History Stories KS3 Resource Pack - Literacy Starters

A set of 11 short story starters on popular KS3 topics - Battle of Hastings, Norman Life, King John, the Black Death, Living Conditions in 19C cities, Slavery, English Civil War, Trench Life, Wall Street Crash and Holocaust.

Rationale:

Pupils need to read, read and read some more if they are to have success in our subject. I have written below some starter texts to draw pupils in to new topics. I have tried to harness the power of stories here by giving us something of a ‘hook’ to start discussion of a new topic by way of stimulus material.
Of course you can read texts that are factual, and historical sources too.
A few suggestions as to their usage:

• End lessons on a cliff-hanger
• Annotate texts before whole class reading to pick up comprehension issues
• Read to the class with drama and verve (channel that inner Sir Ian McKellen)
• Consider getting pupils to draw images as they listen to the narrative, or simply practise listening
• Why not speculate orally or on paper about what happens next to assess pupils’ empathy / historical knowledge in extended writing tasks?