These top tips for teaching history will bring history to life!
If you are looking for some top tips for teaching history, you’ve come to the right place! Long gone are the days when facts were chanted over and over in a group. History is not just dates on a page. History is basically a rich tapestry of human stories and human lives over the centuries. Even the word ‘history’ has the word ‘story’ in it. History is an exciting subject area and one of the most fun subjects to teach. The important thing about making history memorable for history teachers is to make it interactive and fun. There are many ways you can do this. Here are some simple ideas to get you started!
1. Historical Fiction and Fact Books
Use a range of books on the topic – mix up historical fiction and non-fiction. Start by reading a fun fictional story about the era that will captivate their imagination. It’s a great way to set the scene! It’s easier to imagine a place when characters are living it. Mix in some colourful non-fiction books to explain what they have learnt. Make sure all history factual books you use are colourful and written in child-friendly language. If it’s boring to look at, it won’t keep their attention!
2. Fun
Use fun word games along the way like word searches or crosswords to cement the learning. The key here is repetition. Keep using the same words and ideas you’ve been learning about to make a puzzle or a fun quiz. The more they use the terms, both in and out of context, the more they will remember them. And the more fun the activity is, the more excited they will be to learn!
3. Props
Bring in props to help bring the history to life. It doesn’t have to be expensive real-life artefacts; it could be a photograph of an object, or you could all have a go at making a relevant item out of air-drying clay. Once dry, you have your artefact!
4. Costumes
Dress up in costumes from the historical era. Wrap a sheet around you like an Ancient Greek toga, or make an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh’s headdress. However you do it, it is immersing kids in the history and helping them visualise the era. They will remember the learning as a result!
5. Timeline
Print off a large timeline that covers from Ancient Times to the modern day. Add a label for each era – you can either mark the start or end of each era, or place it in the middle. As long as you are consistent, it doesn’t matter! An even better idea is to cut out a strip of paper to show how long the era lasted. Or add a pin to the start and finish and pull a piece of string between the two. As you continue to explore new times in history, it will build up a visual understanding of how historical eras fit together.
6. Field Trip
Go on a field trip. Visit museums, castles, old houses, folk villages or national parks. History is all around us, so look to your local area for learning opportunities. Point out features of a Victorian house as you walk through your local area or find a public clock that uses Roman numerals. History can be found everywhere! Check out this great online resource with the British Museum.
7. Cross-curricular
Through your history lessons, make the learning cross-curricular. Learn a bit about the modern-day country that you’re studying for Geography. Make some Art that brings the history to life. Practise Literacy by writing a story or a diary entry as if you were there. Make a non-fiction mini booklet with contents and a glossary. For some Drama, put on a play and act out an historical event. Just some fun ideas to bring all the learning together!
Heya.
I use tasks in order to make history interesting. For example this is done as I see fit to do so in class. Once in a history lesson on America students had a timed starter quiz. They also had to prepare a Word article on one entire state alone. Best wishes. I loved it. So did they in fact.
And they also had to make some brief summary notes. I also asked them in pairs to research information online too. They all had cheap notebooks for recording their findings. The entire task in question took six full weeks to complete. Most of the hard work was done in weekly lessons at school. All under my close supervision whilst I was with them. As a part of the unit they were tasked with doing it all on their own. We had a lot of discussions and reminders in preparation.
Resources included a quiz and active recall game as well. I used that purely as a starter activity. Fun times we had that term seriously. At the next parents evening much later that term they told the story to a listening crowd. I even marked the work that week one evening after work at home. It was quite good. I’m still impressed by the quality of their research and the work produced in response to my original question.
Heya.
These are great ideas in order to start with for now. Next term I want to teach world history in class. I will be using a number of different techniques in order to do so. I plan on using old articles in question in addition here. I will do mini mind maps in lessons each week as a starter task in preparation. Best of luck to you. I love to read your blog.
And they will have to research information online too. Then they will sit down and make a few brief summary notes. I want them to share their findings with me afterwards as well. It will be good for them. I do still expect high quality work. The entire unit of work will have a key theme like always. I opt for a theme.
It is easier that way for sure. Seriously.