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Humanities
http://humanitiesastwiltshire.blogspot.com
http://abbeyfieldhumanities.blogspot.com

Teaching AG&T students in Geography and History

The majority of the text in this paper has been extracted and edited from the following websites:
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/downloads/agt_km103604.pdf
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/downloads/agt_ge.pdf
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/downloads/agt_his.pdf

PART 1 - Introduction:

Effective teaching is the entitlement of all pupils, but a focus on able, gifted and talented pupils can help to extend the teaching repertoire
in ways that:

1. add breadth (for example enrichment through a broader range of content, tasks and resources);
2. increase depth (for example extension through complexity);
3. accelerate the pace of learning within and across key stages;
4. promote independence in thinking and learning;
5. support reflection and self-evaluation;
6. foster high expectations in teachers and pupils.

Teachers need to inspire enthusiasm, to act as catalysts and to build the confidence of able learners. This involves developing in their pupils
a sound understanding not only of content, also of the ideas, approaches and importance of their subjects. Distinguishing characteristics of
effective teaching for pupils of higher ability include:

• a high level of subject knowledge on the part of the teacher;

• sharing subject enthusiasm;
• an emphasis on creative problem solving;
• encouraging the growth of critical thinking;
• higher order concepts and terminology in the discourse of the discipline;

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• a focus on meta-cognition;
• negotiating learning objectives;
• assessment for learning through dialogue;
• developing the skills for independent research;
• risk taking by teacher and learner;
• freedom to challenge and admit error;
• building on prior learning and experience;
• matching the pace of teaching to the capacity of the learners;
• good access to learning resources;
• time to talk about learning.

Learners and the learning culture

Able pupils do not fit any particular stereotype, nor do they have predictable learning styles. They can be ambitious, amiable, articulate,
anti-social, awkward or underachieving. Schools need to establish a classroom climate that:

• promotes excellence while structuring learning effectively for all pupils;

• incorporates the highest possible expectations;
• values and builds on prior learning;
• features systematic encouragement and specific praise;
• includes opportunities for demonstrating, developing and celebrating high levels of aptitude and ability;
• encourages risk taking;
• offers scope for intellectual initiative;
• provides quality assessment for learning and focused feedback;
• accelerates and expands learning whenever appropriate;
• exploits the potential of ICT;
• opens doors to learning beyond the classroom;
• encourages pupils to experiment and speculate;
• encourages pupils to aim high, now and in their future.

In History:

High ability in history can take time to emerge because the nature of the subject can often require maturity and experience. However, even
very young children can display a marked interest and enthusiasm for history that will develop into high performance as they mature.
Learning in history depends on the development of skills in both literacy and thinking. Therefore it is important that both these areas are
developed as pupils move through the curriculum. Effective provision is characterised by:

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• opportunities to develop skills in discussion and analysis, both orally and in writing;
• opportunities to consider issues and events from a range of perspectives;
• exposure to and opportunities to develop higher order exploratory questioning – ‘What if . . ?’ and ‘Why?’ questions;
• opportunities to practise evaluation, both of historical evidence and of their own and others’ work;
• opportunities to explore relationships, sequences and causality in historical events;
• exposure to and use of increasingly sophisticated subject vocabulary and ideas;
• exposure to and analysis of good historical writing and thinking.

In Geography:

In geography, the able pupil will find opportunities to develop a range of thinking and analytical skills. Geography overlaps many traditional
subject boundaries, and so can provide a wide range of opportunities. It is often seen as a questioning or thinking subject and can help
pupils develop and extend their skills in:

• research and information processing;

• enquiry and problem solving;
• identifying patterns across contexts and situations;
• viewing an issue from a variety of viewpoints;
• understanding and applying a range of subject concepts and terminologies, for example from geography, science, history and
religious education.

Effective provision moves pupils naturally into the realms of higher-order thinking, and should
involve frequent opportunities for:

• application: applying the same ideas to a changed situation, for example different regions, contexts, populations or issues;
• analysis: questions that invite pupils to explore causes, effects and relationships;
• synthesis: hypothesising or generating ideas and looking for alternatives;
• evaluation: activities that involve pupils in following the thinking in a geographical study, and assessing the validity of conclusions in
their own and others’ work using criteria they themselves have generated.

