TEACHING TIPS FOR HISTORY CLASSES

María Jesús Campos Fernández. Head of Geography and History Department at IES Parque de Lisboa (Alcorcón, Madrid)

Novice Assistant

Avanced Beginner

Competent Assistant

Master Assistant

The Journey of a Teacher Assistant

NOVICE ASSISTANT

Is simply trying to survive Has many ups and downs Is textbook bound Is very busy and “alone” at times Learns an enormous amount Finds that planning and researching is

important and time consuming Faces discipline challenges

ADVANCED BEGINNER

Has gained experience which makes decisions easier Sees similarities and connections among

subjects and content Is more strategic at getting things done Has greater understanding of how a

lesson or unit fits into the total picture Takes responsabilities Realizes the classroom is his or her milieu

COMPETENT ASSISTANT

Feels much stronger Finds that routines become automatic Has a sense of the situation and

knows what’s going on Makes decisions based on lots of

experience Uses higher-level thinking skills Has excellent assessment skills Manages class with ease and fluidity Engages in teaching that fits the aims

You need to become

competent in:

Knowledge of the content of the

subject Knowledge of the language

Knowledge of the child

growth and development

Classroom management

and skills

Planning skills

Materials and how to use

them

OBSERVING

BEFORE ENTERING THE CLASS• Mission Statements• Working with different

Teachers and Students

DISCIPLINE AND TACTICAL ISSUES• Creating a Learning

Environment• How to Communicate

with Students

TEACHING HISTORY• Challenges• Tasks• Planning a Lesson• Delivering a Lesson• Evaluation and

Assesment

THE WORK BEGINS

OBSERVING

Observe and feel the class

Different teachers

Different groups

“Steal” the techniques or approaches that best fits your interests

BEFORE ENTERING THE CLASS: MISSION STATEMENTS

Main objectives: To impart knowledge To increase language skills To impart skills that facilitate

learning

Have a far-reaching insight of teaching: To empower students To provide life skills To open the eyes of young students

to the world of learning To help the kids’ social and

emotional growth To provide connections among

subjects and between subjects and real life

BEFORE ENTERING THE CLASS: WORKING WITH DIFFERENT TEACHERS

An opportunity to learn from experienced teachers, different approaches, methods and attitudes towards teaching.

You may: Collaborate or co-teach with

the subject teacher Carry out your own lesson or

activity Develop your own

procedure, approach or way of teaching

BEFORE ENTERING THE CLASS: DEALING WITH STUDENTS

Your responsability is to lead all the students to achivements in academics and life skills they will need in the future.

You will work with students that are at different cognitive, emotional, physical and social stages.

When working with students always:

Make them know that you are interested on them and their success

Never talk down to them

Support them, accept them but let them know that you are in charge

Reward them for their achievements

Do not give up when facing a difficult student

Make them know there will be no rest in your class and that they will have to work and think whether

they like it or not

Create a safe learning environment: make students know that answering and taking risks is safe and they won’t be scolded or humiliated by you or by

other students if they give the wrong answer

Establish some basic rules.

Never make a demand that your are not prepared to follow through on.

Students need to know that if they break an established rule or procedure, they can predict the consequence with 100% accuracy.

Agree some corrective measures with the subject teacher

Corrective

Measures

In the class

Give an extra-assignment

Take time away from their break

Change their seat

Talk after class

- Criticize in private- Don’t show anger- Condemn the sin and not the sinner- Let the “offender” suggest a remedy- Insist on a real commitment to change- Don’t “soften” the impact.-“Sandwich” your reprimand or corretion between two slides of praise and reinforcement- Use a respectful voice and remain calm- Don’t panic or overrreact- Never get into a power struggle.

OBSERVING

BEFORE ENTERING THE CLASS• Mission Statements• Working with different

Teachers and Students

DISCIPLINE AND TACTICAL ISSUES• Creating a Learning

Environment• How to Communicate

with Students

TEACHING HISTORY• Challenges• Tasks• Planning a Lesson• Delivering a Lesson• Evaluation and

Assesment

THE WORK BEGINS

DISCIPLINE AND TACTICAL ISSUES

The latin root for the word “discipline” means “to instruct”, not “to punish”

“Either you work the crowd, or the crowd will work you”

Do not be afraid of disciplining your class: Anticipate problems and

address them ASAP Design the seating

arrangement Train your students to get

ready to work Keep in mind the

student’s attention span: changing activities may be required

Develop your non-verbal skills: business face + laser stare + voice control

TEACHING HISTORY

CHALLENGE

The lack of knowledge in a field that does not coincide with your main field of studies.

