Teaching History Creatively

Book excerpt: The fully updated second edition of Teaching History Creatively introduces teachers to the wealth of available approaches to historical enquiry, ensuring creative, effective learning. This book clearly sets out the processes of historical enquiry, demonstrating how these are integrally linked with key criteria of creativity and helps readers to employ those features of creativity in the classroom. Underpinned by theory and research, it offers informed and practical support and is illustrated throughout with examples of children’s work. Key themes addressed include: investigating sources using archives in your own research project becoming historical agents and history detectives drama for exploring events myths and legends communicating historical understanding creatively. With brand new chapters from the Stone Ages to the Iron Age, using prehistoric sources; The withdrawal of the Romans and the conquest and settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons, in addition to many new case studies, this exciting edition puts an emphasis on accessible, recent research, new evidence and interpretations and encourages the creative dynamism of the study of history. Teaching History Creatively provides vivid and rich examples of the creative use of sources, of approaches to understanding chronology and concepts of time and of strategies to create interpretations. It is an essential purchase for any teacher or educator who wishes to embed creative approaches to teaching history in their classroom.