War Memorials: Lesson 1

Can stone speak?

What does the local war memorial suggest to us about how Cottenham was affected by war?

Students should learn to:

• Make inferences about the significance of WWI / WWII by examining the memorial in detail.
• Develop hypotheses about Cottenham in war using the memorial.
• Consider the purpose of [war] memorials.
• Question the utility of the memorial as evidence.

1. Walk to the war memorial 5 minutes from the college in order to stimulate interest in local experiences of war and to generate questions.

2. Allow students to walk around the memorial and look closely at what is on it, where it is. The memorial is for WWI and WWII and students may use this detail in some of their discussion but the following lesson focuses on WWI.

3. Using a laminated worksheet, note down types and examples of historical information the memorial contains. Perhaps describe the statue on top too. Discuss what information it contains for our enquiry.

4. Students also note down questions/hypotheses in response to what they see, to be used in the subsequent database lesson. E.g.

• Were the people young?
• Who was the youngest?
• How did they die?
• Where?
• Which battles?

5. Discuss what information it does NOT contain.

6. Discuss why it is here and its purpose. Consider Andrew Wrenn's factors for evaluating historic sites as interpretations of history ie

• Commemoration (Main purpose of the site is to keep alive the memory of a past event.)
• Preservation (Main purpose of the site is to preserve evidence of its past use.
• Attraction (Main purpose of the site is to attract visitors.)
• Education (Main purpose of the site is to educate visitors.)

7. On return to the classroom, share the questions pupils have raised and record them. Generate hypotheses about the experiences of WWI, which they can go on to test and research.

8. Look at photos of the memorials. Encourage student, if they live in different areas, to go and look at their local memorials before next lesson and see what similarities/differences there are.

9. Student hypotheses need typing up prior to next lesson.

Click here to go to Lesson 2

Downloads

War memorials Lesson 1 (, 60 KB)
War memorials worksheet 1 (, 42 KB)
War memorials Resource 1 pictures (, 61 KB)