Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← History
HistoryThinking like a historian30 min★★★ difficulty

Running your own historical enquiry

Historians do not begin with an answer. They begin with a question narrow enough to test, then build a claim the evidence can carry. This lesson gives you the method and you use it.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims

Key learning points

  • • Narrow beats grand
  • • Gathering deliberately
  • • Making the claim answerable
  • • Your enquiry

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

methodshistoricalenquiryevidencerigorously

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Running your own historical enquiry

An English teaching video on this topic from Miacademy & MiaPrep Learning Channel. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should know how to read a source's provenance and that historians disagree because they use different evidence.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Enquiry question
A focused question evidence can actually answer.
Claim
A statement you argue for, supported by evidence.
Counter-evidence
Evidence that challenges your claim, which you must address.
Inference
A supported conclusion drawn from evidence, not stated in it.
Significance
Why something mattered, to whom, and for how long.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Framing a question

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Narrow beats grand

'Was the Industrial Revolution good?' cannot be answered. 'Did living conditions in Manchester improve between 1830 and 1870?' can. A usable question names a place, a time and something measurable, so you know what evidence would count.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Gathering deliberately

Look for different kinds of evidence rather than more of the same: an official report, a personal account, a set of numbers, a physical object or map. If every source shares one viewpoint, your conclusion is really about that viewpoint, not the past.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

Which is the strongest enquiry question?

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Why seek different types of source?

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Building and testing a claim

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Making the claim answerable

Write a claim in one sentence: what you think, and on what basis. Then attack it. What is the strongest counter-evidence, and does your claim survive after you address it? Historians earn conclusions by taking the opposing evidence seriously in public.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Your enquiry

Choose one: did the 1689 settlement really limit royal power, did factory reform improve children's lives by 1870, or did abolition change the empire. Write the question, list three different source types you would want, state your claim and name one piece of counter-evidence you must answer.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

What should you do with strong counter-evidence?

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

An inference is...

15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • A big question is not a better question; it is usually an unanswerable one.
  • More sources of the same type do not strengthen a claim as much as varied types.
  • Counter-evidence is not a weakness to hide; addressing it is what proves the claim.
  • An inference must be supported by the evidence, not simply guessed from it.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

A usable question names a place, a time and something measurable, so you know what ____ would count.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Running your own historical enquiry

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. A usable enquiry question names...

  2. 2. Counter-evidence should be...

  3. 3. Significance asks...

  4. 4. Which pair of sources tests a claim best?

  5. 5. A claim should be written...

  6. 6. If all your sources share one viewpoint, your conclusion is really about...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Source

A factory inspector's notebook, 1842

"I visited the mill at seven in the morning. The machines were already running. I counted fourteen children at the frames, the youngest no more than nine years of age. The overseer told me they work from six until seven, with forty minutes for dinner."

"The air is thick with cotton dust and the windows are kept shut so the thread does not break. Two of the children showed me hands cut by the shuttles. The owner assured me that the work is light and that the families beg him for the places, since without the children's wages the rent cannot be paid."

"I have written to the magistrates. I doubt much will follow from it."

Original source-style text written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Who wrote this, when, and why might that make it useful to a historian?
  2. What does the source tell you about children's work — and what does it not tell you?
  3. How far does this source show that mill owners were to blame? Answer with a judgement and evidence.

  • Source work

    Reading

    Read the source closely. Write who made it, when, and what it tells you — then what it does not tell you.

    2 paragraphs

  • Essay answer

    Writing

    Answer the enquiry question with a clear judgement. Use two pieces of evidence and finish with a sentence that weighs them up.

    300–400 words

  • Timeline

    Diagram

    Draw a timeline of the events in this lesson with dates, then photograph it.

    6–8 events

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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