Modern students are the first in a generation (or two) to have experienced a Coalition Government in the UK. However they’re still only used to having a handful of Political Parties, of which only a few have enough seats to really force things to happen. It’s no wonder then that they get very easily confused when looking at the results of elections in Germany during the Weimar era. Dozens of parties, each with it’s own acronym and each with a long (mouthful!) German name. This post is a short review of an activity written to help AS-Level students get their heads around this very issue.

Weimar Party Games – link to external activity (opens in a new window).

Written by an Ian Luff, a senior teacher with loads of credentials, this activity seeks to sort out the NSDAP’s from the KDP’s… whilst also re-enforcing students recollection of what the acronyms stand for and where they lay on the political spectrum. Not the easiest of tasks… but one which lends itself very nicely to Active Learning which is exactly how Ian has approached this.

Ian uses a number of simple but effective techniques to get students to remember what the acronyms stand for and where the parties fall on a political spectrum. It’s simple, it’s quick, it’s effective and it’s fun. Ian’s write up of the activity is self explanatory and is hosted on thinkinghistory.co.uk

Only a short review from me – it’s great!