Basic knowledge of history (high school)

Learning Objectives

The overarching learning objective is to develop students’ awareness and mastery of the characteristics of academic and subject-specific language, as well as to strengthen their ability to transform language. Students should learn to analyse typical features of academic texts (technical terminology, passive voice, and nominal style) according to defined criteria, reflect on their functional effects in terms of objectivity and how they guide the reader, and purposefully translate dense, nominalised academic language into clear, accessible verbal style using active voice.

Content and Methods

The worksheet introduces the key characteristics of academic non-fiction texts (technical terminology, passive voice, and nominal style) and combines text analysis with practical language exercises. Working with a subject-specific text, students first compile a glossary of technical terms with context-based definitions and distinguish between passive constructions and nominal style using a two-colour highlighting technique.

Building on this, they conduct a functional stylistic analysis to examine the intended effects of linguistic density and the author’s conveyed stance towards the subject matter. The worksheet concludes with an active language transformation task in which students rewrite a highly nominalised example sentence that omits the agent, turning it into dynamic active-voice sentences. This involves breaking down complex verb-noun constructions and explicitly introducing the actors performing the actions.

Competencies

• Linguistic and grammatical analysis: Confidently identifying and clarifying technical terminology, as well as recognising syntactic forms of linguistic compression (nominal style and passive constructions).
• Functional and stylistic judgement: Reflecting on the rhetorical effects and functions of linguistic distance, objectivity, and impersonal presentation in academic texts.
• Language transformation: Purposefully translating complex, agentless nominal constructions into clear, action-oriented active sentences using verbal style.
• Lexical comprehension: Deriving the meaning of unfamiliar or highly specialised technical terms from context and formulating concise definitions (glossary work).

Target Group and Level

Upper secondary school (advanced level).

This worksheet aims to provide students with a solid understanding of the significance and function of academic language and to help them practice actively using it in subject-specific instruction. Students will recognize that academic language serves as an essential tool for presenting complex topics in an objective, impersonal, and precise manner, and that the ability to switch between everyday language and academic language is a key skill. Through guided practice in translating everyday observations into formal language, they learn to use subject-specific linguistic tools, to put their own thoughts into writing in a structured manner, and to reflectively evaluate their own learning process and linguistic expression.

Content and Methods:

The worksheet combines cognitive awareness, guided writing practice, independent text production, and self-evaluation. After an introductory informational text on the distinction between everyday language and academic language, as well as an introduction to subject-specific language tools (e.g., for cause-and-effect relationships, hypothesis formation, or evaluations), learners gradually translate given everyday statements into logically structured academic language. They then apply this translation technique to their own current course material and reflect on the advantages and challenges of academic language formulation. The module concludes with a structured self-assessment matrix designed to evaluate their own language competencies and identify remaining learning needs.

Competencies:

Learners can...

• identify the difference between everyday language and academic language and explain the importance of precise technical language for subject-matter understanding.
• identify and purposefully apply specific subject-specific language tools (e.g., phrasing guides for descriptions, justifications, and analyses).
• systematically translate colloquial observations into precise, factual, and logically structured sentences using formal language.
• structure their own conceptual ideas derived from current classroom activities and independently put them into writing using appropriate technical terms.
• critically reflect on their own language translation process and evaluate their individual strengths and areas for development in the use of formal language.

Target Audience and Level:

Grade 8 and above

The overarching goal of this worksheet is to introduce students to a selected historical numeral system in a hands-on and historically contextualized manner.

Content and Methods:

This worksheet teaches the basics of the numeral system of a selected advanced civilization or historical period through a fictional story told from a child’s perspective. Methodologically, the document combines a true/false comprehension quiz with illustrated arithmetic examples. Students actively apply the principles by solving historical word problems drawn from the child’s everyday life. The worksheet concludes with open-ended reflection and application questions that bridge the gap to the modern mathematical number system and the present day.

Competencies:

• Arithmetic Competence
• Text and Language Competence: Extracting information from a narrative and describing mathematical phenomena in one’s own words
• Cultural and Historical Competence: Reflecting on the evolution of global arithmetic symbols and systems

Target Audience and Level: Grade 5 and above

Note: Due to the background research on ancient forms of calculation, creating this worksheet takes longer.

This worksheet aims to provide trainee teachers with a historically informed and socially critical understanding of the life stage known as ‘childhood’. Learners are to be made aware that childhood is not a rigid, biological state, but is subject to constant social change. They will learn to analyse historical patterns of upbringing and living environments, to contextualise the contemporary view of the child (including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child), and to draw conclusions for their own professional approach by comparing the past and the present.

