I thought I'd start a little thread with world building ideas, resources, and pointers based on my #curricularium talks.

People seem to have found them useful, so I thought perhaps we can all put some more examples together!

#historyteacher

THREAD

One of my key world building references for Weimar Germany is the photographer August Sander. He took hundreds of portraits of ordinary people that aim to show a cross-section of society during the Weimar Republic, and they are FASCINATING. #curricularium

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/august-sander-5319

The tumblr page Old Germany has collated hundreds of photos of Germany before WW2. It is an incredible resource for dipping into the world of the Weimar Republic and offers a broad geographical and social panorama: cities, towns, villages. #curricularium

https://germany1900.tumblr.com/ 

Museum websites are a great resource for digging into the past as a "world", and finding objects that can make abstract concepts more relatable. For ex. I've used this dartboard from a pub in the Ruhr area when teaching the experience of occupation. (via https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik.html)

Where possible, when we use material and visual sources, I think it is powerful when we can show these not just in 2D but *within* the past as a world or a social environment. For example, showing election posters in their interactions with places and people. #curricularium

For other topics & time periods, I've used the DK Eyewitness books to magpie particular ideas or just to get a good sense of the past as a world at a particular time and place. For example, I've used a set of objects to model to Y7 why John's Normandy campaigns were so expensive.

These are just some pointers to get your ideas going. Any other suggestions gratefully received! #curricularium