how can I help ds do better in History and Geography?

[schroeder]

He is falling 'below target' in these 2 subjects and there seems to be a connection; the longer more complex questions, and pulling together information from different sources.

I want to be able to help him and my first thought is to get a book of some sort, practice questions maybe, but it's hard enough getting him to doing his homework. I don't want extra battles.

Has anyone got any good strategies?

[amerryscot]

How old is he? How are the targets set?

[schroeder]

oh sorry he's 12

[grovel]

If he's 12 I would not worry if everything else is going well. The "skill" of pulling stuff together for a complex question develops at different times for different children. Nothing to do with inate intelligence.

[amerryscot]

I agree with Grovel.

Higher order learning skills come with age and a 12 year old boy has may not have the mental maturity.

The key thing is that he enjoys the subjects. Perhaps he would like Horrible Histories and Horrible Geography? He has years ahead of him of answering boring questions. A good knowledge base developed now will serve him well in the future.

[wordfactory]

I wouldn't see this in terms of geography and history, but in terms of developing analytical skills.
These are imperative for humanities, but also life.

Start geting your son to think of everday things in an analytical way.

Ask him about the book he is reading. Not just the genre and precis of the plot. But what does he thing the author was trying to achieve? Was he successful. Ask him to comapare it to other books.

Or how about asking whether he thinks footballers are paid too much. Don't accept a yes or no. Ask him to think deeply about both sides.
On the one hand the premiership wouldn't attract foreign players without the cash. Or would it?
On the other high wages mean high ticket prices which impacts on the fans. But does that matter?

Keep asking him what he thinks about things. And ask for deep answers, analysing the situation.

[wordfactory]

Should add, that then he can apply his new found skills to his humanities.

[crazymum53]

How about instead of just learning from books going on trips to see local historical sites. This may help to keep him interested.

[schroeder]

Thanks for the ideas and advice, I have done the knee jerk thing and bought a couple of revision guides mostly for me I think, as it's 20 years since I did any geography. I have the opposite problem with the History as I am currently studying for a history degree.

I want to help him do better, but he regards me taking an interest in his school work as very interfering and as some sort of punishment.

wordfactory I will try your idea as subtly as I can it's frustrating for me, he's a bright boy, but he's not interested in geography especially and just say's he wants to give it up I have said to him that this may not be an option until he leaves school, I have the impression there is starting to be more emphasis on children studying a wider range of subjects.

Crumbs! I find in writing this and talking to dh last night that I just do not really understand how secondary school works in the 21st century, I will have to look into it.

What happened to my baby?

[gramercy]

Dh's history teacher suggested he read the paper to promote analytical skills. I have started getting him "I" - the Independent bite-size newspaper that costs 20p. Ds is a big fan. He is also 12.

[FreudianSlippery]

It may be seen as a bit 'old hat' now but has he tried mind maps? Might be a good way to try breaking up info into components, and finding different links between them, and consolidating in order to answer longer questions?

[scaryteacher]

I always presented history to my KS3 students as a puzzle when teaching sources. This is what we know - how do we know that? Which source should we believe and why? Who wrote that source - is it eye witness or hearsay? What was the take on the event (bias)? Once they got used to juggling that, then they started to make more progress.

It also depends what they are studying - if it's Tudors, (sex, torture and burnings) then they enjoy it - but aren't so keen on the Industrial revolution.

Geography, hated it at school, ended up teaching it at KS3. What doesn't he understand/enjoy? My ds zoned out at the rather one sided climate change module they did last year, but enjoyed tectonic plates and volcanoes.

[schroeder]

Well the homework that turned our lives upside down last night was on identifying patterns in an urban environment.

The way the questions were worded I wasn't that surprised he didn't understand them to be honest.

Also he had no idea what the statistics he was given meant; for instance they given a figure for % of people claiming jsa-innocent boy did not know what that even was, so could not see the connection between this statistic and poverty in particular areas of the city.

It could be that it is just this topic, which does sound quite boring-he has only fallen below in the last few months. I hope so.

[Kez100]

My son in year 8 (despite his severe dyslexia) has an incredible level for History. I am convinced a lot is down to him being completely obsessed with ancient greece and rome, plus watching horrible histories on some random sky channel virtually 24/7 when the weather was so miserable two summers ago! It's the only explanation I have because his level compared to everything else is so noticable!