Introduction to Sources/Evidence: A Courtroom

This lesson was designed for a low ability Key Stage 4 group who were about to start working on the Source Paper module. They really struggled to understand sources and how they are used by historians. This could be used for Key Stage 3 groups without difficulty.

The basic idea is that you walk students through a imagine murder trial. The students are introduced to the evidence and have to complete a group activity where one student will act as the defence counsel for each of the 3 suspects, and the fourth will act as a judge having to make a judgment of who should be found guilty. It encourages students to assess and evaluate evidence and introduces ideas such as usefulness and reliability in a tangible way.

With low ability groups I have given them a printed copy of the evidence table to help them.

The students I have used this with have been totally engaged with the task and the only complaint from students that I've received is that I can't actually confirm the true killer - it was a totally invented storyline and I didn't even consider who the actual killer was.