History at key stage 3 (Year 9)
Unit 18: Hot war, cold war why did the major twentieth-century conflicts affect so many people?
Section 5: What do local people remember about the main conflicts?
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Objectives |
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- about the impact of world events upon ordinary people
- that the impact of 'total war' did not discriminate between military and non-military populations
- to select and use a variety of local source material to contribute to an investigation
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Activities |
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Outcomes |
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Children: |
- Remind pupils of one of the themes identified in the first activity on the impact of twentieth-century wars on civilians.
- Ask pupils to listen to taped oral testimonies from local residents about the impact of war on their neighbourhood,
eg zeppelin raids, war work, ARP work, VE day
- Ask pupils to discuss the events and their significance for ordinary people, and locate each event on a class timeline.
- Lead a class 'brainstorm' on whether the local area reveals any evidence about world conflicts. Pupils could conduct an investigation using the resources available,
eg
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visits to local war memorials
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interviews with older relatives
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an analysis of local photographic evidence
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visits to/by members of local veterans associations
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extraction of information from local newspapers of the time
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- explain the impact of 'total war' on ordinary people
- use knowledge and understanding to identify and evaluate sources of information relating to the impact of 'total war' on military and non-military populations
- select, organise and use relevant sources of information to produce structured work for an investigation
- make links between key features within and across periods
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Points to note |
- Pupils will have undertaken similar work at key stage 2, so how they build on their previous experiences will need to be considered.
- Taped extracts of conflict testimonies can be found commercially and through local history societies, museums, and record offices. Different conflicts could be included though sensitivity will be needed towards pupils who have had experience of conflict either directly or through close relatives.
- Other useful resources are the national BBC archive, local radio and the reminiscence charity Age Exchange.
- Teacher or pupils could make their own tape by recording a range of reminiscences or by recording one person's memories in depth.
- ICT: pupils could collect data from local war memorials and create a database or spreadsheet. Data on local casualties can be related to the size of the local population and in turn to national population statistics. Pupils could use e-mail to 'interview' people with experience of war in different parts of Europe. Their experiences can be compared with those of local people. Pupils could make use of useful websites,
eg the Chatback project http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/chatback.
- There are opportunities for extension work on the whole issue of censorship of information, means of propaganda and its impact on public morale.
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This unit is divided into sections. Each section contains a sequence of
activities with related objectives and outcomes. You can view this unit by
moving through the sections or print/download the whole unit.
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