ALL will be able to define these ideals and identify their appeal MOST will be able to explain how these ideas would affect politics SOME will be able to analyse the impact of these ideas on American politics This lesson explores how the First World War affected people in the US and includes lots of precise, detailed information for students to use in their essays. I use the term 'fantastatistics' for this kind of evidence (fantastic statistics) and this term is used in the PowerPoint. There is a task which follows on from the homework set in L4 to find out the definitions of 'isolationism' and 'normalcy', but you can allocate 5 mins to this in class if you are using this as a standalone lesson. The lesson asks students to imagine what kind of measures politicians would have to implement in order to return to a pre war country, and this should give students a handle on normalcy and what the US voters were looking for. The lesson also looks at isolationism and rugged individualism and students complete a venn diagram to see where these ideas overlap. This was a really successful exercise for my students who are now really comfortable with these political ideas. NB You will need the edexcel textbook to support this lesson, although if you have an alternate textbook I'm sure you could locate the information elsewhere.

This lesson follows from my 'xfactor contenders' lesson, but so long as students have been introduced already to William, Harold and Harald, they will have easy access to this lesson. Target Skill - Cause and Continuity Learning Objectives: ALL: will be able to describe who the armies fought for at Stamford Bridge and begin to say who should win MOST: Will be able to make predictions based on evidence SOME: Will be able to use connectives to explain how one advantage or disadvantage would lead to the victor winning. This lesson features a brief teacher talk (with numeracy element), then a sorting task and a writing task with self-assessment.

This follows on from lesson 5 which introduces students to the ideas of isolationism, normalcy and rugged individualism. It aims to achieve these outcomes: ALL will be able to explain why the American public admired Republican ideas at this time. MOST will be able to relate these to ideas of ‘normalcy’,’isolationism’ and ‘rugged individualism and explain how the three Republican presidents used these ideas. SOME Will be able to support their answer on the appeal of Republicanism with context from the 1920’s. The lesson includes a clip with questions for students to discuss, a colour coding card sort activity, a paragraph which they use to highlight evidence, a homework sheet on Harding and Coolidge and a worksheet to focus the lesson activities.

Looking for a pen free stand alone lesson with KS3? This one has flipped learning, a kinaesthetic task, group work and absolutely no pens! (Unless you want them to fill out a self assessment) If you want FREE access to these resources, drop me an email at ruth.messenger@yahoo.com and I will send them through to you in exchange for a review of what you thought of it below. No prior knowledge required, but it is essential that you set the homework in this PP in the previous lesson as students will be making their own paper boats to re-enact the events of the Spanish Armada. By the end of this lesson: ALL will be able to re-enact the story of what happened – L3/4 depending on detail MOST groups will be able to say why they think the Armada failed and include this in their re-enactment – L4/5 depending on whether they can explain their reason SOME groups will be able to keep referring to why the Armada failed throughout their re-enactment, making connections between their reason and what happened next. - L5 EXCEPTIONAL groups will be able to make links between the reasons, showing that they all had an impact, but that one reason stands out as the main reason the Armada failed. L6+ depending on depth of analysis NB. To make this lesson even more exciting, use masking tape to mark out a rough shape of the British isles on the floor before the lesson. Students can use this as their map for their re-enactment. Alternately, go and make friends with the geography department and ask if they have a big map students could use.

Created with a focus on speaking and listening skills, this lesson gives students the chance to research a character who would have been present at a slave auction in the US which they then have to 'hot seat' in a group of 4. characters: A slave who has just arrived from Africa A slave who was born in America and so speaks English and has a family with them A slave trader who has completed the middle passage with a fresh cargo A slave owner who is looking for a new slave at a bargain price Students have two clips and a large variety of primary sources to research from. Ideally these sources will be stuck up around the room so students can get out of their seats and wander around - ideal for your kinaesthetic learners. Sources range from HA materials of descriptions of exchanges that have taken place between slaves and prospective buyers down to lots and lots of LA pictures and posters.

