I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
World War I
This lesson aims to analyse how the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the spark for World War 1 to start.
Students will question how frightening the assassination was and the speed of European countries to mobilise for war.
As video evidence is used to explain the events that led to the shooting in Sarajevo, an analogy is made to a bar brawl as students try to ascertain the causes of it and link these to the events which unfolded after 28th June, 1914.
Students also have to complete a chronological exercise of the events as well as deciding the personalities of the main countries involved.
The plenary is a catchphrase check (complete with music) on key words used in the lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
World War I
The aim of the lesson is to understand why alliances and rivalries at the beginning of the Twentieth Century led to the outbreak of war.
This lesson sets out the long term causes of the First World War based on four underlying principles: Nationalism, Imperialism, Alliances and Militarism.
The lesson asks the students who and why were countries arguing with each other based on their geographical as well as their historic national rivalries.
Students then have to decide who could sit next to each other at a dinner party after they have justified their reasons for distrust and paranoia.
The alliances are plotted and colour coded on maps, culminating in a task prioritising and linking the reasons as to why the world was ready for war in 1914.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
With the National Curriculum in mind, I have created a set of resources which focus on ’the development of the British Empire' with depth studies on India and Australia.
Furthermore I have been inspired to review and adapt these teaching resources due to recent debates about the impact of the British Empire on the indigenous peoples it conquered and the legacy of Empire and how it influences us still today.
I would like to thank Sathnam Sanghera for his brilliant book ‘Empireland’ and his enlightened debate on the British Empire and how and why it should be taught in schools.
This bundle includes historical concepts such empire and colonisation, continuity and change with a focus on the East India Company, the causes and consequences of British rule in India, similarities and differences within the British Empire, the analysis of sources and different interpretations of colonisation such as Australia and finally the significance of people such as Robert Clive, Mahatma Gandhi and Lord Kitchener and their legacy today.
The 13 lessons are broken down into the following:
1) An introduction to Empire
2) The American War of Independence
3) The British East India Company
4) Robert Clive
5) Focus Study – India
6) Gandhi and Indian independence
7) Focus Study - Transportation to Australia
8) The colonisation of Australia
9) The Scramble for Africa
10) The Zulu Wars
11) The Boer War
12) Apartheid and Nelson Mandela
Bonus lesson:
13) Empire soldiers in World War 1
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies, retrieval practice activities, differentiated materials and are linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lessons are fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be adapted and changed to suit.
The British Empire
This lesson aims to find out whether we should be proud or ashamed of gaining an Empire and how the indigenous peoples we conquered ‘benefitted’ under British rule.
This lesson will best be delivered over 2 lessons . The opening slides give some context to the debate and define what an Empire is and which countries Britain owned by 1900.
Through video and source analysis, the students have to explain their choice of being proud or ashamed or both and as the lesson progresses justify whether they are sticking to their decisions.
Analysis focuses on Victorian propaganda, the recent views of British Prime Ministers as well as how museums refuse to engage about how they have obtained their imperial artefacts.
The second part of the lesson examines a number of countries acquired by Britain and focuses on the ‘benefits of Empire’. Students then make their final decisions at the end before drawing conclusions on the legacy of the British Empire.
A homework task is to design an Empire plate (photographic examples given) to celebrate Empire day from 1902.
The lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies, differentiated materials and is linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
The Middle Passage and its horrendous journey for the slaves is shown in this lesson through video, audio and source based evidence.
Students analyse how the slaves were treated and the conditions they endured.
They then have to catalogue these conditions in a grid before trying to persuade a film director, who is making a film on slavery, that he is being misled about the journey. The advise the director is being given is from a slave ship owner, Captain Thomas Tobin.
Some differentiated key questions check their understanding through the lesson.
Students finally have to prioritise the worst conditions the slaves faced and justify their choices in an extension activity.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The British Empire
This lesson focuses on the upheaval of the lives of the indigenous peoples of Australia with the coming of the Europeans.
The lesson starts by looking at their customs and traditions and how these were quickly attacked through the attitudes and settlements of the colonists. A ‘Horrible Histories’ version of events is also scrutinised and questioned on its accuracy.
