“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see other’s points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan This is one of my go-to lessons when I want to impress. Students are given information packs on the lead candidates and create their own short election speech. I always encourage students to make posters, rosettes, and bring in jackets and ties where possible before finishing with a class vote. I hope you enjoy this lesson as much as I always do.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan My students love finding these in their books! Not only are they prettier than my messy handwriting but they make marking much faster and more precise. Each of the twenty seven statements is based specifically upon common skills and targets from the curriculum and they can be personalised further if needed. Simply print off on sticky label paper et voila. They look impressive and work superbly well for the busy teacher who wants to fine tune their AFL.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan I love using these and always have a pack in my pocket or on my desk. Thirty cards with extension activities specifically for History students means you will always have a highly differentiated set of extension tasks on you. Brilliant for any lesson, especially observations!

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan This is one of my absolute favourite lessons. Students read through the background knowledge/notes before working their ways through a 21 piece evidence sort to answer the question ‘Who killed Kirov?’ Students then place the card sort information into piles which suggest Stalin was guilty of the murder and evidence that suggests he was not, before arriving at an opinion abotu why the 1st December Law and the subsequent purges and period of Yezhovschina occured. My students truly love this lesson and I really hope yours do too!

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan This is one of my most detailed lessons and one which students love. After a quick starter activity about the significance of the poppy in British-Chinese relations the class read detailed background notes before being issued one of 23 character cards. These range from tea-magnate Thomas Twining to Confucius! In role the students then extract evidence which their character might use to explain how China became to be ruled by foreigners after the Opium Wars. I always follow this up with either a piece of extended writing or even better a debate. Please watch the short video clip attached to see this lesson in action. The lesson includes a separate plenary Power Point also. I hope your students will gain as much from this lesson as I know mine always do. Enjoy!

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson students read through detailed background knowledge before completing a card sort activity to explain both the terrible aspects of the conflict as well as some of the more positive elements. This is a great lesson because the level of depth and detail acquired is top notch and because it offers students the opportunity to review two sides of an argument. It leads in really nicely to trench model creation and I hope your students get as much from it as mine always do. The lesson includes two copies of a 25-piece evidence sort, one of which is colour-coded for students who require additional support.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan Students read through the background notes before using this knowledge to help them create a physical timeline in the form of a road map. Click the link to watch just how powerful a teaching strategy this can be for raising chronological awareness as well as boosting subject knowledge significantly. I hope your students enjoy the lesson as much as mine do!

