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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
These lessons focus on Elizabethan society from wealth, status and the latest fashions of the time, an analysis of the Elizabethan theatre and Tudor exploration and trade.
There is also a lesson for the Historic Environment Questions of 2023 on Sheffield Manor Lodge.
The lessons are enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
Each lesson aims to challenge the students and focuses on how to answer a GCSE practice question set in the exam.
These range from how convincing is the source, write an account and how significant.
For further assessment materials, please visit the AQA website for specimen questions and answers.
The lessons are as follows:
L1: Wealth Status and fashion
L2: Elizabethan Theatre
L3: The Golden Age (free resource)
L4: Poverty and the Poor Law of 1601
L5: Famous explorers (focus on Drake, Hawkins and Raleigh)
L6: Planning the Spanish Armada
L7: Planning for the Spanish Armada
L8: Defeat of the Spanish Armada
All the resources include suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and come in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Any reviews would be gratefully received.
The Industrial Revolution
The aim for writing this lesson is to challenge the traditional view that Jack the Ripper targeted prostitutes or sex workers in Victorian London.
Whilst much has been written about the Jack the Ripper and how clever he was to avoid detection, very little has been written about the lives of his victims.
Therefore with this in mind, students will learn how difficult it was for Victorian women to lead comfortable lives as marriage, children, work, alcoholism, the workhouse and poverty took its toll on them.
Students begin the lesson with an overview by learning what is known about Jack the Ripper, who he killed and how the police had little evidence or clues to go on. There is a video link and a true or false activity to complete this.
They will then have to use a number of images to decide how hard life was for Victorian women and the pressures they were under. A differentiated missing word activity can be completed to piece together many of these problems, based on the lives of the five women murdered.
A case study of Annie Chapman, the Ripper’s second victim, will centre around her privileged life before alcoholism took over, forcing her to separate from her husband and children as she moved from a village near Windsor Castle to the doss houses of Whitechapel.
Here, students have to colour code the main factors and problems which affected her life.
An extended writing task can then be completed, with a writing structure and key words given to help if required.
The plenary poses some differentiated questions from the learning completed in the lesson.
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.
A big thank you goes to Hallie Rubenhold, whose fabulous book ‘The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women killed by Jack the Ripper’ inspired me to write this lesson.
The English Civil War
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the reign of Charles II who was determined to stamp his authority and bring back some sense of ‘normality’ to the country.
Students will be given the context of his return with a Head and Tails activity and an excellent video, in which they will have to justify his cautious return.
As well as reassessing how his brought back ‘partying’ to the country, some source scholarship requires students to summarise paragraphs and create images and headings to show and clarify understanding.
Students will also have to put themselves in the shoes of Charles to sort out some of his problems in the restoration.
A ‘talk like an expert’ activity for the plenary will show off their new found knowledge and skills from 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.
Superpower Relations and the Cold War, 1941-91
The aim of this lesson is to analyse the significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact upon Europe with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Students begin by recapping key facts about the Wall and how citizens of East Germany could travel to the west through Austria.
They will learn how the fall and destruction of the wall came about an given significance ratings to ten consequences, which students can use to complete an extended writing task.
There are some excellent video links to watch as well as images to decipher during the lesson.
A GCSE question tackling the importance of the fall of the wall can be completed at the end of the lesson with help and a writing frame provided.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout this and subsequent lessons to show the progress of learning.
The lessons in this bundle are therefore linked together to build up a picture of how diplomacy, propaganda and spying led two Superpowers with opposing political ideologies to create tensions, rivalries and distrust as well as subsequently forming mutual understanding and cooperation over the time period in question.
The resource includes retrieval practice, suggested teaching strategies, differentiated material and GCSE question practice.
It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The English Civil War
The aim of this lesson is to be able to distinguish between the two sides in the English Civil War.
Students will be researching how they differed from their dress, their mannerisms, what they believed in and their goals.
They will also be analysing some real life examples from people today who discuss which side they would prefer to be on and why.
Students will be using various written sources and video evidence to find out which side they would support.
Ultimately they will have to produce a propaganda leaflet encouraging people to join their campaign as a Royalist or Cavalier using persuasive literacy techniques and song lyrics. Exemplars and scaffolding is included if required.
This is a fun lesson with a number of activities designed to get all students involved actively and to enjoy their learning.
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.
Britain: Health and the People, C.1000AD to present
With revision constantly in full swing, I have started to make these revision workbooks which my Year 11 students love (as an alternative to death by Powerpoint).
We pick certain sections each lesson to revise and come up with model answers and discuss the best way to tackle each question in the best way, considering exam time constraints.
I print out the sheets in A5, which the students stick in their books and use to colour code
Students answer the questions next to or underneath the sheets.