I have included some comprehension questions and source scholarship using an extract from the brilliant ‘Empireland’ by Sathnam Sanghera which explains the atrocities committed in Tasmania by the colonists.
Paintings from Governor Davey of Van Diemen’s Land can also analysed so the students are able to prioritise the most significant changes the colonists made to Australia and the legacy of the British Empire.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching and learning strategies, differentiated materials and is linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
The British Empire
This lesson focuses on the role Gandhi played in achieving Indian independence from Britain which ultimately cost him his life.
The first part of the lesson looks at why the Indian population were unhappy with British rule, from the Indian Mutiny of 1857, events happening abroad to the Rowlatt Act culminating in the Amritsar Massacre.
They are then introduced to Gandhi, his philosophy of passive resistance (or as he called it satyagraha) and why he set up his Independent Congress Party. This is accompanied with some excellent video footage from the BBC as well as clips from the film ‘Gandhi’ by Sir Richard Attenborough.
The second part of the lesson centers around his life and by analysing various sources from which they complete either a table or grid; students then have to decide how big a part Gandhi played in many events leading to Independence and his lasting legacy for India in 1947.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching and learning strategies, differentiated materials and is linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
This lesson examines the different punishments that the slaves endured on the plantations.
Different sources are analysed showing the positive and negative aspects of plantation life as students have to extract fact from fiction.
Students then look at the different forms of resistance from passive to active resistance and decide the best and most effective form of resistance and justify their reasons.
There is also a chance of being more interactive as students are selected to take on some forms resistance which the class have to find out and decide.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The British Empire
This lesson has been designed to look at specific countries which were part of the British Empire.
Claimed by Captain James Cook in 1768, students study how and why the British used Australia as a penal colony.
Using a real life example of a young boy sent there for petty crimes, students analyse his and others stories from the start of the voyage through to life in the colony.
They track and ultimately decide the worst aspects for the convicts.
There is lots of video footage to consolidate understanding and the plenary evaluates the conditions and lives led by the convicts
The lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
What happens at a slave auction? How are the slaves prepared? Who attends the auction? Who is chosen and why?
This lesson attempts to answer these questions and more; from branding to advertisements and the auction itself.
Students also learn of the heartache and pain of those who are sold and how and why slaves are sold at different prices.
They are also challenged in a task to think who would be more expensive and why.
By the end of the lesson, students have to give examples in a true or false quiz of what they have learned in the lesson, including having to decide the worst aspects of the slave auction.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
American Civil RIghts
This lesson sets out to ask the question if Abraham Lincoln was the ‘Great Emancipator’ that history claims him to be.
By analysing his statue at the Washington memorial and using video evidence as well as a brief summary of the 13th Amendment and the American Civil War, students are given evidence (which is differentiated according to ability) from which they question this belief.
Their ideas are then presented on a Venn diagram and presented to their peers.
A true or false quiz at the end will attempt to consolidate their learning as well as questioning how emancipated the slaves were after the amendment became law.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This lesson analyses the reasons why Hitler executed the leaders of the SA.
After a recap of the previous lesson, students start unpicking the events leading to the Night of the Long Knives.
Students are put into Hitler’s shoes; who should he choose to lead him forward in his new Third Reich - the Brownshirts or the Army?
The conclusions are never totally clear in favour of one or the other, making sure the students are challenged and have to think things through and justify their choices.
The events are also explained through a text mapping grid which the students also have to decipher as well as video evidence.
There is also a choice of two plenaries from Connect 4 to a talk like an historian quiz and some GCSE exam question practice to complete if required.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Tudors
This lesson poses the question ‘How much of a threat did Mary, Queen of Scots pose to Elizabeth I?’
Students are taken through Mary’s life from becoming Queen of Scotland to the controversy of her husbands and her eventual house arrest in England.
Through sources, visual and video evidence, students have conclude how much of a threat Mary posed to Elizabeth, after pleading their case through the eyes of Mary herself.
There is some help to write an extended answer using key words which help mention cause and effect, to sequence events and to emphasise judgements.
There is also analysis of the Babington Plot and a deciphering exercise to work out on how Mary was implicated.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to question if it was really necessary for the Allies to bomb Dresden in World War II.
Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris stands today as a controversial figure and therefore the lesson revolves around his reputation; did he bring an the end of the war with the bombing raids and save thousands of lives or the reverse?
The lesson builds up a picture of why the bombing raids on Germany were stepped up, how the Government used propaganda posters to justify these and why Dresden was a ‘legitimate’ target.
Differentiated tasks analyse the consequences of the bombing on Dresden and a mini plenary checks understanding.
The ultimate task is for the students to decide if he was a war hero or a criminal, with prompts and help if required.
The plenary challenges the students to link the key words to controversial themes developed throughout the lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Industrial Revolution
This lesson aims to evaluate the problems within Industrial towns and the impact they had on the growing population during the Industrial Revolution.
The lesson starts by analysing the source from Punch in 1852, 'A Court For King Cholera’, which is later annotated to help aid discussion.
Various images, video evidence and headlines allow students to build up a picture, which they then have to explain to a friend in a letter - using scaffolding and a writing frame if required.
Students also evaluate how and why the living conditions became like this and question if this was the case across the country as they are given further evidence from the wealthy in Victorian England, comparing the dwellings of the rich and poor.
Students will therefore be able by the end of the lesson be able to give an effective and balanced answer to this lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate how effectively the Nazis controlled its Youth.
The lesson is split into two parts and can be delivered over two lessons.
The first part looks at the Hitler Youth, the activities organised for boys and girls and the purpose behind them.
Students then have to analyse four pieces of evidence and evaluate how much they are being controlled.
Some differentiated questioning and higher order thinking allows you to see how much they are making progress in the lesson.
The second part focuses on education and what the young people are taught at school.
Again the students are challenged and questioned on how effective this diet of propaganda was, with an emphasis that not all lessons were anti-Semitic.
Various and excellent video footage is used to consolidate understanding.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Nazi economy.
I have always found this topic very dry; therefore I have tried to make it more accessible, more challenging as well as more relevant.
Students are taken on a journey of success, from video footage of the time to Goebbels propaganda, a fall in unemployment as well as the ‘Strength Through Joy’ scheme.
However further analysis, especially with aims of the Four Year Plan, shows the enormous cracks appearing in Nazi economic policy. A further look at the Home Front also proves how desperate Germans had become.
Students will complete their own chart and scrutinise the evidence to come up with their own conclusions before deciding if the Nazis truly brought economic success.
The GCSE question at the end focuses on which groups were more affected with Nazi economic policies and a self and peer assessment task is included to help the students mark their answers.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to understand why children were evacuated to the countryside.
However, it also questions the success of evacuation through government propaganda, audio records of evacuees and from written sources of evidence.
Students are led through the evacuation process, which on the surface looks amazingly planned and executed by the British Government.
But, using primary evidence of the time, they realise how the Government failed to prioritise the needs of the children over the need to evacuate large numbers.
Students will also learn how other vulnerable groups in society were also evacuated without due consideration of their needs.
By the end of the lesson the students will evaluate the biggest problems faced by the children and learn some sad facts about the reality of war on the Home Front.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
**Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship **
The aim of this lesson is to examine the role of the Churches in Nazi Germany and to decide how much control Hitler exerted over them.
The lesson starts by studying Christianity in Germany and explains why there was a conflict of interest with the State.
Nazi policies to both the Catholic and Protestant Churches are analysed as students have to interpret the threats they both posed to Hitler.
Furthermore students have to distinguish the differences between the Christian Churches and the new Nazi Reich Church.
There are some excellent links to video footage which explain why there was such a lack of opposition and a united front from the Churches, despite such fortitude and resolve from Cardinal Galen and Martin Niemoller.
A thinking quilt poses some enquiry and GCSE questions, which students have to answer by linking specific key words to them.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to analyse Nazi policies towards women and then evaluate how effective they were at controlling them.
The start of the lesson questions the qualities Hitler is looking for in women and then questions what makes the perfect Nazi woman using key words.
Students then have some differentiated questions to complete, using text before evaluating how much certain women were controlled and explaining to what extent.
A GCSE practice question focuses on ‘Which source is the most convincing?’, complete with simplified markscheme and notes on the slide for more guidance.
The key words are then revisited in the plenary.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
