Topic: A meeting with history – a peak at the past

Author: Katarzyna Kuczyńska

Target group:

4th grade students of an eight‑year elementary school.

Core curriculum

I. Elements of family and regional history. Student:

1) gathers information about the history of his/her own family, gathers family heirlooms and talks about them;

III. A reflection about history as a science. Student:

1) explains the basics of the work of a historian;

3) identifies types of historical sources.

General learning aim

Teaching students about history as a science, as well as the specifics of the work of a historian.

Shaped key competences

• communicating in the mother tongue;

• communicating in a foreign language;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success

Student:

• talks about the specific features of the work performed by historians and archaeologists;

• identifies three types of historical sources (material written, material non‑written, non‑material), and can match them with selected examples;

• can distinguishing historical information from the process and from the outcome of inferring on the basis of such information, can indicate simple examples of presuppositions;

• has the awareness that making inferences about the past can be erroneous and requires the analysis of the “frames” (presuppositions) that people use to look at the past;

• is able to construct a simple historical narrative: select and chronologically order important events in the history of their own family.

Methods/techniques

• programmed: using an e‑textbook;

• problem‑focused methods: preparing a fragment of the history of one’s own family, selecting and analysing an example of a historical error;

• practical methods: subject exercises, work with text;

• content‑giving methods: elements of lecture, teacher's explanations.

Forms of work

• work with the entire class;

• group work;

• individual work.

Teaching measures:

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/markers;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers.

• small pieces of paper in three different colours;

• strips of paper.

Before the lesson

At home, the students prepare materials that are needed to prepare a short history of their own family in print or in electronic version. These can be photographs, films, documents (e.g. old letters, school certificates of the parents or diplomas), as well as the stories of their relatives (parents, guardians, grandparents or other relatives). Using the questions and helpful suggestions:

• What is the history of your family?

• How and when did your parents meat?

• Write down the most important facts, in your opinion.

• If you want - take pictures of all the sources that are important in your story (with camera or with your phone).

Lesson plan overview (Process)

Initial phase

1. The teacher gives the aim of the lesson and explains the criteria of success.

2. The students work on a short history of their family (in form of a poster or electronic material; 5‑7 elements of life, including the date of their birth). The prepared materials can be presented, for example, during a PTA meeting or during a special advisory class.

Realization

1. The students work in groups of three and prepare a catalogue of historical sources used: 2. material: a) written; b) non‑written; 2) non‑material (stories, customs, etc.). The teacher explains the differences between the above‑mentioned types of historical sources. The catalogue is made by writing specific examples of resources on colour sticky notes (each type of source is written on a different colour); if a source is repeated (e.g. three students used their birth certificates), it is written only once on post‑its. Moreover, students select one source and complete the following sentence on a separate paper strip: My source was.... and I drew the following conclusion from it:...

2. The teacher selects three conclusions written down on paper strips and asks about their presuppositions. The teacher explains that inferring is based on: a) information that we have at hand (e.g. we see our dad’s school certificate with very good grades), b) our other knowledge (a belief), which we also use to draw a conclusion. This “additional” knowledge is a presupposition. In our example with dad’s school certificate, this “additional” knowledge may be as follows: very good grades (“fives”) are given to very good students while the best students get the best grades (“sixes”). With such “additional” knowledge from dad’s school certificate we can draw a conclusion that dad was not among the best students; he was among the very good students. Is this a correct conclusion? In order to know whether our conclusions are correct or not, we must first notice our presuppositions and then check if they are true or not. When studying the past, we sometimes draw conclusions which are not true because we see the information about the past through the “frames” (perspective) of our contemporary experience. In the example with dad’s school certificate: in the years when dad was at school, the highest grade was a “five” and there were no “sixes”, which means that we cannot judge dad’s certificate using the same criteria that we apply to judge school certificates of today’s students. Dad’s school certificate shows that he was among the best students, not just among very good ones.

3. The students complete Task 1: learn about the aspects of the work of historians and archaeologists.

4. Then, the students listen to an audio drama presenting selected important events in the world in the last 50 years (Exercise 1). They check their understanding of what they have just heard by solving exercise 2. When performing their tasks, the students should be able to ask for help. The teacher gives students feedback on their work during the lesson.

Summary

1. The teacher summarizes the lesson on his own or asks one of the students to do that. Then, he gives the students homework: each person is to find an example of a historical mistake which they made, came across or know from history, etc. In addition, the teacher asks to do the rest of the exercises in the abstract.

2. As a summary of the work of the students and his own, the teacher may ask the students to complete an assessment survey.

Summary of the main content of the class

1. Learning about the specific features of the work performed by historians and archaeologists.

2. Identifying three types of historical sources (material written, material non‑written, non‑material), and matching them with selected examples.

3. Distinguishing historical information from the process and from the outcome of inferring on the basis of such information; learning the notion of presupposition and indicating examples of presuppositions.

4. Developing awareness that making inferences about the past can be erroneous and requires people to analyse the approach (presuppositions) that people use to look at the past.

5. Constructing a simple historical narration.