Year 10 lesson_plan
- 1. HISTORY LESSON OF THE FUTURE PLAN
- 2. Teacher: Niall Ferguson Class: 10 Niall Ferguson, MA, D.Phil., is Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor at Harvard Business School. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. For more info visit http://www.niallferguson.com NOTE Niall Ferguson hopes the electronic textbook version of his new book Civilisation - including his “killer apps”, revolution cards and the multiplayer game Commerce, Conquest and Colonization as described in this vision of a history lesson of the (not to distant) future will be ready later this year. Watch his website for updates. Until the e-textbook is published teachers can read Niall Ferguson’s book Civilisation: the West and the Rest published by Allen Lane.
- 3. Subject: Explaining the rise of the West / Understanding the drivers of long-run historical change Date: 23 March Period: 5 Room: Z9 Characteristics of Class (course; general ability profile; gender balance): Mixed ability – target grades for this group range from A* – E at GCSE. 13 boys and 13 girls SEN/G&T Profile of Class: At least 8 students are capable of achieving A*-A
- 4. Context of Lesson: Students have hitherto studied history in unconnected fragments. They have been taught various skills but they have no grasp of long-run chronology. The aim of the lesson is to give them a sense of the most important developments of the period 1400 to 1914 and to encourage them to understand and offer answers to the most important question of that period: Why did the West dominate the Rest? First the class will try to build a time line of the period by putting six building block events into the correct order. Then the class will be divided into six groups. Each one will spend 10-15 minutes studying one of the ‘killer applications’ put forward in the e-textbook of Civilisation* as a driver of Western economic, cultural and political predominance. Then they will take it in turns to explain why their app was advantageous to Western societies.
- 5. Learning Objectives: Students will learn the order in which the following things happened, and the essentials of what they were: the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. Students will then learn how to construct a causal explanation for Western ascendancy. Students will be expected to offer evidence to support their contention that a particular institution was advantageous to Western development. The discussion will also encourage them to see that such causal factors can be ranked in importance.
- 6. Learning Activities: Differentiation: 1) The class will begin by This discussion will be led by the considering the six key teacher events described above. Brief descriptions of the various revolutions will be available on cards* or on the course platform if laptops are being used, The groups need to be balanced along with some so that each one has an A illustrations of key student to provide some kind of figures and innovations. leadership. The first challenge will be to establish the order in which these happened and roughly when. 2) The class will form into six groups to attempt to get the order right. They will have ten minutes to work it out, using evidence in the cards to infer the order. 3) The teacher will then ask where these major historical events happened. Again the groups will be able to infer from the event descriptions the locations: Germany for the Reformation and so on.
- 7. Homework Activity: Read the short chapter on ‘Western ascendancy in the textbook and write the essay, making sure that at least one paragraph is focused on each of the six applications.
- 8. Use of Resources/ICT: If possible, students should use the electronic version of the textbook Civilisation*. They should be encouraged to explore the video and simulation resources. If possible they should play at least five rounds of the multiplayer game ‘Commerce, Conquest and Colonization’* * Niall Ferguson hopes the electronic textbook version of his new book Civilisation, including his ‘killer apps’, revolution cards and even the multiplayer game Commerce, Conquest and Colonization will be ready later this year. Watch his website for updates. Until the e-textbook is published teachers can read Niall Ferguson’s book Civilisation: the West and the Rest published by