Vocabulary: historical thinking
LANGUAGEKnow and use the vocabulary of historical thinking — source, evidence, primary source, secondary source, artefact, chronology, chronological order, BC/BCE, AD/CE, century, decade, era, period, timeline, excavation, archaeologist, interpretation, corroborate, bias, perspective — and apply these terms when discussing how we know about the past and how reliable our knowledge is
Mastery Evidence
- Correctly use BC/BCE and AD/CE to place events in time and explain what the letters stand for
- Distinguish between a primary source and a secondary source with an example of each
- Use 'evidence', 'interpretation', and 'bias' correctly in a sentence about a historical source
Assessment Prompt
“If you asked [child] whether something they read in a history book was definitely true, could they explain why it might not be — using words like 'source', 'evidence', or 'bias'?”
Prerequisites1
- Domain Vocabulary Across Subject AreassoftAges 9—11
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- Domain Vocabulary Across Subject Areas soft
Acquiring the specialist vocabulary of historical thinking (source, bias, chronology, corroborate) builds on the academic vocabulary development taught in English
- Discussing and Questioning New Words hard
Academic and domain-specific vocabulary acquisition builds on the habit of discussing word meanings and linking new vocabulary to known words
- Defining Words soft
Defining academic words requires the ability to define words by category and attribute
- How Many in Total? soft
Sorting and categorising objects uses the same counting/cardinality skills from maths
- One-to-one counting hard
Cardinality principle builds on one-to-one correspondence — you must count correctly to know the last number tells 'how many'
Unlocks6
- Different Accounts of the Same EventhardAges 6—8
- Evidence from the PasthardAges 6—7
- Understanding People in Their Own TimesoftAges 8—10
- Evidence Versus InterpretationhardAges 10—11
- Questioning Historical SourceshardAges 8—10
- Checking Sources Against Each OtherhardAges 8—10