Deborina Roy
This article has several strategies and tools or teaching methodologies that any history teacher can adopt in her class. From usage of film clippings, documentaries and audio-visuals to experiential or thematic teaching-learning methods, the article explains in detail how the history teacher can make her class interesting.
Month: June 2023
Make history come alive
Lee Krishnan
If a history class has to come alive, it is important for history teachers to be passionate about their subject, to be well-read, aware of current affairs and be able to relate the content to other subjects like literature, geography, economics, etc. This article lists out some simple strategies that teachers can follow. There’s no dearth of activities online and offline that a teacher can use to make history fun and relevant.
Revamping the approach to teaching history
Jeena Sarah Jacob
How can history be made enjoyable, relatable and relevant? Students need to be engaged with the content that inspired the writing of a history chapter and also involved in the process of how historians arrive at their conclusions. This will help students to think laterally and take the burden off remembering facts.
New present, newer past & newer textbooks
R S Krishna
Can history textbooks offer better reading and learning and teaching material than what is currently available? Usually, they carry the burden of being obliging to the changing governments’ policies and ideologies. So, can these textbooks be made more engaging, factoring in the social world and the lived experiences of the students? This article examines some possible contours.
Archives and ‘Active Learning’ in the history classroom
Shivangi Jaiswal
How can archives be included in a teacher’s lesson plan? Archival sources cannot be used in their existing format for educational purposes. Therefore, before using a source in a lesson, one needs to ‘prepare’ it in a manner that is accessible to children of different age groups. A careful selection of sources is very essential. This will help students to be exposed to a variety of learning experiences.
Initiating a magical journey
Subha Das Mollick
‘Magic of my school’ was a project that was initiated in some schools of Kolkata to map and explore the history of education in the city and also to learn history hands-on. It also offered young historians an opportunity to rewrite the history of their school.
Is the history textbook history now?
Nisha Dedhia Teredesai
History teachers need to move beyond textbooks and discover other tools that can bring alive the history classroom. Story-telling, movies, humour and discussions and debate can all help perk up the students.
Was it really the straw that broke the camel’s back?
Dr. Arthur Chapman
How can students get better at history using analogy and a fictional story? Analogy can help students develop a thorough knowledge about the past, of how history works as a way of making sense of the world, and an ability to argue and organise their ideas. This strategy has proved very popular with students and teachers can try this out in their own history class.
A folktale walked into a history class…
Parikshit Sharma
Can teachers practice a pedagogy that allows them to participate, with their students, in the whole process of learning what the discipline of history offers? This way teachers and students learn how to read, engage, examine, analyze, question, challenge and theorize about the past as well as theories about the past.
Hidden inside migration stories
Subha Das Mollick and Deborina Roy
This article highlights how a summer project done in 2021 titled ‘Tracing your roots’ formed the stepping stone to a bigger project on migration. Being a research project, students went out of their way to learn more about their city and the different influences that migratory populations can bring in.