Annotating the "Armada" portrait of Queen Elizabeth I on the interactive whiteboard
Duration: 2 mins 30 secs
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| Description: | This clip depicts classroom dialogue in a secondary school history lesson where students in turn annotate the “Armada” portrait of the Queen Elizabeth I. |
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| Created: | 2020-07-04 13:32 | ||
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| Collection: |
Supporting classroom dialogue using interactive whiteboard technology: professional development resources
Recent media from the Faculty of Education |
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| Publisher: | University of Cambridge | ||
| Copyright: | Sara Hennessy | ||
| Language: | eng (English) | ||
| Keywords: | interactive whiteboard; dialogue; history; professional development; secondary school; | ||
| Credits: |
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| Abstract: | In this clip the teacher shares the famous “Armada” portrait of Elizabeth I as a stimulus for discussion, withholding the title, to allow students to construct their own interpretations of the key construct, the “golden age of Elizabeth”. He poses a completely open question inviting public sharing of ideas and causal reasoning about why a particular perspective on the queen (by historians) has arisen. He asks students to link their ideas directly with the portrait’s features by adding labels.
The 2 mins 22 clip derives from the T-MEDIA project history case study and is an edited version of Clip 1.1 in the multimedia professional development resource at http://t-media.educ.cam.ac.uk. It comes from the first of 6 lessons in a sequence. Analytic commentary from participating teachers and researchers plus other supporting material can be found there. The T-MEDIA research project was funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ref. RES-000-23-00825). Commentary: Display of the large visual representation on the IWB ensures public visibility of the artefact. The task was also a means of developing students’ capabilities to ‘read’ an image. The teacher’s instructions to students signify the provisionality of interpretations within the discipline of history (“label something that might suggest”). This facilitates learners taking risks and also conveys something important about the nature of the inferences that historians make, albeit implicitly. Jack’s spontaneous request for clarification indicates that students are comfortable to speak out without being called on (despite a culture of hand raising). Teacher repeats the key phrase, this time with a gloss (“a great age”) in order to elaborate the concept for Jack, implying that golden = great. His strategies to encourage students to contribute include reiteration of the question, revoicing of student contributions – giving them status in the public arena, use of pause and refusal to take questions. He brings Duncan’s earlier contribution about problems with the Spanish back into the dialogue, connecting it to present commentary on the image. This weaving in serves to connect and sustain ideas within the dialogue. Moreover, the teacher himself draws attention to some areas of the portrait (guiding) and checks if they have noticed specific symbolic features or can comment, making links between the two images of ships within the portrait plus links beyond the present dialogue to Elizabeth’s problems with Spain. He asks a specific connection question at one point as he gestures to connect two parts of the portrait. Some elements that students pick out are explained (through teacher questioning and exposition drawing on and eliciting learner contributions) – e.g. the ships. The meaning of other parts may be judged to be self-evident. |
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Transcript
Transcript:
1:54:17- 1:59:12 (including some dialogue skipped in editing)
T: We often talk about the Elizabethan age as a ‘golden age’…. How do we get this image of her? What do we mean by ‘golden age’? This is a very, very famous picture of Elizabeth. I won’t tell you what it’s called yet, but it’s famous.
How does this picture show the ‘golden age’ of this queen? Any thoughts on that?… Go up to the board please. You can use the pen. Just label something that might suggest for me the golden age of this queen.
[Louka] Come and label something… that suggests a golden age.
Louka: She’s got loads of jewellery
T: Ok, just write the word jewellery. It’s quite a difficult word to spell – can you do it? (T spells it out as Louka writes). Well done, excellent. Lots of jewellery, brilliant. Someone else, come and label something else that suggests – come on Jack.
Jack: What is ‘Golden Age’ sir?
T: ‘The Golden Age’, a great age that suggests, doesn’t it? So what might suggest that there is a golden age of Elizabeth?
J: Her big posh expensive clothes
T: Ok, label that. Well done. Good thinking Jack. Meisha, what else might suggest a golden age?
