This is a brilliant guide to help students prioritise and conduct their own independent revision for their GCSE. This gives a break down of OCR's Explaining the Modern World History A, with the Depth study of USA 1945-1975 and Personal rule of Charles I, plus War and Society and the castle study of Framlingham castle. This document can of course be adapted to fit the various other OCR modules, as and where relevant. As the new course requires so much content, we have chosen to give this to our yr 11 at the start of the year to help them build up a bank of resources in preparation for the exams in the summer. The chart allows students to complete the chart to show how confident they are with certain topics, and allows them to go back and reflect on specific areas. The aim is for them to get to point (hopefully by May) where they can happily complete the green smiley face for all of the sections; showing that they are confident with all the content for the GCSE!

This was the first revision session that I taught as an extra after school this year for the new explaining the modern world course. It does a whistle stop tour of the The Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations and an activity on the causes of WW2 and the interpretations of appeasement. As it is a revision session, it does not cover everything - but certainly gives the students enough coverage of the key events to start them on their own independent study. Attached is a sheet which works along side the ppt, setting mini activities for students to complete. There is also opportunities for students to complete some 5 mark style questions. At the end of the ppt there is a quick revision game of bingo. You will need the additional word document attached and ensure that you give a mixture of the cards out to the students to ensure you get a winner. This worked brilliantly with my Year 11 who are really struggling to cope with all the amount of revision.

Attached is a very simple lesson, covering the entire Explaining the modern world A syllabus for OCR. The Lesson is simple clockface with various sections broken down into 5 min sections. Students are to spend 5 mins completing what they know about each section under the 5 min time slot! The sections cover Treaty of Versailles all the way through to the New danders and Post cold war. There is also an extra session where students can add notes and give examples of nationalism and internationalism.

These lessons are suitable for Year 9 or KS3. A couple of lessons that track the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and their consolidation to total power over Germany by 1934. These lessons deal with issues such as democracy and dictatorship and examines the various stages that took place that enabled Hitler to take power, from the impact of the depression to the death of President Hindenburg. There are frequent opportunities for students to check and evaluate their progress. The first lesson contains a short clip - but this must be stopped and explained frequently to allow the students to understand the complexities. The second lesson also has a short clip and there is pdf of questions to support this. At the end of the lesson students can play a game of scrabble - well kind of, they have to write 3 paragraphs and use correctly various historical terms to win points

This is a whole revision session for OCR Modern world A USA 1945-1975 depth study. The lesson focuses on the political activism of the 1960s and 1970s linking to the Civil Rights movement. The lesson covers topics such as the women’s movement, Gay rights and the emergence of Gay pride, youth and student protests and hippy movement There is an interactive quiz and worksheet for students to record their answers and notes and a game at the end which enables students to discuss the role of each president’s actions during this time, evaluating their successes and failures.

A super GCSE revision lesson also suitable as a consolidation lesson. Includes ppt and worksheet covering the end of the Cold war and the impact of Reagan and Gorbachev on various events. The worksheet works along side the ppt, giving students options to work out the actions of which leader, match up key words with their definitions, complete a timeline showing the reductions in Cold War, make notes on a short youtube clip about the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is a section which examines specific crisis in Poland, Romania and Germany with some sample questions to test students knowledge at the end with OCR 5 and 10 mark style questions.

Attached is a series of lessons covering the Personal Rule of Charles I to the start of the English Civil war. The lessons cover the beliefs of Charles and his royal prerogatives as well as Parliamentary privileges. The lessons show the development and growth of the political nation and shows how their beliefs and values were being challenged through the personal Rule of Charles. There are a number of activities including fill the gaps, quizzes, independent research, worksheets - all aimed at the OCR History specification. There is also a homework on the Grand Remonstrance which requires students to use sources to show how Parliament was divided the Grand Remonstrance. All lessons can be purchased individually. Whilst most of the lesson resources are on the ppt, a few activities require the use of the OCR War and Society text book.

For the OCR modern World specification with the castles unit and the study of the historic environment. Kenilworth Castle is the chosen English Heritage site for the OCR A paper in 2019. The booklet is designed to guide you through the castle and enable you and your students to note specific key changes to the building, whilst allowing time for students to take pictures for their notes. The booklet has a combination of factual questions, based on students reading the history of the castle (supplied by OCR) before attending and questions based on general knowledge of castles throughout the ages. There is an answer booklet supplied also. There is also attached a pdf of all of the photos that I took. These can be used in their own right for students to label and refer to, especially if you are unable to attend the site. I have also attached the project sheet that our GCSE students are completing over the summer based on their site visit and prior reading of the history of the castle.

