Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT inprimary History

Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

Becta in association with

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

ICT supports primary history in many ways – and in particular:

ICT gives pupils access to an extensive range of resources, many of them digitised primary source materials, which would otherwise not be easily available

ICT can enhance pupils' skills of historical enquiry by helping them to ask and answer questions, for example by accessing and examining an online collection of historical artefacts

pupils can use technology to help them select, organise and interpret historical information, by for example using a database

pupils can communicate their knowledge and understanding and also demonstrate creativity, for example by creating a multimedia presentation

tools such as interactive whiteboards enhance interactive teaching and learning styles

it provides support tools – word banks and writing frames, for example – as well as opportunities for pupils to work independently.

ICT in the History Curriculum

The requirements of the National Curriculum for History (2000) http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-1--POS.html state that pupils should be given opportunities to apply and develop their ICT capability through the use of ICT tools to support their learning.

ICT can best support the areas of Historical enquiry and Organisation and communication.

Pupils should learn:

how to find out about the events, people and changes studied from an appropriate range of sources of information, including ICT-based sources (for example, documents, printed sources, CD-Roms, databases, pictures and photographs, and websites providing music, artefacts, buildings and museums, galleries and historic sites)

to ask and answer questions, and to select and record information relevant to the focus of the enquiry – pupils could, for example, use a census database to search for information and identify and explain patterns of change

how to communicate their knowledge and understanding of history in a variety of ways – for example, pupils could use digitised maps to identify and colour-code features important to local study.

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

Using an extensive range of resources

Key Stage 1A seaside holiday

In this example, ICT is used both as a source of primary material and as a tool to help pupils communicate their learning.

Year 2 children had been finding out about seaside holidays of the past. Their teacher had used the internet to source lots of photos showing seaside holidays of the past as well as the present. She displayed these on an interactive whiteboard and asked her pupils to identify differences between the two sets of pictures. In particular she focused on characteristics of the periods, such as clothing, transport and entertainment. She annotated the pictures with the children’s ideas. Later the children used the activities that can be downloaded from the TRE http://tre.ngfl.gov.uk/server.php?request=cmVzb3VyY2UuZnVsbHZpZXc%3D&resourceId=11358 to consolidate their ideas.

In the plenary session the teacher used a Venn diagram to illustrate what features belonged to the past, to the present and to both.

Programme of study: history http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-1--POS.html Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past 2bHistorical enquiry 4aOrganisation and communication 5

You can find pictures of seaside holidays from the East Anglian Daily Times http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eduzone/seaside/content/Now%20and%20Then/link_par_gp.asp and Beside the seaside http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/seaconte.htm

Progression idea

Pupils could use photographs of their own holidays which have been scanned into the computer. Using Sound Recorder or a similar application they record some sentences about each one, describing the characteristic features of their modern holiday. They can also record sentences about holidays in the past. These could then be combined to create a multimedia presentation.

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

Key Stage 2The life of John Lennon

Pupils used ICT not only to find out about events, people and changes but also to encourage historical enquiry.

A Year 6 class had been studying the life of John Lennon and making links to characteristic features of the time, both at home and abroad.

The class carried out research by asking their parents and grandparents about life in the 1960s, and by looking at websites chosen by their

teacher. Using the interactive whiteboard, they then created an interactive layered timeline on which to display the facts they had discovered. By clicking on areas of the timeline, more detail could be displayed.

The pupils used the timeline to ask and answer questions about the features of the age and relate these to John Lennon’s life.

Programme of study: history http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-2--POS.html Chronological understanding 1a, 1bKnowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past 2a, 2b, 2c,Historical enquiry 4a, 4bOrganisation and communication 5a, 5b, 5c

QCA Scheme of work Unit 20: What can we learn about history from studying the life of a famous person? http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/history/his20/?view=get

You could find more ideas on Learning and Teaching using ICT http://samples.lgfl.org.uk/primary/main.html (select History, Year 6, Famous person: John Lennon).

In this example, Microsoft PowerPoint was used, but you could also use software such as Softease Timeline. http://www.softease.com/ British Pathé http://www.britishpathe.com/has free video clips of news items pertinent to the decades in question.You can watch a teachers’ workshop and classroom practice on Teachers’ TV.http://www.teachers.tv/video/3314

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

Enhancing skills of historical enquiry

Key Stage 1Homes through the ages

In this lesson ICT is used as one source of information to help pupils to ask and answer questions about the past.

These Year 1 pupils had been studying homes through the ages. They looked at photographs of artefacts from museums and other sites online as well as pictures in books. Then their teacher introduced them to Dyna Mo. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/dynamo/history/stepback.shtml

The teacher displayed the web page using a digital projector so that the whole class could see it. As they worked through the activity the teacher prompted the children to talk about the differences between their homes and the one visited by the characters Josie and Gleep.

Programme of study: history http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-1--POS.htmlKnowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past 2bHistorical interpretation

QCA Scheme of work Unit 2: What were homes like a ling time ago? http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/history/his2/?view=get

Learning and Teaching using ICT http://samples.lgfl.org.uk/primary/main.html shows how these ideas can be developed (select History, Year 1, Victorian objects).

Progression idea

ICT can provide pupils with access to a greater range of resources and provides a range of tools so they can record and communicate their learning.

One Year 2 teacher arranged to borrow Victorian artefacts from her local museum. The children set up the artefacts and found pictures of Victorian household goods. They then created their own museum display, including labels written using a word processor with word bank. Afterwards they discussed whether their display could have been organised differently.

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

You can find high-quality pictures of Victorian domestic goods on Object Lessons. http://www.objectlessons.org

Grace Darling

ICT can help to develop their skills of historical enquiry by providing the opportunity to ask and answer questions. In this example, pupils used a PowerPoint presentation as a source of information.

