What was it like to be an evacuee during World War Two?

Assessment in History.

Successful assessment in History can prove difficult at times. Unlike Mathematics and other subjects, there isn't always a concrete measurement to take to help you, as the teacher, know if information has been obtained by the children. History is about remembering dates and understanding how and what happened in the past. However a key element to truly understanding history, is gaining an idea of why things happened and empathising with people of that period of time. To help to see your children have gained the required knowledge, it can be good to incorperate Drama into History. Having the children act out a historical event and empathise with characters, can give you, the teacher, a clear insight to the children's understanding. I have incorperated a video clip of a cross-curricular lesson, history and Drama. This will give you an idea of how useful Drama can be in assessment and youcan see that the information that the teacher will get about her pupil's knowledge of the topic. 
 
Written activities, such as diary entries and recall of events can also help the teacher assess the children's progress. In this case you could ask the children to write a letter home, as an evacuee, and ask them to incorperate spercific information about their journey, feelings, school and new family. This will give you an overview of the children's understanding so far. These points which you ask the children to input into their letters can later be used as a checklist e.g. this child has included information about his new home and so understands what families in the country may have felt about the newcomers but has not mentioned their family back home and so may not quite understand how difficult it was for the children to leave their families back in London. Other written activities include: posters about the german army, diary entries, letter home to parent's about the child's behaviour in school, recount of events, newspaper reports etc.

I have included a link to assessment tips that can be applied to History. I thought this may be useful for you to have a look through.

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/18968.