I have been teaching history since 2002 and I have been head of History at a school for 10 years which sees many of my students opt for GCSE, A level and beyond. I am passionate about History being taught well, and believe that this largely stems from good resources (as well of course effective delivery). My lessons and various teaching resources are therefore produced with the intention of inspiring students to think for themselves, to be challenged yet engaged.
I have been teaching history since 2002 and I have been head of History at a school for 10 years which sees many of my students opt for GCSE, A level and beyond. I am passionate about History being taught well, and believe that this largely stems from good resources (as well of course effective delivery). My lessons and various teaching resources are therefore produced with the intention of inspiring students to think for themselves, to be challenged yet engaged.
This is a series of tasks serving as an overview for the War and Society unit for the OCR Modern world A unit - Medieval to 1500, designed to help with the massive amount of content required for this course.
These revision sheets cover the threat of the Vikings and Saxon’s responses, the Norman conquest and it’s impact, the break down of the Feudal system, the Anarchy and King John and the Barons, the Age of Chivalry, and the Hundred years’ war. The intention being to give a decent overview from which to start effective revision. Students can always use their class notes to add extra details to these tasks. Some of the tasks included involve completing charts, categorising and adding evidence.
The sheets are broken down into the time period, type of warfare, attitude and responses and the impact on the British people. There are extra aspects to some - such as why was the Norman Conquest successful as this is covered in the exam spec.
There are also some opportunities for students to answer an 8 and a 14 mark questions.
This is a timeline with the historical interpretations for appeasement and the view points of the historians linked the events that they use to argue their viewpoint.
It was created with my OCRA GCSE students in mind to help them with the process of understanding what events were surrounding the historians who were writing and what evidence they used to support their claims.
My Year 11 this year have found it incredibly useful for learning the interpretations but also to help them revise effectively.
I also believe that this would be very useful for A level students who are studying this period and need a brief historical interpretations overview.
See also my Cold War historical interpretations.
Primary Source Analysis Flow Chart specifically for the AQA AS History specification but can be used for all primary source evaluations.
An easy to use flow chart for AS students to help them meet the demands of the new Primary Source question for the AS AQA exam.
The document helps weaker students formulate an answer helping them to structure their ideas, whilst offering some guidance and a checklist for more able students. It is complicated but it does work!
The AQA exam question ask them to analyse the value of the source in relation to a specific question and then to make a comparison with another source about which offers the most value – in relation to the question.
As part of this analysis, students are expected to comment on the provenance and tone (where relevant) as well as the context and argument of the period studied.
For a top mark answer students need to be able to balance provenance, tone and context on their analysis of each source to provide a meaningful and substantiated judgement! It is tricky but this document helps students of all abilities meet the requirements being asked of them.
Attached is a knowledge organiser that covers briefly the reasons for USA’s involvement in Vietnam. The tactics of both the VC and the USA, a timeline, reasons for loss of support for the war in the USA and the impacts of the war on the USA.
The second page gives some suggested ideas on how to use the knowledge organiser within starters, plenaries or as homeworks.
Attached is 1 word document that has a brief outline of the AQA A level coursework and 2 charts one for primary source analysis and one for secondary sources, I usually blow these up to A3 to allow students plenty of opportunity to thoroughly investigate the sources.
For the secondary sources there is scope to push the students to thoroughly investigate the historiography fully.
A break down for the AS AQA American Dream unit, using specification criteria and supported with key issues and events for greater context.
Students can make a note where they feel their understanding of certain topics is, by dating under the red, yellow or green face. The idea behind this is so that students can see specific areas where they need to focus their revision; hopefully moving their learning all to the green smiley face by the time of the exam.
This was an extremely useful resource for my students last year as they and I, were able to monitor their progress. I'm currently in the process of writing the new one for A2.
An overview of the AQA Part 2 American Dream unit using detail from the specification inconjunction with other key content for students to revise.
Students can assess how comfortable their knowledge is on a topic and date the appropriate, sad, middle or happy face. The intention is then for students to use this as a base from which to start to plan and organise their revision effectively. The hope being that they have moved most of their learning on from the red unhappy face to the Green smiley face before they sit the exams.
This is brand new and I am about to give it to my students for the first time this year. The AS version for them them was very successful last year and I intend to give them a copy of that again - as they will need both for the new style A level exams.
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 Knowledge Organiser (KOs) which covers the short and long term causes of the English Civil War. Obviously as KOs, these only cover the absolute basics, however in conjunction with lessons and learning homework, the idea is that students gain valuable specific knowledge that they can then incorporate into their written answers.
This KO could be used as a starter, recap, or as a learning homework that is then assessed in subsequent lessons.
Some homework ideas that could be used along side this KO could be…
Create 2 different revision (revision cards/ mindmap / mnemonic etc) to show how Charles ruled during his Personal Rule.
Create a flow chart of the short term causes.
Using the spider diagram on Tensions – recreate and give specific reasons for the increased in tensions between Parliament and the King 1629-1640.
Create a mind map using the short and Long term causes of the Civil War. Don’t forget the key themes of tension!!!
