JUNIOR CYCLE NOTES

The notes below are suggestions for teachers who wish to plan around the sites mentioned in this publication.

A new History Specification for Junior Cycle Students was introduced in schools in September 2018. The links between an exploration of Shannon Heritage sites and the Junior Cycle History Specification are concentrated on Strand 1 and Strand 2 of the History Specification. Teaching and learning is planned around engagement with a series of Learning Outcomes (available at www. curriculumonline.ie) which highlights both the skills a historian develops and the History of both Ireland and the Wider World. Students will for the first time now complete Classroom Based Assessments; one in 2nd Year (The Past in My Place) and another in 3rd Year (A Life in Time). Engaging with the History specification both in school and by considering repositories of historical information, is now a central part of the curriculum, making the work of bodies like Shannon Heritage even more important than ever before.

Having looked at Strand 1 Learning Outcome 1.1 (on developing a sense of historical empathy by viewing people, issues and events encountered in their study of the past in their historical context) and Learning Outcome 1.3 (on appreciating cultural inheritance through recognising historically significant places and buildings): this context and sense of place is provided by visiting the Bunratty Castle and Folk Park and encountering historically accurate representations of Irish life over generations, particularly in the 19th and 20th centuries. Learning Outcome 2.7 asks students to investigate the causes, course and consequences, nationally and internationally, of the Great Famine, and examine the significance of the Irish Diaspora, and visiting pre-famine dwellings in the Folk Park could further support learning around this period in a visceral way. The changing experience of women in 20th Century Ireland (Learning Outcome 2.9) is yet another area where students could see for themselves the work done by women a century ago in Bunratty.