To know how to explain historical evidence, analyse sources, select relevant information and being prepared to answer questions about history.

Tasks you will be asked to develop:• Correct the teacher’s grammar or

pronunciation mistakes• Create exercises or activities for the lesson• Carry out oral activities to develop the

student’s listening or oral skills• Correct the material that teachers have

translated or translate new material• Support slow-learners and help them reach

the level of the class• Work with high-skilled students to deepen

or enlarge the content• Work in the Global Classrooms program• Deliver a lesson

COLLABORATING WITH THE HISTORY TEACHER

You should always work within the aims, policies and practices of the school you are a guest in, the bilingual section, the department of history, and the History teacher.

As part of the team you should contribute with time, energy, imagination and initiative.

You have to be open-minded, try things and experiment.

When you do not feel confident or when you have questions, please, always…ASK, ASK, ASK!

One of the most common mistakes made by teacher assistants when faced with unfamiliar areas of content is to resort to treating the topic as a slab of the past to be transmitted to students neat or in a simplistic form, without thinking what questions it poses or why it might be helpful to students to know about this morsel of the past.

Another common mistake is to assume that children had learn the content just because you have explained it.

HOW TO BRING TOGETHER THEORY AND PRACTICE: HOW TO PRODUCE LEARNING

Plan, plan, plan Teach with academic

rigour Engage pupils in active

learning Do not abet student’s

intellectual passivity Evaluate the student’s

learning and your teaching

PLANNING A LESSON OR ACTIVITY

Decide how you are going to evaluate your teaching and asses the students

Select/create materials, exercises and activities

Decide methodology and approach to engage students

Reflect about which questions are posed by the topic

Establish the objectives you want your students to achieve

Develop your subject knowledge

1. DEVELOP YOUR SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE Reflect about the importance and

purposes of school history: To help understand the present in the

context of the past. To give students a sense of identity To give students an understanding of

their own cultural roots and shared inheritance

To contribute to the student’s knowledge of other countries and cultures in the modern world

To train their mind by means of disciplined study

To prepare students for adult life To help students develop critical

judgement

Information to reflect in “The purposes of school history”

Try to address gaps in your content knowledge. “If you don’t know it, you can’t teach it”.

Identify the subject-language or vocabulary and master it.

Identify the ordinary language that may not be known by students thus difficulting the delivering of the lesson.

Identify “weasel words”, words that do not seem difficult but may seem confusing in some contexts. (Is “church” an institution or a building?)

Identify historical “key concepts” that make possible to turn information into historical knowledge: Time Cause and consequence Change and continuity Diversity Significance…

2. ESTABLISH THE OBJECTIVES YOU WANT YOUR STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE

Develop the student’s historical knowledge and understanding of the past.

Develop English oral, writting and listening skills: History requires the use of past

tenses, not often used by students.

Rewrite or identify the words or phrases that may be problematic. Be ready to explain the words when delivering the lesson.

Students will have to produce an academic style in their communication and writing (passive form, cause and effect, comparisons, etc)

Develop the ability to record and recall information and to deploy it appropriately.

Sheds light on student’s economic, social and cultural awareness.

Contribute to the student’s thinking skills.

Develop other skills such as: numeracy skills, problem solving, ICT, team working, learning to learn

3. REFLECT ABOUT WHICH QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS ARE POSED BY THE TOPIC?

How can you problematise the topic in a way which presents “thinking problems” for students?

Which questions are you going to pose for the students to work on and attempt to resolve so that they develop historical understanding?

4. DECIDE METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH TO ENGAGE STUDENTS

“Active learning”: present the content in a way which make the students want to find out about the past and create interesting, helpful activities to keep students “hands on” and focused.

Relate the past to the present as much as you can so that students can see the point of learning about the past.

Do not abet students’ intellectual passivity. Do not do “all the work”.

Remember to use two levels of questioning: First-order questions that

simply ask the students to locate or write down information or reiterate what you have just explained. Useful to learn the concepts.