They can also be used for homework or interleaving.
The resource comes in Word format if there is a need to change or adapt.
The Suffragettes
The aim of this lesson is to question the motives of Emily Davison. Did she really mean to kill herself or was it a protest that went drastically wrong?
Students learn what a martyr is and then sift through the evidence of her handbag to make a judgement.
However not is all as it seems as conflicting source and video evidence only serves to add confusion to the debate.
The plenary also requires the students to question whether she can be called a martyr or not and whether she helped the suffragette cause.
This is a fun, engaging and challenging lesson which requires students to evaluate and make judgements using evidence as well as getting them to justify their opinions.
There is also a chance of role play if you feel daring or not as the mystery of her death unfolds.
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 Norman Conquest
This lesson is an introduction to the Bayeux Tapestry and follows the enquiry question of the previous lessons which seek to understand how much control William the Conqueror had over the population.
The lesson explains some key facts about the tapestry and its propaganda purposes for the Normans.
There is a crossword to fill in as well as some analysis of the tapestry itself.
A brilliant animated video of the tapestry brings it to life and students are questioned to how the Normans and Saxons are portrayed.
Students are also challenged in a Bayeux Tapestry thinking quilt, which requires them to link key words and definitions together and explain their overall significance.
The lesson is interactive and gets students moving around the classroom. It is also ideal for non-specialists.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end using a rate ‘o’ meter to show the progress of learning.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies and notes on the slides for further information.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to understand how the Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic, a phrase coined by Winston Churchill during the war.
Churchill himself felt this was one of the most serious threats facing the Allies and therefore during the lesson, students have to evaluate and explain how serious the threat was, before analysing the different ways the Allies subsequently reduced the threat of the U boats.
Students learn why the Atlantic was so vital to Britain and how the U boat wolf packs impacted on supplies and rationing in Britain. There is various video footage to use from the BBC, as well as the boasts of Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses.
A find and fix activity for the plenary checks student understanding of the lesson and allow them to discuss what they have learnt.
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.
Britain: Health and the People, c1000 to present
The aim of the lesson is for students to understand why penicillin was seen as a wonder drug and how it was discovered and then developed during World War 2
Students first of all learn about the role played by Alexander Fleming in the story of penicillin from his chance discovery and the acclaim that eventually followed.
The lesson therefore leads the students inadvertently to celebrate his attributes and significance.
The second part of the lesson devotes itself to the parts played by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in the development of penicillin during World War 2.
Questions and sources are used to analyse why they were unhappy with Fleming and how they had tremendous problems initially producing enough to treat patients effectively.
Students have to now question their original assumptions and finally evaluate the most significant of the three in the story of penicillin.
There is also some source analysis for exam question practice.
The lesson is accompanied by video footage and other documentary evidence as it establishes the part played by factors such as individual genius, science and technology as well as chance.
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.
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.
American Civil RIghts
This lesson analyses and evaluates the part Rosa Parks played in the Civil Rights Movement.
Modest to the end, her one action inspired a generation and she is still talked about with reverence in American society today. (NB - Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globe speech on 7th January, 2018.)
Students learn about Rosa Park’s background and events leading up to her refusal to move seats on a bus, brilliantly shown through some video footage as well as documentary evidence.
The learning tasks and the accompanying resources are differentiated to suit all abilities as students reflect and evaluate her most important significance to American society today.
Students also have the opportunity to use a bus to show in the windows the problems she faced (at the front and in the doorway) and what she achieved (in the back windows).
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.
American Civil Rights
This lesson starts with the Bob Dylan song ‘The death of Emmett Till’.
The question is posed as to why Emmett’s mother had an open top casket at his funeral?
Students are given sources to piece together the story before they find out what happened to him (the story is differentiated according to ability).
Embedded video footage of his short life from the time reinforces their learning.
Students then have a choice of answering some differentiated questions or completing an extended piece of writing.
The plenary questions the impact of his death upon the Civil Rights Movement and help is given on how students can justify their reasons.
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.
The Norman Conquest
The aim of this lesson is to challenge the overarching question as to whether the punishments fitted the crimes in the Middle Ages.
There is a key focus on literacy throughout the lesson, as students are introduced to a number of key words which they have to fit into a missing word activity and well as using some differentiated story source scholarship to define certain key words using inference and analytical skills.
This resource uses visuals to explain the punishments used in the Middle Ages as well as the causes of crime.
There is also some excellent BBC video footage to accompany the lesson.
Students will be required to complete an extended piece of writing, using the key words they have learnt from the lesson as well as having to justify and explain the key concepts of crime and punishment in an odd one out activity.
