Oral History: Population Movement 1750 - 1900

This outstanding lesson has been designed to help students studying population movement 1750 - 1900. It had been field tested and refined many times and is a really fun and engaging lesson, which has a really big impact of students. It can be used with the full spectrum of ability as it includes a range of tasks and activities which can be selected in whole or part to suit your students. You will need access to You Tube in order to be able to access the song.

When you download this lesson you will be able to access a Microsoft Word document which contains the lyrics to the song ‘Dalesman’s Litany’ and PowerPoint. There is enough work to fully engage a normal class of students for at least one lesson.

The PowerPoint facilitates the lesson and includes aims, objectives, differentiated outcomes, a snowballing starter. The next couple of slides set the scene and explains why Britain’s population was on the move. This is followed up by two source activities which could be print off and completed as an investigation or used as part of a class discussion to help set the scene for the main activity. The next slide is a pro and con thinking skills organiser on the problems facing historians when they use oral history as evidence. This could be competed as an activity or as a plenary. I have included a completed version at the end of the presentation.

The next activity involves playing the song by clicking on the hyperlink in show mode. I personally would give students a copy of the lyrics to annotate but if you are short on the photocopying budget then you can get around it by getting them in pairs or groups to write down the jobs / places that the person in the folk song has done / lived to help illustrate the impact of the changes on peoples lives…

The aims and objectives for this lesson are:

Theme: Why did Britain have an Industrial Revolution 1750 - 1900?
Know: Why was Britain’s population on the move 1750 – 1850?
Understand: What factors caused this change?
Evaluate: How useful is oral history as evidence about the past?

WILF: What Am I Looking For?
Identify and describe: Why was Britain’s population of the move?
Explain: What factors caused this change?
Analyse: How useful is oral history as historical evidence?

If you like this lesson then why not check out my other resources on this topic in my TES shop. I have unloaded this one for free as its my favourite lesson of all time. If you wish you can also follow ‘The History Academy’ on Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube and Facebook for the latest updates or even to get in touch and chat about how you have used this resource or to ask questions. We aim to produce cheap and affordable resources for either the price of a good cup of coffee or a happy meal so that you can spend more time doing the things that you want.

Kind Regards

Roy