2. Key Stage 3 Historical Skills- Chronology and Themes

This is the second lesson of my three-lesson introduction to History to Year 7 students although it could be easily adapted for Year 8 and 9.

This resource is the entire lesson on a power point and includes:

• Historical joke and riddle to settle the students while they write down the title and date
• Clear SMART differentiated learning objectives
• Chronology key words match up starter- students match the key word to its definition. Answers are then put up onto the board for students to check their work
• Optional background info on the 5 key themes in History and why we use them as historians for teacher to explain to students
• Activity 1- students use the information slide to create a mind map explaining what each theme covers and focuses on. Students must include a brief explanation in note form (use as few words as possible) and then add a symbol for each theme too. Differentiated information sheet included.
• AFL 1- students explain what they have learned about the 5 themes in history for sixty seconds trying not to pause, repeat themselves or stall.
• Activity 2- Chronology intro slide using a time line. I explain this to the students bit by bit explaining the key concepts of how we order time in history. Also, I explain how we put years into centuries and go through a few examples as a class.
• AFL 2- students then put ten dates into the correct centuries and then check their own work. I would usually do a RAG check at this point to know each students confidence in doing this.
• Activity 3- students must use the dates to create a time line in their books.
• AFL 3- I circulate to check each students work to make sure that they are confident and completing the task correctly
• Plenary- classic 3-2-1 where students discuss with the person next to them
• Homework- students revise for a short test on Historical time periods at the start of the next lesson