Chart of Biography, Modern British History
An exercise to explore the breadth of your knowledge about people in Britain’s recent past. Insert into the boxes the names of notable British people in the fields described on the right, and try to place them chronologically.
An exercise which might serve as a check on ‘A’ level students’ overall grasp of Britain’s recent past as they start their ‘A’ level course. If students do it as a groupwork exercise, it ought to augment the range of their historical subject knowledge, and perhaps clarify some uncertainties over exactly where people belong in the chart.)
I am grateful for Dr Ruth Watts for telling me about this exercise which she does with her history PGCE students at the University of Birmingham, to explore their subject knowledge at the start of the PGCE year. It is adapted from Joseph Priestley’s model, which ran right back to ancient times. Students are asked to mark on the chart, the names of famous British people in the categories noted in the right hand column. As well as getting students to think about how sound or extensive their subject knowledge is, it can raise interesting points about gender and other issues.