History

Teachers Notes

Task 1 - Ancient Times

Four worksheets have been included. There are a variety of tasks covering a range of abilities in English and Maths. Answers are provided where appropriate. These worksheets are suitable for class or group work.

Worksheet 8 - Ancient Egypt

Worksheet 9 - Ancient Japan

Worksheet 10 - Ancient Greece

Worksheet 11- The Roman Army

For more information on the Romans see Projects>>Who Are the British>>Romans.

Task 2 - Evidence

How do we know what happened in the past?

Organise class or group discussions to consider the sources of information, i.e. the evidence and its reliability. Consider:

What evidence is available. For example the account of an eye-witness, documents, books, newspapers, maps, photographs, sound or video recordings, people’s memories, paintings, artefacts and buildings.

Whether the evidence is contemporary with the event.

Whether the evidence is primary - telling what was actually seen or heard; or secondary - retelling what someone else has said they have seen or heard.

The possibility of error in the evidence.

The reliability of the witness

The possibility of bias.

The documentary evidence. Is it genuine or not? Could it be a forgery?

Only when ALL the evidence has been carefully assessed should a decision be made about what is thought to be the truth.

Task 3 - Evidence

Arrange a practical ‘eye-witness’ demonstration.

Select any picture or poster with which the class is not familiar (it does not have to be about football) and prepare a list of questions about it beforehand.

Show it to the class and allow them to view it for about a minute in silence. Remove the picture and go on to something quite different for about ten minutes and then ask the class the prepared questions about the picture; preferably have written answers.

Show the picture again and discuss the answers.

Debate the reliability of an eye-witness perhaps as it relates to TV and newspaper articles, or even to messages received by the teacher from children. Eventually display the picture in the classroom with an analysis of the results, possibly in the form of graphs by the children. Some written work on the reliability of any eye-witness in assessing evidence could be added.

The following Tasks could be used for discussion or for written work.

Task 4 - Rules

Before 1888 each school had its own rules for playing football. Why was it important to establish a common set of rules for everyone?

Task 5 - Rules

When children play games at playtime in the school playground, they often change the rules.

What sort of changes are made in your playground

Who makes the changes?

Why are the changes necessary?

For example - in a game of football who decides what should be used as goal posts, where in the playground they should be placed and how wide apart should they be.

Task 6 - Rules

Try to make up a set of rules for any of the games played in the playground such as skipping, marbles, hide-and-seek or tag.

The rules of professional football are called The Laws of the Game. There are 17 Laws

Football is basically a very simple game. Explain why it is necessary to have so many Laws covering all aspects of the game.

Law 5 requires a referee to be appointed for each game to 'Enforce the Laws'.

Why is this necessary?

Explain why there is usually no referee when you play your games in the playground.

What qualities does a person need to have to be a good referee?

Task 8 - Laws

Players who break the Laws of the Game are punished by the referee. He awards advantages to the other team. Explain why this is necessary.

Task 9 - Laws

Laws are necessary to control the way people behave towards each other as well as in the games they play. For example your school rules:

What are the school rules?

Why are they necessary?

Who is the ‘referee’?

What are the ‘penalties’ if the rules are broken?

What would happen in school if there were no rules?

Task 10 - Laws

Laws are also made for everyone in the whole Country to obey:

There is a system for making laws which everyone must obey. How are these laws made? Give examples.

There must be ‘referees’ to see that the laws are kept. Who are the people responsible for enforcing the laws?

There must be a system of ‘penalties’ to deal with those who break the laws. Think what this system is and how it works.

Discuss the statement - Laws are made for everyone to obey.

Task 11 - The Time Line

Attempts to organise football started about 1848 but modern football as we know it was born in 1863 with the formation of the Football Association. The Time Line from 1863-2002 deals with some significant events in football history. It should be studied before any of the activities are undertaken.

Create a Classroom Time Line

This requires space for 148 years in detail, 1863-2002, with some additional space at the beginning of the line for a general summary of how football evolved prior to 1863

The scale depends, of course, on the size of the classroom but a simple measurement to consider is: 3 cm = 1 year. Perhaps the class could devise a scale more suitable to the size of the room. The larger the scale the better.

Choose SOME of the football events to place on the time line. Others can be added as appropriate. Individuals or groups can ‘research’ non football events - local, national or worldwide - adding these to the time line to place the football events in context. For example:

How long ago was …?

How many years since…?

How old is…

Task 13

How do we know when, where, how, why and by whom the following were formed?

The Football Association

The Football League

Make a list of the evidence available.

Where could you look to try to find more evidence?

Explain why you think the evidence is or is not reliable.