Voices of the Past: Exploring Change and Continuity · 6th Class

Active learning ideas

British Government Responses to Famine

Active learning works for this topic because the scale of human suffering during the Great Famine requires students to engage with economic policies not as abstract ideas but as lived realities. Hands-on activities let students see how policy choices directly affected people, making the failure of relief efforts more than just historical data.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• NCCA: Primary - Politics, Conflict and Society
• NCCA: Primary - Eras of Change and Conflict

• 35–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Formal Debate
• 45 min · Small Groups

Formal Debate: Defending Famine Policies

Assign small groups roles as government officials, economists, or Irish relief committees. Provide sources on public works and soup kitchens; groups prepare 3-minute arguments on effectiveness. Hold a whole-class debate with voting on best policy.

Critique the effectiveness of early government relief measures, such as public works schemes, in addressing the scale of the Famine.

Facilitation Tip

During the Debate: Defending Famine Policies, assign roles clearly so students must defend policies they may personally disagree with, forcing them to rely on evidence rather than opinion.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'If you were a Member of Parliament in 1847, would you have voted to increase funding for soup kitchens or continue investing in public works? Justify your decision using evidence about their effectiveness and the prevailing economic ideas of the time.'

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Philosophical Chairs
• 40 min · Small Groups

Source Carousel: Policy Critique

Set up 4 stations with excerpts from Trevelyan, newspapers, and eyewitness accounts. Groups rotate every 10 minutes, noting evidence of successes and failures. Regroup to share findings and rank policies.

Evaluate the impact of laissez-faire economic policies on the allocation and distribution of Famine relief efforts.

What to look for

Provide students with a short excerpt from a primary source, such as a letter from a landlord or a report from a British official. Ask them to identify one specific policy mentioned and explain in one sentence whether the author viewed it as effective or ineffective, and why.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Social Awareness

Activity 03

• Philosophical Chairs
• 35 min · Pairs

Policy Timeline Mapping

In pairs, students create timelines of key responses like the 1846 Soup Kitchen Act and 1847 Poor Law extension. Add impact arrows linking policies to death tolls or emigration data. Present to class for peer feedback.

Justify why some historians argue that British government policies exacerbated the Famine's death toll rather than alleviating it.

What to look for

On an index card, students write two sentences: one explaining a key difference between public works and soup kitchens as relief measures, and another stating one reason why historians critique the British government's response to the Famine.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Self-Awareness
• Social Awareness

Activity 04

• Mock Trial
• 50 min · Whole Class

Mock Trial: Government Negligence

Divide class into prosecution, defense, and jury. Prosecution uses sources to argue policies worsened the Famine; defense counters with context. Jury deliberates and verdicts based on evidence.

Critique the effectiveness of early government relief measures, such as public works schemes, in addressing the scale of the Famine.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'If you were a Member of Parliament in 1847, would you have voted to increase funding for soup kitchens or continue investing in public works? Justify your decision using evidence about their effectiveness and the prevailing economic ideas of the time.'

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Social Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Experienced teachers approach this topic by balancing empathy with critical analysis, using simulations and role-plays to help students grasp the human cost of policy decisions. Avoid presenting policies as simply ‘good’ or ‘bad’; instead, focus on how ideology shaped outcomes. Research shows that when students role-play historical figures, they better understand the constraints and motivations behind policy choices.

Students will explain why British policies failed by linking primary sources to key economic ideas like laissez-faire, and they will use evidence to critique these approaches. Successful learning looks like students connecting Trevelyan’s reports to tenant letters and justifying their arguments in debates or trials.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During the Source Carousel: Policy Critique, watch for students assuming soup kitchens and public works were adequate responses because they existed.

  Use the carousel stations to focus students on the scale of need versus the scale of relief by asking them to calculate how many people one soup kitchen served per day based on the primary sources provided.

• During the Policy Timeline Mapping, watch for students believing public works schemes provided viable food options.

  Have students calculate total wages earned over a month against the cost of a basic food basket, using wage data from the public works documents to show the impossibility of survival.

• During the Mock Trial: Government Negligence, watch for students oversimplifying laissez-faire as total non-intervention.

  Use the trial to guide students to identify specific moments when the government *did* intervene, however minimally, and ask them to explain why these actions aligned with laissez-faire principles.

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Methods used in this brief

• Formal Debate
• Philosophical Chairs
• Mock Trial