Justify The Medium Term Plan

In this essay, I will justify my selection of content, teaching activities and approaches to teaching and assessment in my medium term plan (MTP) of history (Appendix A). It will also include a critical discussion of key issues in the teaching and learning of history.

‘Successful history teaching is characterised by thoughtful presentation and planning of what to provide for pupils and how to provide it, both in the classroom and outside’ Bourdillon (1994). I began the process of planning by deciding to address the ‘significant historical events, people and places in their own locality’ aspect of the National Curriculum (2013) for Key Stage 1 (KS1) in my medium term plan. Healey (2012) emphasized the importance of locality to our daily lives;

I incorporated a research activity into my lesson to give children the opportunity to develop their research skills independence to engage in their own historical enquiry. To make the research activity appropriate to their age, I will provide the children with websites that will give them the answers, as Year 2 children need guidance to start to develop their research skills. Ofsted (2011) found that the ‘impact of ICT in accelerating gains in pupils’ historical knowledge and understanding varied’; the above activity demonstrates my acknowledgement that ICT will not have a great effect on pupil’s knowledge if it is merely used to display pictures. However, Smart (1996) highlights the role of ICT in facilitating learning through making sources accessible; I have planned to use the interactive whiteboard to display sources for this purpose. I believe that the use of a factory sound bite in Lesson 4 is an effective use of ICT as it enhances children’s understanding of what it was like to work in a factory around 1900; layering this resource with a role play narrative from the teacher and factory clothes gives children a multi-sensory experience to increase their

Children can engage in historical enquiry through first-hand experiences: visits to ‘museums, galleries, exploratories and historical sites’ (Cooper, 2000). I have planned for the class to visit Cadbury’s World, which is very local to the school. The visit is not only engaging to children, but there are also many opportunities to use and apply their knowledge of Bournville factory to gain a better understanding of the changes between the present day and 1900. The layering of pictures of Bournville factory in the early 1900s with the experience will enable the children to have a multi-sensory experience of the factory and the change between 1900 and now. Cadbury’s World places a big emphasis on the history of the factory, with a cinema to give visitors a deep understanding of the history of the factory and of Bournville. Pluckrose (1991) suggests creating questions for a historical visit, so I planned an activity for the previous lesson to enable children to create their own questions and then answer them during the trip. This adheres to the National Curriculum (2013) requirements that children should ‘ask and answer questions...’ Pluckrose (1991), however, also warned that worksheets ‘too often become key to a visit’, taking away from the real learning opportunities; therefore I will not prioritise the answering of the questions at the cost of children’s