Source: http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/downloads/agt_km103604.pdf

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PART 2 – EXAMPLES FOR USE IN LESSONS

History

PROVIDING CHALLENGE

• Provide pupils with fuller texts and documents. For example, have a copy original of source material such as ‘the Hossbach Memorandum’
and compare it with the A.J.P. Taylor or Richard Overy interpretation of its relative importance, when outlining a plan for war for the
able Year 9 pupils.
• Encourage pupils to come up with their own conclusions by giving them raw data to analyse and allowing them to pose their own
historical questions. For example, ‘How successful was Stalin’s first five-year plan?’ or ‘What are the problems of using only the sources
provided?’
• Encourage pupils to read associated literature: for example, when studying communist Russia, recommend the reading of Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, or “reading” relevant films. The use of ‘the boy with the stripped pyjamas’ book and film could be used along with
supporting materials which can be found at: http://humanitiesastwiltshire.blogspot.com/2008/09/boy-in-stripped-pyjamas.html
• Make available articles in magazines such as History Today and BBC’s History magazine, which are written for the well-informed adult but
which are lively and encourage pupils to re-evaluate the quality of their KS3 textbooks in the light of this. Make available Hindsight GCSE
History, even for able Key Stage 3 pupils, as it carries articles that set current events in historical context.
• Provide pupils with more sophisticated sources, such as political cartoons and biographies for them to interpret and analyse.
• Involve pupils in thinking about ideas that are genuinely perplexing, for example:

- Why did the practice of witchcraft continue in the 17th century at a time when major scientific breakthroughs were occurring?
- Why did medieval men, capable of building the finest cathedrals, practise Trial by Ordeal?
- Why was slavery abolished in Britain but colonisation continued?

MAKING LEARNING ACTIVE AND ENGAGING

• Give pupils more scope to present their ideas in imaginative ways. For example, constructing diagrams or charts which show linkages that
others would not see and refining the model. Use ICT programmes such as visuwords or online mind mapping – details available at
http://humanitiesastwiltshire.blogspot.com
• Give pupils opportunities to present their views through creative writing. For example, to express views on the futility of trench warfare
through the medium of a poem, having been given a variety of First World War examples to highlight the power of language and imagery.
• Pupils should also be given the opportunity to write in the contemporary style from time to time, in the form of a letter, e.g. evidence to
parliamentary commissioners in the 1830s, or from Chamberlain to Hitler, or an imagined dialogue between Hitler and Chamberlain at
Berchtesgaden.

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• Pupils could focus on why the abolition of slavery has been interpreted differently, or why views and opinions of Charles I have changed
over time and what this tells us about the interpreters and the times in which they were living. For example, pupils may write a piece of
extended narrative history in the style of C.V. Wedgewood on the execution of Charles I and attitudes towards Cromwell.

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT LEARNING

• Use homework to give scope to go beyond the obvious task by challenging pupils to discover, using a range of reference books and also
making use of adults’ views and the built environment.

Examples of questions to develop this area could include:

- From these sets of figures on wages and prices after the Black Death, how disastrous was it?
- Why did [person/people] behave in this way at [time]?
- How do you think the Romans were able successfully to transport clean water?
- Where would you have sited the locks on this stretch of the canal?
- Which of these sources would you trust, knowing what you do about the authors? Find out what else you need to know about them.

BUILD REFLECTION

Providing opportunities for pupils to reflect on what they have learned and how they have learned it is a vital element of successful
teaching and learning. It provides pupils with a clear idea of their achievement and implications for further development.

Active listening to group presentations, for example:

- Why did anti-Semitism take root in Germany in the 1930s?
- Why did more progress occur in medical knowledge in the Near East than in Europe after the decline of the Roman Empire in the West?
- Why do historians disagree about whether the Final Solution was planned before 1941?
- Should Year 9s spend less time studying warfare in the twentieth century?

Geography

PROVIDE CHALLENGE

Teaching actively encourages pupils to take risks, ask demanding questions and develop critical literacy skills. They are encouraged to
challenge stereotypes, subjectivity and bias.

