Layers of history

Question: Who is buried in the box?

Seeking a new and exciting way to introduce my Year 7 students to history, I looked to a practical solution. Ian Dawson once used a Thinking History exercise where students looked at the idea of ‘layers of history'. It was useful in structuring my idea: I want to get students to think about using archaeology to scrape away layers of history. All history departments will have a way of introducing history to their Year 7 students. For me, I wanted to combine historical questioning, hypothesis-building and the practical experience of digging up evidence using the method of the archaeologist. The aim was to have the students see from the start the practical applications of history and to realise that it is not just about being told the answers...