This lesson is designed to be interactive, fun, challenging and engaging.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end using a rate ‘o’ meter to show the progress of learning.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The aims of this bundle are to investigate the causes of the French Revolution, how it changed the lives of French people and its consequences for Europe and the Wider World with the rise of Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars.
I have also created and used these lessons to challenge and engage students and to show how much fun learning about this part of European history really is.
By studying this unit, pupils will be able to make connections, draw contrasts, and analyse trends within this period of history by using an enquiry based question throughout all the lessons.
Students will learn and understand key historical skills throughout such as the change and continuity of the Government of France in the Eighteenth Century, the causes and consequences of the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the similarities and differences of absolute monarchs such as Louis XVI of France, and Frederick the Great of Prussia in comparison to George III of Britain.
They will also learn about the significance of the Tennis Court Oath, the Storming of the Bastille, the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte as well as different interpretations of Marie Antoinette and Maximilien Robespierre.
Finally they will create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response to claims that the Terror was justified, Britain had every reason to fear Napoleon or that Louis XVI deserved to be executed.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 Introduction to the French Revolution
L2 The French Monarchy
L3 The Three Estates
L4 Louis XVI financial problems
L5 Tennis Court Oath
L6 Storming of the Bastille
L7 Execution of King Louis XVI
L8 The reign of Terror
L9 Maximilien Robespierre (free resource)
L10 Support for the French Revolution
L11 Napoleon Bonaparte
L12 Napoleonic Wars
L13 Legacy of the French Revolution (free resource)
All the lessons come with retrieval practice activities, differentiated materials, suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lessons are enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
They are fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
I would highly recommend assessing students at the tend of this unit of study, using GCSE style questions from your chosen exam board.
If you have any questions about this unit, please do not hesitate to contact me via my shop for further information.
The Holocaust
The aims of this lesson are to explain how the extermination camps were liberated by horrified allied soldiers whose shock quickly turned to anger.
Students are placed in the liberators shoes and have to decide how they would react, from cleaning up, to taking pictures and leaving things untouched to of course more violent extremes.
There is some excellent video footage to accompany the lesson, but please again treat with caution and care.
The second part of the lesson is a case study of Herta Bothe, a German camp guard who was convicted of war crimes by a British military tribunal.
Students are given certain facts about her and have to decide if the sentence was justified or whether as in the previous lesson she was an unfortunate victim of circumstance and just an ordinary woman completing the job required of her.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons in the bundle is to ask who was to blame for the holocaust?
Students will map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around a lightbulb) and build up a picture of how difficult it is to blame a single individual or event for this catastrophe.
The resource comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
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 English Civil War
This lesson aims to question the character and personality of Oliver Cromwell.
Students will decide if he set out to kill the King from the start and make himself a despot or did circumstances dictate that this was his only option?
Moreover, with his puritanical ideas, did he make England and the Commonwealth a better place for it, or was it exclusive only to the minority?
This will ultimately be down to students’ own judgement as they plot his actions on a grid and justify their own conclusions.
Analysis of video evidence also helps to track his ideas and personality and gives the students ideas for writing his obituary and question why his burial place in Westminster Abbey bears the inscription 1658-1661.
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.
The English Civil War
The aims of this lesson are to analyse the Battle of Marston Moor and evaluate how the New Model Army won the battle, as well as to question if Parliament decided to kill the king from the start.
Therefore this lesson comes in two parts.
This first lesson focuses on how the two sides fought in the Civil War.
Students learn about the musketeers and pikemen, before analysing their role in the Battle of Marston Moor.
The students take on the job of Oliver Cromwell and make key decisions to win the battle, gaining points as they go along.
However they must be careful not to make mistakes and lose the battle with catastrophic consequences for Parliament and the New Model Army.
The second part of the lesson looks at an alternative view of the Civil War. Was the decision taken to kill the King early on, or did Parliament arrive painstakingly at this decision over time.
Students plot this on a graph before reaching and justifying their own conclusions, using some argument words for help if required.
A lightbulb is posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Holocaust
The aim of this lesson is to understand why we should remember the holocaust and why we commemorate it every year.
Some misconceptions are given at the start, such as what the holocaust actual means and the differences between concentration and extermination camps.
Throughout the lesson the students build up their ideas and add them around a lightbulb to focus on the central aims of the lesson.
Students are also given numbers and have to decide the significance of each from 6 million to 2 minutes and 2 seconds or 90cm by 90cm for example.
The final part of the lesson refers to the powerful and moving story of Erica, thrown off the train by her parents before she reached Auschwitz and therefore knowing very little about herself.
The plenary focuses on some odd ones out exercises and recent genocides to emphasise the importance of remembering the holocaust.
There is some excellent video footage to accompany the lesson.
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.
