Learning objective; to make inferences from an historical source

Learning outcome(s); pupils will have made inferences about the Weymouth grave.

Success criteria

All pupils will have made an inference from an historical source
Most will be able to justify an inference by reference to evidence
Some pupils will have contributed to discussion comparing inferences

Without telling pupils anything about what they are going to be studying gradually reveal the photograph from Resource A which shows the photograph of a mass grave excavated by archaeologists near Weymouth in 2009. As each quarter of the image is revealed ask pairs to discuss what they think about the picture so far at each stage. Take suggestions in class discussion and write these up and display them for future reference. As more of it is revealed include as part of each discussion how and why pupils may have changed their minds about the photograph.(A turning point may well be the sight of the whole picture which shows skulls piled up in the top left-hand corner, having clearly been separated from their bodies).

Print Resource B on to A3 sheets for pupils to annotate in pairs or small groups. instruct them to note details of what they see within the photograph in the box immediately surrounding the image. They should then move outward filling in the second box with inferences based on their observations and in the third box writing down questions which they would like answered. It may be necessary for the teacher to model this process for pupils first e.g.an observation made in the first box might be "pile of skulls", this linked to an inference in the second box "their heads were cut off their bodies" in turn linked to a question in the third box "Who cut off the heads?"

Lead a whole class discussion asking pairs or small groups for examples of their reasoning. Draw up a list of inferences which the majority of pupils vote to agree on and keep this list for future reference.

Commentary

The purpose of an effective starter in history teaching is not to settle a class (although it should have the effect of focusing pupils minds so that they are concentrating on whatever they have been asked to do.) Still less is it to give time to take a register or organise resources. This particular opening activity is designed to stir pupils imagination and draw them into a genuine mystery -the excavation by archaeologists of a mass grave where around 50 human bodies were discovered in a disused Roman quarry near Weymouth in 2009 with their skulls piled up morbidly to one side, indicating decapitation as the possible cause of death.

The technique of a puzzle picture pioneered in the work of Jamie Byrom and Dale Banham is a form of evidential striptease where pupils are only shown a portion of the whole image at a time. In addition this activity is the initial one of the whole enquiry and can be compared to pupils peeling off the outer layer of an onion. They may think they know some answers but unpeeling more layers of the evidence onion through later activities will reveal more and add to their growing knowledge.

If the activity is managed well then pupils can learn to speculate safely, drawing conclusions that are open to debate and understanding that reasoning should be justified by reference to evidence. This photograph of the mass grave only becomes really surprising when the last portion of the image is revealed should stimulate pupil curiosity and provoke them into asking questions about what has been found.

This process of reasoning has been reinforced in the next activity where pupils analyse the same photograph through a layers of inference frame. This technique was pioneered in literacy teaching but has become a powerful tool in scaffolding pupil learning in history. It can also be used flexibly from Key stages 1 to 5 and can easily be differentiated by the relative difficulty of the questions asked in the boxes.

At whatever level the frame is used it starts with the simplest of tasks, direct observation of concrete details from a historical source placed around the immediate box. This task is open to the vast majority of pupils, even if it only directs pupil discussion and little is actually written down.

For the youngest pupils or those who cannot write easily, drawings of particular details within the text can be included within the first box with arrows pointing towards their location in the image or text. The activity then deliberately moves from concrete observation to more abstract historical thinking. If pupils have not encountered the subject specific terms of "to infer" or "inference" then this is the point to make them familiar.

There will also be differences between pupils, sometimes as they attempt to work together as one reaches one inference while a peer reaches another, based on the same source or sources. Through paired and whole class discussion, pupils may experience cognitive conflict where they run up against ideas that are different to their own and which may may result in them changing their minds.

The main role of the teacher is to listen and prompt such discussion, pressing pupils on the supporting evidence they are using to justify a particular conclusion. Having debated and agreed a list of inferences as a class, pupils will have contributed to reaching a collective hypothesis which explains how and why the bones were placed in the mass grave.

At this stage they may feel very confident about their reasoning and this is not something for the teacher to puncture at this point of enquiry. The activities model the kind of inferences that historians and archaeologists make when encountering evidence for the first time. The crucial difference with pupils is the degree of knowledge that pupils bring to this process.

Deliberately withholding any background information about how old bones may be or information about the probable identity of the victims allows pupils to reach a provisional conclusion about them. As more information about the finds is given to them through the course of the enquiry, pupils can come to see that there may be flaws in their initial conclusions. It is safe and valid to change their minds because historical thinking it's not just based on reasoning that is also dependent on the knowledge of the period that they possess.

Suggested training activity

1. Without revealing the learning objectives or outcomes whoever is leading the training could teach the activities outlined to colleagues as if they were in a class.

2. Discussion could then be held around what colleagues think the main point of the activities were and why they may have been created in the way they have. Display slides seven and eight (quotes relevant to setting starter activities) in Resource A and give colleagues the commentary on the activities to read from this section . The following quote from Jamie Byrom`s Schools History Project conference workshop (2012) " I`ve started so I`ll finish" could also be displayed

Good starters provide ...

• Direction - pupils know where the learning is going
• Challenge - pupils know that they will need to think sharply
• Tone - pupils sense the "feel" of the period or issue being studied
• Engagement - pupils care: the "goals" of the learning are their goals!

The DNA of the whole enquiry should, ideally, be apparent in the starter. Never start an enquiry without being very clear what the whole thing is about. You may well need to plan the starter at the end of the planning process.

Discuss what the implication of this approach might be for a school where teachers are obliged to always begin each lesson by placing an explicit learning objective on the board before they start teaching.