Iris Bradfield, Head of History, Friends School Lisburn, Northern Ireland
Facing History at Friends School Lisburn (FSL)
Iris Bradfield, Head of History, Friends School Lisburn
Facing History and Ourselves Board Trip, Belfast, May 2008
My first involvement with the Facing History and Ourselves Programme was back in June 2006 when I was invited to attend a 3-day Holocaust and Human Behavior seminar in Belfast. It was here that I met Karen Murphy, Facing History's Director of International Programs and was infected by her obvious enthusiasm!
As we teachers began to respond to the various activities, videos and readings I began to think about how I could utilize and incorporate these materials into my own teaching environment. I returned to school keen to try out some of what I had experienced.
In September 2006 I decided to amend my own scheme of work for my Year 10 pupils to include some Facing History materials. The class responded well and so, encouraged by this I rewrote the Departmental scheme of work and presented it to the other members of my department back in February this year. Although a little sceptical at first they agreed to teach it.
We began by using "The Bear that Wasn't" to introduce the study of the Holocaust. We talked from the beginning about the response of people to various situations and the impact this can have on their identity.
We then began our study of the history Holocaust using the Carousal Activity to discover what it was like to live in Nazi Germany. We looked at propaganda posters and considered why people would support the Nazis.
Later the account of Police Battalion was read and the video "The Courage of Le Chambon" was watched. Both of these were very powerful lessons (as you would expect) and the pupils responded with a maturity I haven't seen before with this age group. This mature response was also commented upon by other teachers.
After watching a school resource on the liberation of Belsen by Sidney Bernstein we moved to consider the Nuremberg Trials and creation of the UN.
Finally as a computer project I took them to the IT suite and asked them to research events which happened in Rwanda and Darfur.
Pupils
were asked to present their response to this module in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. The day we sat down as a class to watch and evaluate each
other's work was in itself total justification of the time taken on the
project.
Here in Northern Ireland the curriculum requirements are in the process of change. The new Revised Curriculum places a strong emphasis on pupil centred learning which is skills based, active and integrates elements of IT and Citizenship into each subject. As you know the Facing History Programme embraces all of these key elements.
As my Y10 pupils move on in the next few weeks to look at the recent conflicts here in Ireland I feel that they are now better placed, and able to face their own history.
Participating in this project has helped me to redesign what I was teaching to present it in a more meaningful way.