This is a revision lesson specifically for the OCR modern World A syllabus that deals with the two different styles of interpretation questions on Appeasement and the Cold War. Having found that students find interpretations challenging, this activity, involves examining 6 sources, 3 on appeasement and 3 on the cold war and then analaysing them according to the two different styles of questions. Q3 Is this a fair interpretation? and Q4 which states, Explain why not all historians would agree with this interpretation. For each source there is a basic writing frame for both style of questions. With support from the ppt and guided questions, this activity should allow students to identify what they need to do for each style of question.

This is a great GCSE revision lesson or 2 to allow students the opportunity to reflect on the whole OCR War and Society unit AD790 - 2010 in terms of themes. The lesson starts by explaining the various skills that they need and gives them a useful list of key words that they should be using when analysing significance, cause, consequences etc. Student can then use the table and list of divisions to identify the nature of the division, be it, plunder, ambition, conquest, defence, terror, etc and then assess whether for each period it was an internal or external conflict as well as then assessing the concept of support. There is then a list of the styles of questions, plus examination guidance on how to structure their answers for this unit. At the end there are then opportunities for students to reflect on their completed chart and identify key themes, such as how the nature of conflict has changed across time. As this course is so heavily content driven, this has proved invaluable in allowing students to reflect and form an overview, something which is essential for the bigger questions on this unit.

Suitable for year 9 this is a good lesson that introduces them to the idea of democracy and dictatorships and how one could lead to the other. There is a short video clip which will need to be stopped frequently and explained as it is quick and quite complex, but covers the topic brilliantly. The lesson has a couple of opportunities for students to evaluate their progress.

This is a revision lessons that examines the other key issues in the civil rights movement. This has been designed with the OCR Modern World A USA 1945 - 1974 People and the state in mind but will work along side other exam boards for content. The lesson includes a worksheet to accompany the powerpoint and hyperlinks to various you tube links. The lesson does a brief recap of previous knowledge and then extends to the issue of Black Power, covering the Black Panthers and the Kerner report. It then examines the role and influence of Malcolm X and other groups who helped contribute to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - such as the African diplomats visit in the USA. The lesson then examines the role of each president in the 60s and 70s, with a card sort task for students to identify the contributions and limitations of each president in the civil rights campaign. There is also a slide about analysing sources and a source based question worth 5 marks.

To cover the vast amounts of content required for the OCR explaining the modern world course, I have constructed mini homework booklets for students to complete content coverage at home. Attached is a booklet that works along side the OCR GCSE Hodder education book - page numbers have been included - but can be changed to suit text books. There are a number of tasks that are in line with the specification and covers the reasons for the Vikings and Norman conquests and their impact on English society.. There are also some exam questions for students to practise. Throughout the booklet there are a number of opportunities to stretch the gifted and talented with the "Be Brilliant" sections. I have actually set this as summer homework for my GCSE class with the intention of giving us a head start in September, but it will work equally well as a homework booklet for the start of the Year 11 course.

Kenilworth project (Non Visit Covid 19 friendly) As we were unable to take our GCSE students to Kenilworth this year, I designed a tour of the history of Kenilworth castle with its key owners and their various changes identified. This unit of work includes specialist youtube clips that talks through the history along side the ppts plus a written overview to support students to work independently. The youtube video links are at the start of the each of the overview ppts for each period they correspond with. There is also project booklet - done as a ppt, which has 5 tasks connected to it that help guide students through the history of the castle whilst encouraging them to eventually apply their knowledge to sources. The tasks range from creating a timeline - with various owners and changes, a commentary on the seige of 1266, plus a detailed overview where students are identifying key changes and are encouraged to make decisions about the function of the castle throughout key 4 times. There is a check list at the end to encourage students to plan their time effectively. This unit is primarily focused on the requirements for OCR explaining the modern world - study of a historic environment (paper 3) - but will be more than suitable for other exam boards/ courses studying Kenilworth.

This is a sequence of 4 knowledge organisers (KOs) that cover the period of Personal Rule to Restoration. It also has a one Paper 3 skills specific sheet- (GCSE OCR Modern World A) I usually have this printed on the reverse of each KO to assess students on their understanding of the skills required for the GCSE OCR exam, for each section. Each of the KOs deals with one of the key issues for this unit or work. The short and Long Term causes of the English Civil War Settlement failures, division within Parliament and execution Britain without a king Restoration After each skills sheet there is a sheet giving some homework / starter / revision suggestions on how to incorporate the use of these specific KOs. The intention is to help students retain and retrieve the basic knowledge for this course. As these are KOs only, they only contain the absolute basics! We stress to students (especially those wanting top grades) the need to know more than just this information.