22TRA380 Strategies to Improve Historical Writing – Senior Cycle

Date:      Wednesday, 28th September 2022
Time:      7.00pm - 8.00pm
Venue:   Online via Zoom

From my experience in the history classroom, students have similar problems expressing themselves clearly & coherently in a historical writing style. In the past I was quick to prescribe extended writing as an activity without explicitly teaching it in a careful sequence of logical steps. I have assumed that students will pick up historical writing skills through some sort of osmosis. However, extended writing is one of the hardest tasks we can ask students to do. And my own anecdotal evidence suggests that very few students become good historical writers on their own.

The webinar will provide teachers with an extensive breakdown of how to write LC history paragraphs and how to use the marking scheme to maximize the marks students can pick up. Furthermore, Lee will cover how to plan for essays at macro and micro levels to enable students to develop their historical writing ability. Additionally, the webinar will provide teachers with a student assessment plan for LC History that aims to scaffold their ability to write full essays. Lee will provide multiple sample answers throughout.

Bio of Presenter: Lee O'Donnell

Lee O’Donnell is a teacher of Geography & History at Woodbrook College in Wicklow. Geography/History Methodology Lecturer at University College Dublin. LC History content creator for Exam Revision. Host of the Leaving Certificate revision podcast ‘Skin in the Game’.