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson your students will read through background knowledge before using this to complete a chronological card sort activity. I hope your students get as much out of it as I know mine do. Leads in ever so nicely to my follow up lessons on failures of the 1930s and allows for students to give more textured and two-sided responses.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson students read through precise and carefully selected knowledge in the background notes before attempting a colour-coordinated hexagonal card sort. This helps them break reasons for the Key Question down into factors and also offers them the opportunity to make and explain links between the evidence they choose. My students really enjoy this lesson and I hope yours get just as much out of it as mine do.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan During this lesson students work their way through a fantastically precise and detailed set of background notes before completing a 33 piece evidence sort. Students are asked to arrange the evidence firstly into industrial and agricultural, and then into successes and failures. This is a brilliant lesson which suits many learners’ needs and in particular which appeals to high-end learners. I hope your students get as much from this set of activities as mine do. If you watch the short video clip attached you can see some of my students putting this knowledge to good use.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson students read very detailed information in the background notes before creating a factor-led mind map. Please watch the accompanying short video to see some of my students in action in this lesson. Its a great way for them to acquire super strong subject knowledge and to visually map out Deng’s domestic rule.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson students read detailed background knowledge before attempting to handle 9 very carefully selected source on the Suffragette movement. There are a range of written questions which students are asked to respond to. This is a powerful lesson which always generates a healthy level of debate in my classes.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson students work through background information before completing a card sort to show positives and the many negatives of slave life from getting off slave ships through to working on plantations. Students need to place the events in a chronology in order to recount a story of the conditions and place them on an emotional rollercoaster graph to show which conditions they felt were the most horrific and why. This is a powerful lesson which should be taught with great sensitivity and a flavour of which can be experienced in the video file attached.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson students read through background information before reading through the extremely detailed evidence cards which they break up into the following factors : the role of abolitionists, economic reasons, and the role of enslaved people. From this scaffold students can then create a piece of extended written work and this lesson works really well as assessment preparation also.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see other’s points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan The title of this lesson is “Who is buried at Sutton Hoo?” The lesson begins with a starter activity where students view some pictures of modern day Sutton Hoo and there are directed questions to introduce the burial mounds. They then sift through a range of evidence from the British Museum to decide if they feel the Anglo-Saxon King buried here is Raedwald or Siegebert. Background information on both is provided. It leads to excellent and reasoned discussion as well as thoughtful judgements and can be used as preparation for an assessed piece of work. One has a child so the discovery of silver spoons (often given as a Christening present may allude to him etc). Students vote in the plenary to arrive at a class judgement. It is a lesson I designed when I lived in the East of England so it means a lot to share this history mystery with fellow teachers. Sometimes I like to bring in sirt and get the students to actually dig out the evidence! I hope your students enjoy it as much as mine and I’d love to hear who they think (!) is buried there in your review. And before you leave be sure to follow Dan’s History Highway for more info on hundreds of fully-resourced lessons for busy teachers! Wishing you a terrific day.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson students begin with a ‘what-would-you-do?’ style starter activity in which they score point according to their reactions to losing their freedoms. This stimulates discussion over how enslaved people might react and leads into the main activity which is a card sort. Students divide up the very precise 13 cards into examples of passive and active resistance and try to explain how they prioritised them. So for example was Nat Turner’s revolt much more high risk than say kicking a cow? Students then go on to use this card sort as an effective scaffold for a piece of extended written work before finishing the lesson off with a plenary about cultural appropriation (in particular whether it is right for a slave-trading nation like Britain to use a slave spiritual ‘Amazing Grace’ in its sporting fixtures). My students always find this a really powerful life lesson and one which hones their historical skills fantastically well. I hope you find it useful with your students too.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan In this lesson students read up on background knowledge before assembling a 30 piece hexagonal card sort into a factor-led response. Evidence is very precise and being a hexagonal rather than square card sort students are encouraged to make effective links between the evidence used whilst also being encouraged to prioritise the evidence they find the most compelling. Once the class have formulated their card sort this sets them up extremely well for either a debate or a written piece of work. My students love this lesson and I really hope yours do too!

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan Students read up on background information before being divided into research groups. In this 23 page pack students research either 1) architecture, military & religion, 2) Government, public health, & women, and 3) Roads, slavery & leisure. The packs are really detailed and encourage students to make links and to decide to what extent Ancient Rome can be considered civilised. Students use the information to create presentations which they deliver to the class. As you can see from the pictures this is a project my students love and which really hones their historical skills. I know your students will love it also.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan My students love this project! In this 14 page pack you will find background information on the Industrial Revolution as well as information cards on 20 different inventions ranging from John Kay’s Flying Shuttle through to James Watt’s Steam Engine. Students need to research their invention and make a case for its historical significance using specific criteria (durability, importance at the time, number effected etc). The class then present to the Dragon’s (for me its usually SLT). This mini-project really brings the past to life and is one of the highlights of my teaching career. I hope you enjoy it as much as my students do.

“My purpose is to engage students in dialogue so they can see others’ points of view – in a world that needs this more than ever. I do this by sharing lessons on this site which connect students with the past and inspire critical thinking. Please read below to find details about this one.” Dan This 32-page pack contains background knowledge as well as 16 different character cards to issue to your students, ranging from Captain Smith, ship’s architect Thomas Andrews, down to lesser known characters such as 2nd Officer Charles Lightoller (who failed to fill the lifeboats). Once in character students then work through 48 detailed evidence cards to help them answer the question who was to blame for the large number of deaths (more than 1,500). This is one of my favourite activities and students always find it both fun and interesting and it helps hone historical skills such as evidence handling, refining questions, and formulating arguments. I hope you get as much out of this activity as my students always do.