Quizzes on socrative
The second sheet is exam specific criteria to help students identify the key skills for the GCSE Modern World A - Personal Rule to Restoration depth study.
This is a Knowledge organiser for the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
It has been designed with the OCR Modern World A syllabus in mind, but the knowledge would be useful for all modern world GCSE / or other style of exam classes and would even serve as a good overall basic knowledge for A level.
The second sheet, gives some suggestions on homework, starters or even basic lesson ideas using the knowledge organiser.
As this is a knowledge organiser it only contains the absolute basics! We stress to students (especially those wanting top grades) the need to know more than just this information.
This is a useful resource that shows the timeline of events and the basic history historians were using to write their histories. It covers the basic historiography to enable GCSE students to be able to examine the events that surrounded the historians and their view points. This is brilliant for the GCSE course OCR A Explaining the modern world, but it certainly useful as a basic or starter guide to historiography for A level students and is something that has worked great this year.
See also the Appeasement Historical interpretations Timeline .
This is a couple of lessons work. It starts with a recap and an overall research task to obtain information to assess how successful was Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society plans. Students are asked to produce a chart showing its successes and failures - there is a completed version included on the ppt which has a few examples. Following on from this, there is then a slide with some information about Sargent Shriver and his reasons for becoming frustrated with the Great Society. Some good Q&A could come from the statistic about the expense of the reforms against the cost of the Vietnam war.
The second lesson uses the sourcework from the 2017 A2 AQA exam. Students are broken down into groups and asked to analyse their source in relation to the question and the markscheme - they are then to swap groups and share their knowledge about their source with other memembers. A homework task to write up their answers as an A2 answer is also included.
This should NOT be used and set as cover work as teacher guidance is needed to facilitate group work and to ensure a higher level of analysis with the sources
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.
This is a Knowledge Organiser (KOs) which covers the reasons for the restoration in 1660. As KOs, this only cover the absolute basics, however in conjunction with lessons and learning homework, the idea is that students gain valuable specific knowledge that they can then incorporate into their written answers.
This KO could be used as a starter, recap, or as a learning homework that is then assessed in subsequent lessons.
Some homework ideas that could be used along side this KO could be…
1)Create 2 PEEL Paragraphs – 1 to show the restoration occurred because of the popularity of the monarchy and the 2nd to explain why the republic was weak.
2) Look, cover, write – The 5 reasons why the monarchy was restored.
3) Create a mnemonic to explain the Declaration of Breda
4) Create cue cards to show how the restoration settlement differed from the Grand Remonstrance.
5) Quiz on Socrative.
The second sheet is exam specific criteria to help students identify the key skills for the GCSE Modern World A - Personal Rule to Restoration depth study.
This is part of a lesson examining the beginning process of how a historian work. It doesn’t deal with second order concepts - it is just an introduction for Yr 7 students.
There is ppt with a printable worksheet that explains the basics of how a historian works.
There are video links examining primary and secondary sources which students can make notes on and is a hinge question at the end.
Attached is two lessons work for KS3 yr 7 or 8 on migration. There are cross curricular links with Geography and Citizenship.
The lessons explore the history of migration from the Romans to present day.
There are three pages of worksheets / activities and a timeline for support
Lesson 1 Who are the British? PPT 1 = 12 sides
Lesson 2 Who has moved to Britain and why? PPt 2 22 slides plus reading resource with an SEND highlighted version.
This is 3 pages of blank charts headed with key criteria for students to complete along side their own work/ notes to help them have all key policies, events and issues in one place. Please note, this does not have teachable content - it is for student’s to complete using their prior work , knowledge and is something they can then use to test themselves.
Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy in terms of their Domestic and Foreign policy and Civil rights agenda. In line with the AQA American Dream A level unit.
A simple chart for student’s to complete to show Hitler’s steps to war and the response of Europe (largely Britain and France).
This resource then works brilliantly with the “Was the Policy of appeasement a mistake?” resource, as students are able to understand Hitler’s actions and understand why people changed their minds about appeasement.
A source from the Southern Manifesto document and an appropriate AQA AS style question that encourages students to evaluate the primary source in relation to the exam criteria of provenance, tone, content and argument. By encouraging students to break down and analyse the source in relation to these specifics, it encourages them to always formulate their answer with the exam criteria in the forefront of their mind.
This is only one source and it is therefore worth mentioning that for AS purposes they would need a futher source which they must then compare and decide which one offers more value. For A2 they would need a further 2 sources but they are not expected to compare the sources.
This document works well with the How to answer a Primary Source flow chart document - one of my other resources available.
A super lesson that encourages students to identify the various actions and events surrounding the end of the 1905 revolution.
The resources are within the ppt and can be printed off and used around the room for students to collect the information or used as part of a group task/ discussion. They are to discover the reasons why the Tsar survived and if he was strengthening or weakening the country. At the end students are asked to think about the short and long term impact of the Tsar's actions. This then leads onto a super assessment essay question - Did the Tsar's response to the 1905 revolution make Russia stronger or weaker.