Use a clue, qualify the conclusion and ask what could change it
What it is about
Select a conclusion supported by supplied evidence and qualify uncertainty.
Year 3 · 7–8 years · 30 challenges
Before you begin
- KS1 timelines, source questions and simple change/continuity.
What the class will do
- Sort into groups · 6 challenges
Record or inference?
Classify claims about each supplied record. Directly recorded means stated there; a supported possibility uses a clue but keeps uncertainty. Not established lacks that support.
- Choose and explain · 10 challenges
Weigh the claim
Choose a claim or identify an overclaim using the specific evidence. Keep the source’s uncertainty, date, people and scale attached.
- Match pairs · 6 challenges
Connect claim and support
Match each claim with its relevant evidence within this supplied microset. Say what remains unknown; a relevant clue need not settle every detail.
- Choose and explain · 8 challenges
Revise with evidence
Use the new evidence to keep, qualify or revise a claim. Ask which conclusion is justified here and what could change it.
Using it in class
Everyone gives a claim and its clue before a representative acts. Invented records are labelled; named examples are new source summaries. Five tasks: 6–10 minutes; all 30: 35–45 with brief talk. Directly recorded means stated in this supplied record, not guaranteed true of the whole past.
Give everyone time to think and discuss before one pupil acts at the board. The class explains and confirms together; hints and explanations stay until you move on.
Use an up-to-date browser on a computer connected to a whiteboard or shared display. Touch, mouse and keyboard; optional audio and reduced motion. No pupil accounts or personal devices.
Choose from 5 challenges up to the full activity. Discussion determines the duration: you set the pace.
A look inside the activities
Sort into groupsInvented diary: “Rain today; cloaks hang beside the fire.” Classify claims about this supplied record.
- Every family dried cloaks this way.
- The diary mentions rain.
- The cloaks may be drying.
Groups: Directly recorded · Supported possibility · Not established
Explanation and discussion
Rain is directly recorded. Cloaks beside a fire support drying as a possibility, without stating the purpose. One diary cannot establish what every family did.
What words would we need before calling the drying purpose directly recorded?
Skara Brae summary: one larger structure lacks beds and has a special hearth; a workshop is suggested. Which caption keeps the evidence’s limit?
- It is proved to be the workshop of one named craftsperson.
- Its layout supports a possible workshop, not a certain use.
- The missing beds prove that nobody ever entered.
Explanation and discussion
Historic Environment Scotland presents the workshop as a possibility. Layout helps the interpretation, but does not prove a personal name or that nobody used the room.
What objects or traces might strengthen the workshop interpretation?
Invented records. Match each limited claim to the specific evidence that supports it.
- Repair appears in two dated entries.
- The wall’s material changed.
- A visitor returned on another day.
Match with:
- Two separately dated repair entries
- Record: timber wall replaced by stone
- Diary records this visitor’s visits on two different dates
Explanation and discussion
Two repair entries show repair being recorded twice, not necessarily two separate actions. Timber-to-stone supports material change, and dated visits support a return. None supplies every event in the site’s history.
Which claim would need checking that two entries do not describe the same event?
Dates and periods
Archaeology and written sources
Compare two accounts