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Helmet from crashed German
plane just outside Starcross |
WORLD WAR II and STARCROSS: TOPIC 1 [of 5] 1st March 2023Introduction – What Is History? & The Airman’s Helmet
Context
The introductory 45 minute session for the Starcross School History Club [SSHC will have two elements, in order:
Focus
The session, aka lesson, is based on the idea that historians of all ages work like detectives. But, we don’t tell the pupils this…
Part 1 What is History Concept web
We start the Starcross School History Club [SSHC] by asking the pupils to create a concept web of What is History?
This activity we will repeat at the end of the five meetings of the club to see what, if any, changes the club members have about What is History?.
Part 2 Pupils as History detectives
The pupils then take on the role of history detectives investigating a mystery object – an airman’s helmet from World War 2 discovered locally.
Club members’ working pattern
The members will work as individuals, as pairs, and as teams of 3-4 to find out about the mystery object [note – NOT as individuals sitting in pairs or groups of 3-4 but as cooperative pairs or teams that build their knowledge through sharing their learning.
The pair or team members have to ask questions and use them collectively to investigate further what the helmet can tell us about its story as part of the wider history of Starcross in World War II.
Questions and questioning
drive the enquiry one, with an ever-widening network of questions, information, theories, hypotheses, explanations, interpretations and conclusions about the topic.
Pupils’ historical thinking
To solve the mystery the class will discuss, speculate and hypothesise about the helmet and what it can tell us about who wore, it what he or she was doing, when, where, why, how and with what consequences. A question hand with thumb and fingers: Who? What? Where? When? How?
The club members will use induction [logical thinking] and deduction [inference, the informed imagination, creativity] to review the clues they investigate, piece the ‘ evidence together and reach conclusions based upon them.
Findings – Resolution – Pupil presentation
Pupils present their conclusions to the class orally and produce them using a genre / format they choose .
WHAT IS HISTORY? & THE AIRMAN’S HELMET: SSHC meeting 1
Background
We decided to introduce the World War II and Starcross through a History Mystery in which pupils as history detectives investigate a World War II airman’s helmet. The plan is based on similar history mytery lessons: but here focusing on a single object.
Before introducing the helmet we will ask the pupils to create their concept maps of What Is History?
The club members
Years 3-6 mixed age and gender literate pupils.
Teaching – interactive whole class teaching [teacher management, direction and control with:
The class working at different points as:
Individuals, or cooperatively:
in pairs or teams of 3 or 4 pupils with, if appropriate, complementary, different roles that force them to pool ideas and build upon each other’s contributions
two large groups, ditto or
as a whole class with throughout teacher management and support.
Key Teaching Idea
The investigation of a mystery object from Starcross in World War II as a starting point to learning about Starcross during the war.
Key questions [teaching]
What is history?
What can the pupils learn from investigating a World War II artefact from Starcross in 1942, an airman’s helmet? [we start off by not telling them what it is]
Teaching time
45 minutes
Learning objectives / intended learning outcomes
To develop pupils’ high-level thinking skills: an understanding of what historical enquiry involves and how to use and further develop it in their own learning.
To promote working cooperatively as pairs, small teams and as a class, i.e. social learning, building upon each other’s knowledge with teacher guidance and support.
To develop detailed knowledge, understanding and explanation of the airman’s helmet in the context in which it was worn.
To highlight/focus on oracy / dialogue at all stages of the teaching & learning.
To teach pupils to present their conclusions in a genre that reflects their high level thinking skills and knowledge involved in their enquiry.
Resources
A side of blank paper for the What is History concept web
A World War II airman’s helmet
Reg Colley’s account of Starcross and the German Bomber
Gillian Selley’s letter about living in Starcross in WW2
Photographs
Ordnance Survey maps of the village and area in the 1940s
British Newspaper Archive – newspaper article on the Exeter Blitz and the shooting down of a German bomber
A WW2 British fighter pilot’s book , that he wrote using his diary
The Internet for photographs and other evidence
Notes and Reflections
The LESSON
The Concept Web – What is History
[sheet of A4 / A5 paper. Name, date and age, years and months, of club member at top of the page
Put up an example of a concept / spider’s web on the board.
Explain that we want them to produce their own concept web that shows what they think history is
In the centre of the web the statement What is History, in a circle
Each pupil adds an arm from the web’s centre answering the question:
I think history is ….
Ask for volunteers to read out their definitions: discuss and say we will collect their papers in and
The Airman’s Helmet
Episode 1 Organising the investigation: History detectives
Focus: How the club members will work on the helmet.
Tell them they will be working together in pairs and small groups as well as individuals and as a whole class.
Ice breaker - Ask each club members to tell us their name, one interesting thing about themselves and one less interesting [boring…] thing..
What they hope the SSHC will do, reminding them that they put World War 1 & 2 at the top of their list of topics to find out about.
This leads us logically on to the Pilot’s helmet
Episode 1 Introducing the airman’s helmet
Focus: The dramatic opening –Involving the pupils immediately in a gripping drama which links straight into Starcross in World War II
Monica brings in the helmet, puts it on the table, says she has been given it,
but would like the Starcross School History Club help her find out about it, and,
if the object could speak, what story it might tell about what happened to it.
She is also a source that can perhaps answer some of the questions the pupils ask.
Episode 3 Pupils investigate the helmet
Focus: Club members initial observation and thoughts about the helmet [totally open ended]
Ask the pupils to look at the helmet, close their eyes and think of one thing about it
They then pass the helmet round quickly, handling it and looking more closely: and then say one word, phrase or sentence they have about it.
[we record these – building up a star diagram]
We often ask one pupil who has had his turn to ask another to make the next contribution
Episode 4 Questions
Focus: The pupils come up with their own questions
Put up the W trigger words – Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
Divide the member into pairs, each pair has to come up with one or more questions about the helmet for each trigger word and a phrase using it, eg. Who owned it? ~How was it made? What was it used? Who wore it? Where was it found?
List the answers to each of the trigger words questions under each one.
Episode 4 The class investigates – finding answers to the questions
Focus:
Teasing out how we can organize the investigation – how to go about it, to discover sources / clues and evidence
Where might we find some sources / evidence about the helmet?
The person in the room who might know some starting points is Monica:
Episode 7 Resolution – Written composition
Focus: Pupils write either discursively/reflectively or imaginatively/creatively
.
In the King Arthur lesson, January 2015, we wanted to be explicit about the genre the pupils wrote in. We stressed they had to think about who they were writing as [author] and who they were writing for [audience] and the mode, the medium in which they would as well as its field, i.e content
The pupils could either write an account or report [reflective and discursive writing] or their own fictitious piece [imaginative and creative writing], [picture 9].
Using their sheets, the pupils spent the next half an hour in writing their reflective & discursive accounts/reports or creative & imaginative short stories about the owner of the suitcase based on the clues it contained.
Learning Outcomes
Review with the class what it thinks it has learned.
List what you think the outcomes are after the lesson.
The pupil’s written composition
