History · 3rd Year

Active learning ideas

Work and Life in the Past

Take your pupils on a trip back in time to become historians of their very own locality! This topic helps them uncover the fascinating world of work, shops, and daily life from their grandparents' era.

• NCCA Curriculum Specifications
• SESE History: Local Studies - People in my locality

• 20–60 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Hot Seat
• 45 min · Small Groups

Local History Detectives

In small groups, pupils examine old photographs of their local main street or a well-known landmark. They use a worksheet to list things that are different and things that have stayed the same, focusing on shops, transport, and what people are wearing.

Identify three jobs that were common in our locality in the past but are rare today.

Facilitation Tip

Provide magnifying glasses to encourage close observation and make the activity feel more like a real investigation.

What to look for

Teacher observation during group work where pupils are analysing photographs. Listen for their use of comparative language ('then it had...', 'now it has...') and their ability to ask questions.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Activity 02

• Hot Seat
• 60 min · Individual

A Grandparent's First Job

Pupils prepare a short list of questions to interview an older family or community member about their first job or the shops they remember from their childhood. They can then report their findings back to the class.

Compare the types of shops in our area today with those that existed 50 years ago.

Facilitation Tip

Brainstorm and model good, open-ended questions as a class before pupils conduct their interviews.

What to look for

Pupils create a 'Then and Now' drawing or short presentation about a local job or shop, highlighting three key changes they have discovered.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Activity 03

• Hot Seat
• 50 min · Pairs

Then and Now: Shop Fronts

In pairs, pupils choose a type of shop from the past (e.g., a drapery, a cobbler's) and create a 'Then and Now' poster, drawing the old shop beside its modern equivalent (e.g., a department store, a shoe repair kiosk).

Explain how changes in local work and businesses have affected our community.

Facilitation Tip

Use a simple Venn diagram on the board first to compare and contrast features as a whole class.

What to look for

Pupils complete a 'K-W-L' chart (What I Know, What I Want to Know, What I Learned) at the beginning and end of the topic to reflect on their own learning journey.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Activity 04

• Hot Seat
• 20 min · Whole Class

Forgotten Jobs Charades

Pupils act out jobs that were common in the past but are rare today, such as a blacksmith, a switchboard operator, or a milkman. The rest of the class has to guess the job.

Identify three jobs that were common in our locality in the past but are rare today.

Facilitation Tip

Create a visual word bank of the old jobs to support all learners during the game.

What to look for

Teacher observation during group work where pupils are analysing photographs. Listen for their use of comparative language ('then it had...', 'now it has...') and their ability to ask questions.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

A few notes on teaching this unit

Begin with the familiar: show a photo of your school or main street from long ago and ask pupils what they notice. For the interview activity, it is vital to scaffold the process by brainstorming questions as a class first. Use Venn diagrams and T-charts to help pupils visually organise their 'then and now' comparisons.

By the end of this topic, pupils will be able to use evidence like old photos and interviews to identify past jobs and explain how their community has changed over time.

---

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• Life in the past was boring and everyone was poor.

  While people had fewer machines and electronic gadgets, life was very different, not necessarily worse. Communities were often very strong, and people had different ways of having fun and enjoying life.

• Old jobs like the blacksmith disappeared because people became lazy.

  Jobs changed because of new inventions and technology. For example, when cars became common, there was less need for blacksmiths to make horseshoes, and new jobs like mechanics appeared instead.

• Everyone grew their own food and there were no real shops.

  While many families had vegetable patches, towns and villages always had important shops like the butcher, the baker, and the draper. These were often small, family-run businesses that were central to the community.

---

Methods used in this brief

• Hot Seat