Second-order questions which help students understand history and make conections. Related to the concepts of chronology, time, change, cause, evidence, interpretation and motive. Questions which require thought.

Combine different types of questions: Recall: give details of events,

people mentioned… Comprehension: what does it

mean? What effect did it have…?

Interpretation: who should be blame for…?

Invention: if you had been there…? What if…?

Evaluation questions: what is your opinion about the course of the action taken?

Try to make students discuss about the topic and question themselves.

5. SELECT/CREATE MATERIALS, EXERCISES, ACTIVITIES

Taking into account the previous reflections create the exercises or activities that will help students learn the content, develop the skills and achieve historical understanding.

Create low-order exercises and high-order exercises: Low-order exercises: simple

questions; definitions; explanation of concepts; dates…

High-order exercises: comprehension, interpretation, creative thinking, etc.

WORKING WITH WORDS OR CONCEPTS

CHRONOLOGY

Key Vocabulary Bingo Jeopardy Crossword-type clues Outlaw Twenty questions Odd one out

Sequencing the past Key Dates Bingo Timelines Family Trees

COMPREHENSION: WRITING SKILLS COMPREHENSION: ORAL SKILLS

Letters Postcards Newspaper article or

front page Obituaries and Epitaphs Diary Entries

Hot-Seating Chat show challenge Radio News

Broadcasting This Day in History

DELIVER THE LESSON

What helps learners learn:

Teacher's ExplanationWorking with Words (Meanings, word lists, translations…)Answering ques-tions/ExercisesImages/Visual AidsGroup Work

Combine teacher talk with questioning: Take into account the

students’ attention span. Give “wait time”. Ask a

question and give time for the students to think the answer.

Do not do “all the work”. Make the student know that you are going to wait for his/her answer, give clues and help but make the student create an answer.

Do not always ask students with their hands up so that the students’ brain need to be tuned in.

Questioning techniques: Do not call on a student and

ask a question…..Ask a question, wait and call on a student.

Do not explain a technique that has been used before in the class. Make a student explain what they will have to do.

Ask a student: “Tell me in your own words what you heard me say”.

Call on another student to repeat something a student has just said or asked.

Use pupil talk: Make them create or

identify definitions of subject specific words.

Make students establish similarities and differences.

Ask students to defend or justify a point of view.

Engage students on a group discussion

Use group work but anticipate the problems: Give simple and clear

instructions. Establish clearly the

outcomes students have to develop.

Keep the students on task. Check that every student

is contributing. Create alternatives for

students that are reluctant to give feedback in a plenary.

ASSESS THE STUDENTS

When working with students, the subject teacher may ask you to give your impressions about the lesson or activity, specially if you are working on your own with a small group.

It is not that you are evaluating the students but checking if learning is taking place.

When planning think how you are going to asses the students in order to think what elements need to be gone over again or reinforced.

Give a feedback to the subject teacher: Overall impression of the lesson Information about each student’s

learning Your feeling about your own work

Create your own rubric or scoring guide to grade the student’s motivation, involvement and learning: Use among 3-5 columns

and rows. Each column would represent a possible grade (points or Exceeds, Meets, Doesn’t Meet) and each row represents an aspect of the assignment.

Adapt the rubric for each lesson/activity.

You can teach your students how to use the rubric to evaluate their work and learning.

EVALUATE YOUR TEACHING What have I learnt from this? What would I do differently next

time? What’s the relationship between

the student’s knowledge, skills and understanding and the activities taking place?

In what parts of the lesson did pupils gain knowledge?

In what parts of the lesson did pupils gain skills?

In what parts of the lesson did pupils gain understanding of aspects of the past?

SOURCES

Bianco, Arnie. “Teaching Tips From Your One-Minute Mentor”. 2006, Jossey-Bass.

Cummings, C. “Winning Strategies for Classroom Management”. 2000, Ass for Supervision and Curriculum Development

Haydn, Terry et alii. “Learning to Teach History in the Secondary School”. 2008, Routledge

Husbands, C. “Why Teach History?” 1996, Open University Press.

Murphy, Julia. “100 Ideas for Teaching History”. 2005, Continuum.

Wong, H. “The First Days of School”. 1991, Harry Wong

María Jesús Campos FernándezHead of History and Geography Department at IES Parque de Lisboa (Alcorcón, Madrid)