Given that we spend half as much time on some topics than we used to in History, we need new ways of teaching some old topics. One example is WW1. In the ‘Old Model’, the teacher would work their way through a series of topics. The ‘old model’ reaction to less time is to teach less aspects of the war.
There is, as they say, another way.
Inspired by the ‘Thinkers Keys’ I’ve drawn up a WW1 Treasure Hunt. This is a series of tasks that students choose their route through in a lesson. It covers the gammet of WW1 related topics and students are free to select the activities that appeal most to them. All the information comes from the named text book (we’ve got a stack of them at the back of my classroom, although haven’t used them in the traditional way for years). Students have an hour to complete as many tasks as they can, checking their answers with me and their peers as they go.
Advantages:
- The class as a whole gets a good overview – this will be important as we’re moving on to students designing ‘micro lessons’ on a topic of their choice to be delivered to their peers
- Much more student choice over topics
- Focuses students on research skills
Issues:
- When I started this the intial idea was that all students would do a series of simple tasks. As the idea developed I moved away from that, but perhaps the name is no longer appropriate.
- Most of the tasks are written. To extend the idea of choice I need to look into other ways the students can record the information they find.
Both the pdf and the pages file are included below.