Content and methods:

This worksheet combines historical text analysis, the development of empathy, analysis of contemporary issues and research into international law. Following a personal reflection and an analysis of a historical period, the pupils write a fictional diary entry from a child’s perspective and contrast this with the reaction of a child today. They then map out the cornerstones of modern childhood in a practical matrix and compare historical and contemporary living conditions. The activity concludes with research into the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, including its historical context, and a reflection on their own pedagogical approach.

Competencies:

Learners can...

• Explain the concept of childhood as a socially shaped and historically changeable construct.
• Analyse children’s historical living environments in terms of educational objectives, work requirements and legal status, guided by specific criteria.
• Develop historical empathy through methods of shifting perspectives and reflect on different living conditions from multiple perspectives.
• Identify the dimensions of modern childhood (including subject status, institutionalisation and mediatisation) and illustrate them using concrete examples from practice.
• Independently research articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, place them in their historical context and relate them to today’s image of the child.
• Use historical insights to critically examine current patterns of upbringing and apply them to one’s own professional approach.

Target group and level:

Adult students or trainees in the field of social pedagogy, particularly aspiring educators.

Note: Internet access is required for the research task

Objective: This worksheet aims to provide learners with a basic understanding of Spanish history and to practice their written communication skills.

Content and Methods: It covers the origins and key periods of Spanish history, including historical facts and a fictional letter from the past. Methods include listening and reading comprehension, multiple-choice and true/false questions, and a letter-writing task.

Competencies:

• Listening and reading comprehension
• Historical knowledge of Spain
• Written communication

Target audience and level: Spanish learners at B1 level

This worksheet aims to provide students with a multifaceted understanding of the historical and emotional complexities of immigration at a border. By combining historical facts with empathetic role-playing, students explore the challenges, legal hurdles, and personal stakes involved in seeking a new life.

Content and methods: The worksheet utilizes a blend of historical reading, audio-based interaction, and creative writing. It provides a text on a country's immigration policies to establish historical context. Methodologically, it shifts from factual comprehension to perspective-taking by prompting students to listen to border official questions, write a reflective essay from the viewpoint of an immigrant, and analyze the internal emotional landscape of those facing interrogation.

Competencies:

• Historical Literacy: Understanding historical immigration laws
• Empathy and Perspective-Taking: Analyzing the emotional burden and fears of immigrants during the entry process
• Listening and Writing Skills: Processing oral questions and articulating detailed personal narratives in an essay format
• Critical Reflection: Evaluating the consequences of refusal and the ethical implications of national allegiance and bias

Target group: Grades 9-12 (High School)

Learners gain an understanding of the consequences of colonialism by focusing on various aspects of a selected (former) colonised nation.

Content and methodology: Learners begin by examining a photograph related to colonialism. Based on this, they acquire basic knowledge about the concept and circumstances. The individual focal points of the station work are: history of a colony, social consequences, political consequences and colonialism in the present day. Based on these focal points, learners acquire comprehensive knowledge about the consequences of colonialism and its effects on the perception and living environment of a selected (formerly) colonised nation.

Competencies:

• Explaining and examining one's own and others' value orientations
• Reconstructing historical facts (reconstruction)
• Explaining the effects of political, economic and social structures and processes on people's lives and experiences

Target group and level: 8th - 10th grade

Note: Due to the volume, creation takes longer.

Learners develop an understanding of the conditions and motivations of resistance groups and resistance fighters against National Socialism.

Content and methodology: Using a selected example, learners can explain everyday life under the Nazi dictatorship between consent, oppression and resistance, and assess the effects on the stability of Nazi rule.

Competencies:

• Recognise the possibilities and limitations of individual and collective action in historical situations and discuss alternative courses of action.
• Analyse historical facts in their context (multicausality).
• Reconstruct historical facts (reconstruction).

Target group and level: 9th/10th grade

Students explore the origins of artificial intelligence (AI) and examine one stage of its development in detail.

Methods and content: The worksheet begins with the historical and philosophical roots of the idea of AI. Text analysis and multiple-choice questions are used to explore the philosophical foundations laid by René Descartes and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. In the second part, practical developments are examined on the basis of a selected event. This involves analysing an audio source and completing transfer tasks. Finally, as an optional extra, a chronological sorting task can be completed as part of a video analysis to classify important historical milestones.

Skills:

• Critical thinking: Analysis of philosophical arguments and answering multiple-choice questions.
• Media literacy: Use of audio and video sources to obtain and summarise information.
• Transfer skills: Transferring historical observations to modern AI applications and evaluating their significance today.

Target group and level: From Year 7 onwards.

With the help of the worksheet, learners engage with a film in a structured way in order to develop a deeper understanding and to reflect on and transfer what they have seen.

Contents and methods: 

The worksheet is structured like a brochure and asks questions about the content and further questions about the film. The worksheet ends with a personal evaluation of the film.

Skills:

• Concentrated extraction of information from a visual medium
• Analysis, reflection and transfer of film content

Target group and level:

Grade 7 and above