Life in the Trenches

This lesson asks students to consider whether fiction is an appropriate way to learn about big events in the past by having them analyse a fictional account of the first day of the Somme. Students compare scenes from the fictional account with primary sources from people who fought in World War One and then make a judgement on whether the fictional account is close enough to the truth to be considered a good learning tool. Students also ‘reverse-engineer’ a secondary source back into a primary source.