This resource is designed for a KS3 class and covers the following lesson objectives: LO: To find out information from primary sources LO: To describe the underground rail road using detail LO: To make inferences from combining sources LO: To explain significance using PEE It may be used as a standalone resource, or in combination with other resources on freedom fighters such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, Nanny of the Maroons, Sam Sharpe or Bussa. It contains a variety of tasks such as source analysis, and links to literacy objectives of using metaphors, clarifying the meaning of words using a partner, and refining a PEE paragraph. US teachers - this resources is designed for UK students who have little existing knowledge of the underground railroad and haven't heard of Harriet Tubman. As such, it provides an overview rather than an in depth examination of Tubman which you might want to go to if your classes have a higher level of pre-existing knowledge. NB I have made a map for students on which I have roughly drawn borders and rivers freehand. In case this isn't precise enough, I included a hyperlink to an online map with more precise borders - I didn't use this in the first instance because my whiteboard isn't too great and I don't think many students will be able to see the borders. All feedback gratefully received! Ruth

This quiz was designed for my year 12 class, so students will be asked for specific details about a range of civil rights events and their accompanying Supreme Court cases. It is quite challenging, so if this covers topics you haven't spent as much time on, you may decide to allow a time limited textbook grab (60 seconds for students to locate information would be reasonable, and would improve index using skills) There are three rounds, one for civil rights movements, one for supreme court cases and one picture round. I usually get my class to split into teams and name their teams, its a great activity for a class who are stressing about an exam on this topic and need some lighter revision. You should also get a prize! My classes usually take about 35 minutes to complete this.

This PowerPoint includes all of the resources to run either a single, or a double lesson on Mansa Musa. It is aimed at Year 7 and provides support for students working between L3 and L6 on the old NC Levels. Lesson objectives: L3 - To identify facts about Medieval Mali and Mansa Musa L4 - To describe Medieval Mali and Mansa Musa L5 - To make inferences from sources about Medieval Mali and Mansa Musa L6 - To explain what Medieval Mali and Mansa Musa would seem like to a time traveller, drawing inferences from sources to support their points. Activities include: * A task where students work in pairs, one looks at an image and describes it to his/her partner. The partner draws the image. * Fact generation, teacher models how to get facts from the source, students compete. * Using written sources to gather information * Creating a Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval Mali

This is an active lesson that meets the following objectives: ALL will be able to detail events of the scare MOST will be able to explain why Americans were threatened by Communism SOME will be able to predict its ramifications on the political system. I taught this to my year 12 class two weeks ago and it was easily the best lesson I have taught so far this year, they loved it and they refer back to it still to inform their understanding of the fear of communism in the US. There is no writing involved in this lesson, it is purely talking and listening, questioning and thinking. It allows students to move around the room, investigating like in a murder mystery, and ad libbing for their own characters. Overview of the lesson: Set up the classroom like a 1920's speak easy, or at least create a big space in the middle with some chairs around the edge. Students get a character card, these include steelworkers, anarchists etc. They are allowed to tell the truth about their character, but they aren't obliged to - they can lie as much as they like. They have to find out who the communists are in the room and they do this by making conversation. One student is a journalist and this student moves events along by informing other students. You give them each event as it happens (eg bombs in the post) and they have to stir up a fuss with other students. All other instructions are included in the downloads including the character cards, events, and questions for you to use to consolidate learning and pull out the themes necessary to help students achieve the objectives. I will admit I used chocolates to get students going, but motivation really wasn't a problem - they got fully into their characters and the whole witch hunt. enjoy!

Learning Objectives: * To know the pivotal events in 1968 * To have an overview of the background to these events * To be able to make links between these crises to explore the tensions in US society. I created this lesson for my year 12, but it can be differentiated down for younger age groups so long as you have an appropriate textbook or a class that are able to listen effectively to teacher talk. This lesson was designed to work with 'Access to History: Politics, Presidency and Society in the USA, 1968-2001' by Vivienne Sanders, but can easily paired with another textbook from this year, or if you as the teacher have a good knowledge of some of the following events you can fill in the background information. Another option is to provide access to the internet so students can research the background themselves. Events covered are: The death of Martin Luther King The Tet Offensive The assassination of Bobby Kennedy Feminist protests at the Miss America Pageant Protests at the Democratic Convention in Chicago The election of President Nixon. Students will be using information on these events to say what tensions existed in US society, for example the death of MLK shows that there was huge political tension. This lesson works really well as an introduction to the time period and includes a music based homework so students can immerse themselves in the popular culture of the time. It includes a matching task, a researching task and either pair or class discussion of significance. All feedback welcome, Ruth appropriate search terms for this resource: America, USA, 1960's, 1968, Martin Luther King, Kennedy, Nixon, popular culture, music, Tet Offensive, Vietnam War, feminism

This resource contains a great game of 'Reagan bingo' where students listen to Reagan facing off against Carter and note off the issues as they arise. This is a good task to introduce students to Reagan, to understand his policies and note the absent topics. There is also a note making task using the Vivienne Sanders textbook (link at the bottom of this blurb) but any decent textbook on this topic will do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9qDRZ6pSRE&safe=active