Source-y chats in the classroom

Using pupil dialogue to encourage sophisticated engagement with source material - even at GCSE!

Frustrated by the mechanistic approach that their pupils were using when working with historical sources, Tim Jenner and Paul Nightingale sought to experiment with a method of teaching sources which eschewed practice source questions in favour of activities designed to encourage more rigorous and genuine historical thinking. Among the varied strategies that they have experimented with to give pupils new ways of attacking source material, one of the most effective has been using pupil talk to support systematic deconstruction and sophisticated analysis of sources. Here they share two simple activities which can be used at any key stage to develop rigorous historical thinking about the meaning and value of particular historical sources...