the whole business of staining paper with tea and binding them etc so they would keep them.

Your project idea sounds really good - from my experience supervisors definitely love anything different and also things that bring drama and movement into typically bookish subjects. The one thing about group projects is that it can be really difficult when it comes to ensuring that all students are on task. If you pursue it I would advise giving each student in each group a specific job (e.g. all number 1s are in charge of something, number 2s etc...) Four classes seems like a lot of time to devote to the project alright, but maybe it depends on what exactly you have in mind in terms of famous roman scenes? I also would probably limit the time they spend on group projects in case you have a supervised visit. I had a visit last year when I was doing a group project and I thought I had planned it well with every student working on a specific task etc but when it was over and she was giving me feedback she had spotted several students dossing when I was trying to advise other groups. Not saying to shy away from group work cos the kids and supervisors love it, just to exercise caution!

Hope this helps

Thanks a million, eager tortoise. I was never aware of that website so I look forward to going through it. It looks very rich in ideas and info such as blending ICT with history lessons. I think I'm going to have to get together with a few other history teachers down the road and build a similar website for Irish students.

That gladiator idea I am going to look for as they all know the gladiators from some TV programme. So I think they'd like to dress up as gladiators big-time and fight.

I would share that concern about the potential of one group to doss while you are guiding another group. In terms of supervisor's visits, it seems a lot safer to avoid doing this sort of group activity and maybe just have a reserve, conventional, lesson plan for the day he/she visits.