Meisha: It looks like she’s won lots of battles
T: Label that please.… Danni, it’s quite hard to see at the back isn’t it, but can you see what’s in that picture that Meisha’s labelling?
Danni: The Spanish Armada (other students call out as well).
T: It is. Duncan mentioned earlier on that Elizabeth might have problems with Spain. Good knowledge, and perhaps this is about the Spanish Armada, and Meisha’s quite rightly suggested winning battles.
T: My apologies to people at the back, but can anybody nearer the front, see what that is? (indicates top right of picture). I think it’s linked to that (indicates image Meisha labelled). Can anybody see what it is?
Duncan: Ships in the sea
T: Can you come and label it Duncan, what you think it might be?
T: So we’re starting to build up a picture of this woman now using this portrait, aren’t we? A golden age of Elizabeth I’ve said to you. What’s being said here? Let’s see if Duncan can label this – press hard Duncan. I think he’s going to write ‘Spain’ or ‘Spanish’. That’s ok, keep going. Spanish ships … hmm
Oliver: … being sunk.
T: I think that’s what he’s going for, Oliver. (other pupils comment on spelling)
T: Just tell us what it is Duncan?
Duncan: Spanish ships sinking in a storm.
T: Thank you. Spanish ships sinking in a storm. (Points to top left) battles being won, (points to top right of image) this shows Spanish ships sinking in a storm. So we’ve brought a bit of our own knowledge to this picture, good. Come on Zoe, what else?
T: We often talk about the Elizabethan age as a ‘golden age’…. How do we get this image of her? What do we mean by ‘golden age’? This is a very, very famous picture of Elizabeth. I won’t tell you what it’s called yet, but it’s famous.
How does this picture show the ‘golden age’ of this queen? Any thoughts on that?… Go up to the board please. You can use the pen. Just label something that might suggest for me the golden age of this queen.
[Louka] Come and label something… that suggests a golden age.
Louka: She’s got loads of jewellery
T: Ok, just write the word jewellery. It’s quite a difficult word to spell – can you do it? (T spells it out as Louka writes). Well done, excellent. Lots of jewellery, brilliant. Someone else, come and label something else that suggests – come on Jack.
Jack: What is ‘Golden Age’ sir?
T: ‘The Golden Age’, a great age that suggests, doesn’t it? So what might suggest that there is a golden age of Elizabeth?
J: Her big posh expensive clothes
T: Ok, label that. Well done. Good thinking Jack. Meisha, what else might suggest a golden age?
Meisha: It looks like she’s won lots of battles
T: Label that please.… Danni, it’s quite hard to see at the back isn’t it, but can you see what’s in that picture that Meisha’s labelling?
Danni: The Spanish Armada (other students call out as well).
T: It is. Duncan mentioned earlier on that Elizabeth might have problems with Spain. Good knowledge, and perhaps this is about the Spanish Armada, and Meisha’s quite rightly suggested winning battles.
T: My apologies to people at the back, but can anybody nearer the front, see what that is? (indicates top right of picture). I think it’s linked to that (indicates image Meisha labelled). Can anybody see what it is?
Duncan: Ships in the sea
T: Can you come and label it Duncan, what you think it might be?
T: So we’re starting to build up a picture of this woman now using this portrait, aren’t we? A golden age of Elizabeth I’ve said to you. What’s being said here? Let’s see if Duncan can label this – press hard Duncan. I think he’s going to write ‘Spain’ or ‘Spanish’. That’s ok, keep going. Spanish ships … hmm
Oliver: … being sunk.
T: I think that’s what he’s going for, Oliver. (other pupils comment on spelling)
T: Just tell us what it is Duncan?
Duncan: Spanish ships sinking in a storm.
T: Thank you. Spanish ships sinking in a storm. (Points to top left) battles being won, (points to top right of image) this shows Spanish ships sinking in a storm. So we’ve brought a bit of our own knowledge to this picture, good. Come on Zoe, what else?
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