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Examples
• Ideas for developing geographical creativity in geography, for example ‘Poetry of place’ and ‘Geosculpture’
The resource pack Seeing through the spin (Baby Milk Action/Reading International Solidarity Centre 2001) contains ideas and activities
that look at the media manipulation of images.
• Refer to E. Rynne, ‘Year 9 students design fieldwork’, in Teaching Geography, volume 25, number 2, April 2000. This describes how Year 9
students were encouraged to design their own fieldwork projects in groups, collect data, analyse it, and then present their findings to
the class. This idea could be adapted to encourage able pupils to develop higher level fieldwork projects, to analyse their results in more
detail and then to evaluate them.
• Introduce thinking skills approaches such as 5Ws described in Thinking through geography, More thinking through geography (Chris
Kington Publishing) and www.geoworld.co.uk.

MAKING CONVENTIONS AND CONCEPTS EXPLICIT

In particular, in geography
• Teachers encourage pupils to use complex and advanced geographical terminology with confidence.
• Teachers encourage pupils to generalise from the specific, and make links with other geographical topics and themes, to recognise inter-
relationships.

Examples
Teachers model (for example):
• the conventions for drawing a climate graph (geographical skills);
• the conventions used in non-fiction writing types such as explanation, information and persuasion (generic skills);
• the links between the variables of temperature, rainfall, humidity, organic matter in soil, vegetation types and farming land use, using a
concept map as part of an enquiry into land use in National Parks (concept of causation).

MAKE LEARNING ACTIVE

In particular, in geography
Teachers encourage pupils to develop a wide range of data handling and quantative analysis to increase their ability to interpret statistical
information.

Examples
• Refer to Thinking through geography and More thinking through geography (Chris Kington Publishing) for ideas about interesting stimuli.
Use www.geoworld.co.uk and www.sln.org.uk/geography.
• Refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy, particularly for higher order questioning in analysis, synthesis and application.

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• Replace “hands up” questioning sessions by asking specific questions to individual pupils, thus challenging able children with more
demanding questions.
• Obtain local census data (2001) from http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk and ask able pupils to map and analyse the data to provide a
pen portrait of the area. Introduce techniques such as choropleth mapping, scatter graphs, correlation and age-sex pyramids. Some of
these techniques could be accomplished using ICT programs such as Excel.

MAKE LEARNING ENGAGING AND MOTIVATING

In particular, in geography

• There are opportunities for fieldwork to allow pupils to develop sophisticated data analysis and presentation skills.
• Teaching relates to current issues and encourages pupils to question global events. The importance of inter-relationships is developed in
a variety of contexts.
• Teachers encourage pupils to think about the abstract concept of ‘alternative futures’.

Examples
• Use recent newspaper articles to stimulate and inform about global events. Use differentiated DARTS strategies to provide structure for
different abilities including the most able. See
• Use geographical games or simulations to introduce global issues, for example The Debt Game and The Trading Game (Christian Aid).
• Liaise with local business. Take part in a real-life decision-making and problem-solving exercise about waste management and recycling
at a local manufacturing company for example
• Pupils can be provided with a cartoon which depicts a negative global future. They are then asked to consider ‘probable futures?’ with
reference to the range of resource issues they have investigated. Following this, they discuss ‘preferable futures?’ and then design a
cartoon to illustrate their own preferred future. They are finally asked to compare the 'two futures' cartoons in writing and then, after
discussion, to write their own definition of sustainable development.

SUPPORT PUPILS’ INDEPENDENT LEARNING

• Teachers use homework to give scope to go beyond the obvious by challenging pupils to discover more about geographical issues and
ideas.

Examples:
• Use of data and statistics: When able pupils can use six-figure grid references effectively on 1:50,000 and 1:25,000 maps, provide
opportunities for them to use this skill on maps of different scales such as 1:10,000 or 1:1250.

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• Create extended learning projects. Many ideas for extended independent research are available on the Staffordshire Learning website
under ‘web enquiries (KS3)’, at www.sln.org.uk/geography/enquiry, including Living with Volcanoes, Flowers from Kenya, Antarctica Web
Enquiry. Plus at http://abbeyfieldhumanities.blogspot.com under ‘ELPs’

Sources:

Guidance on the use of KS3 Strategy training materials to support the teaching of gifted and talented pupils in geography
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/downloads/agt_ge.pdf

Guidance on the use of KS3 Strategy training materials to support the teaching of gifted and talented pupils in history
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/secondary/keystage3/downloads/agt_his.pdf

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