A Year 2 class had been learning about Grace Darling. Their teacher used an illustrated PowerPoint presentation to tell the story. As she read through the story she questioned the pupils about the information they could deduce from the pictures. She helped the children to realise that the drawings were done after the event, and that there were no photos because cameras had not been invented.

Afterwards she asked how the facts of the story might have become known. The pupils made several suggestions:

The survivors would have told the story

Grace might have told the story Her father might have told the

story Perhaps someone kept a diary.

Then they discussed where else people can find information. The pupils suggested books, TV and the internet.

With prompting they added local museums, newspapers and memorials to the list.

They talked about whether the pictures and sculptures of Grace Darling really looked like her.

Programme of study: history http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-1--POS.html Historical interpretationHistorical enquiry 4a, 4b

Learning and Teaching using ICT http://samples.lgfl.org.uk/primary/main.html shows how this resource can be used (select Year 2, History, Grace Darling and view the video).

For further lesson ideas see NAACE http://archive.naace.co.uk/direct2u/indexbysubject.html (scroll down to History and select Year 2 Week 55).

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

Key Stage 2War memorials

ICT can enhance the pupils’ skills of historical enquiry by enabling them to interrogate an online database.

A Year 4 class had been doing a local history study. As part of the study, the pupils visited the local war memorial and used handheld PDAs and digital cameras to record the inscriptions.

Back in classroom, their teacher showed them how to access the records of allied military war casualties on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

The pupils used this site to find more information about those people in their local area who had died in both World Wars, which they recorded and illustrated in a class ‘Roll of honour’.

Programme of study: history http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-2--POS.html Chronological understanding 1aHistorical enquiry 4a, 4bOrganisation and communication 5a, 5b, 5c

Progression idea

Some pupils wondered if any of the families had been living locally in Victorian times. Taking a few examples of local soldiers, they worked out when the soldier was born and guessed when his parents would have been born.

Their teacher obtained electronic copies of the local census data. The pupils searched the database and did find information on local families. They then looked at old maps to find where the families had lived, and visited the local cemetery to try to find family graves. Using all these sources of information the pupils built up a family profile which they made into a layered presentation to show to the rest of the class.

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

Selecting, organising and interpreting historical information, for example by using a database

Key Stage 1Growing up

Teachers and pupils can use interactive teaching tools to select, organise and interpret historical information.

A Year 1 teacher wanted to help his pupils develop an understanding of chronology by looking at pictures of people from birth. He found six photos of himself at different ages (a newborn baby, a baby crawling, a toddler, a young schoolchild, a teenager, an adult) and scanned them. He displayed them randomly on his interactive whiteboard, which had a simple timeline along the bottom.

He asked the pupils to say which picture was the first to be taken and asked them to explain why they thought this. He moved this picture to the left of the screen. Then he asked the children what sorts of things he would be able to do at that age. He encouraged the pupils to use vocabulary such as ’before’ and ‘after’ to describe the sequence. The children sequenced the remaining pictures in the same way and positioned them on the timeline.

Progression idea

The children were asked to bring in four pictures of themselves at different ages. The teacher scanned these and added them to a word processor with a word bank. He added the words or phrases that the children had suggested when using his pictures. The children used the software to sequence the pictures and add a sentence about them at that age. The work was printed out and displayed in the class. The pupils talked about their work with their teacher and friends.

Programme of study: history http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-1--POS.html Chronological understanding 1a, 1bOrganisation and communication

You can find a lesson plan for this activity on NAACE http://archive.naace.co.uk/direct2u/indexbysubject.html (scroll down to History and select Year 1 Week 4).

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

Key Stage 2

The Romans

This Year 4 class was studying the Romans. The teacher printed pictures from the Romans in Sussex site and asked the pupils to sort and classify the artefacts according to their own criteria. Some children chose to sort by material, others by function, and some by size.

The website was displayed on the interactive whiteboard and pupils were encouraged to use it to get a clearer view and so more information about their artefacts if necessary.

When the pupils had completed this task, the teacher asked them to make some general statements about the characteristic features of the Romans in Britain, for example the materials used. She provided a simple writing frame on the children’s word processing program to structure their work. They were encouraged to add pictures which supported their theory.

Programme of study: history http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-2--POS.html Historical enquiry 4a, 4bOrganisation and communication 5a, 5c

Progression idea

The pupils then worked in pairs and used a branching database to help them sort and classify the artefacts. Pictures were added to the database to make it more

interesting to use. Other groups tested the database to ensure that no mistakes had been made. This helped them to ask and answer specific questions and to generalise concepts about characteristics of Roman life in Britain.

The Tudors

Pupils used digitised online primary source materials to find out about everyday life in

Tudor times.

A Year 6 class was being introduced to the Tudors. Their teacher challenged the pupils to list as much information as they could about life in a Tudor household by examining the different scenes from the Henry Unton memorial portrait. He divided the class into groups and asked each group to explore one aspect of the picture and to list their ideas. Afterwards the pupils made a report to the rest of the class.

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Becta | Primary History with ICT: A pupil’s entitlement to ICT in primary History

The teacher then explained that the picture had been painted about three years after Unton’s death and asked the pupils to consider how true to life the elements could be.

The pupils then looked at several portraits of Henry VIII painted in his lifetime and compared the honesty of these and the motives of the artists.

Programme of study: history http://www.nc.uk.net/nc/contents/Hi-2--POS.html Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past 2a, 2bHistorical interpretation

QCA Scheme of work Unit 8: What were the differences between the lives of rich and poor people in Tudor times? http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/history/his8/?view=get

You can find lesson activities on the Henry Unton portrait on NAACE. http://primary.naace.co.uk/activities/unton/index.htm

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