I’ve been asked to run the history department’s residential summer school for Edge Hill University this year.  The topic that I’ve chosen is the Civil War, but with a long view that encompasses 100 years of history.  I’ve spent quite a while trying to come up with a blend of activities which will give students a flavour of university education in the limited time available.  Obviously, there have to be lectures, so I’ve got 4 of those – one for each session on Reformation, ‘British’ monarchy, Rich and Poor and Charles I.  But the other activities are more difficult to work out, especially given the emphasis on independent reading and research that characterises the university system.  There is an independent research project that they have to complete, but there simply isn’t enough time in two days to expect students to complete the sort of background reading that we normally would.  Instead, I’m going to give them a book chapter on the first day, by way of introduction to the major themes, and give them a list of relevant articles and books that they can find in the library.  Then I’m going to concentrate on primary source analysis and tasks to get them thinking about the issues raised in the lectures.

So, for example, I have included a set of role plays on what Protestants and Catholics believe, what makes them similar and different and how the nature of those religious debates changes over time. Another thinking activity is to design a castle, which should get them thinking about the ways that warfare changed in the early modern period.  I’ve even pushed the boat out by asking them to write a ballad on a given theme, in order to get them thinking about how and why these particular issues mattered to people at ground level, not just in terms of the monarchy.

In terms of using sources, one of the activities is pretty standard university fare – I’m going to ask them to do an in-depth analysis of An Agreement of the People, identifying the issues that it raises and whose attitudes and beliefs it reflects.  But I’m particularly pleased with an activity which takes a section of a journal article and compares it to the evidence that was used to write it, so that the students can see how the author developed their idea.  If that works as well as I hope, there might be more on that in a later post.

Their independent research project will be based around Charles I’s trial, planning speeches to make the case either for the prosecution or defence.  I’m looking forward to it, especially as it’s the first time in many years that I’ve developed a course from scratch.  Even though it only lasts two days, it’s 12 hours of teaching time, so it will be a novelty teaching full days!