Writing

'Students learn to construct historical arguments, showing awareness of such concepts as source and evidence and cause and consequence in their writing.'

Junior Cycle History Specification, p. 9

Learning Intentions

Explore scaffolding techniques to support historical writing

To produce a resource to support historical writing and share it with peers via a Padlet

Teacher Audio

Listen to the interview with History teacher Christian O'Connor from St. Mary's Secondary School, Mallow, and reflect on the following questions:

How does historical literacy impact student engagement and assessment outcomes?

What challenges do students face in historical writing, and how can scaffolding/writing frames help to improve their performance?

Review Possible Supports

Take a few moments to explore documents 1-3 below and consider how these may be used to support your students' writing.

1. Breaking down the question

2. PEEL writing framework

3. Reflection and Metacognitive strategies

Differentiation

Having looked at documents 1-3, now look at documents 4 and 5 that show how differentiation can both support and stretch students of varying abilities.

Differentiation

4. Differentiation in historical writing strategies

Analysis

5. Supporting historical analysis

Support Creation

Junior Cycle History Learning Outcomes

Leaving Certificate History Topics

Instructions

Step 1: Choose a Focus Area (2 minutes) Select one of the following areas to develop for your students:

Breaking Down the Question – Helping students interpret and plan responses effectively.
The PEEL Writing Frame – Structuring paragraphs for clarity and depth.
Reflection and Metacognition – Encouraging students to assess and refine their writing.

Step 2: Choose a Learning Outcome or Topic (2 minutes) Select either:

A Junior Cycle History Learning Outcome (e.g., Evaluate the impact of conquest and colonisation on people).
A Senior Cycle History Topic (e.g., The impact of World War One on Ireland).

Step 3: Develop a Support Strategy (4 minutes) Using the chosen focus area, create a differentiated support strategy:

Breaking Down the Question: Provide key term definitions, question rewording exercises, or planning frameworks.
The PEEL Writing Frame: Develop sentence starters, model paragraphs, or differentiated scaffolding.
Reflection and Metacognition: Create self-assessment checklists, peer review prompts, or teacher feedback alignment activities.

Example for ‘The impact of World War One on Ireland’

Breaking Down the Question: Highlight key terms such as ‘impact’ and ‘Irish society’ and discuss their meaning.
PEEL Writing Frame: Provide a sample paragraph analysing political changes using the PEEL structure.
Reflection and Metacognition: Ask students to evaluate their use of evidence in supporting their argument.

Step 4: Application (2 minutes) Consider how you will apply your chosen strategy in the classroom:

Note: If you have produced a pen and paper version, please take a photograph and upload it to the Padlet. This can be done through the QR code provided.

Upload your template to the Padlet