This is a one-page Power point slide (editable) which can be set as a project-based assessment on interpretation of whether Emily Davison died deliberately. Students are given clear criteria (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery) and a set task with a list of key words which can help them. The slide also has a section to show students how long they have to work on this assessed piece of work.
Please note: this assessment task can very easily be edited for any assessed piece of work focusing on the second order concept of interpretation and works especially well with my lesson resource on Emily Davison which can be found here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/suffragette-emily-davison-10-page-lesson-pack-11920338
Thanks for your interest in this and I hope it helps you ! Best wishes, Daniel
This is a one-page Power point slide (editable) which can be set as a project-based assessment on the causes of slavery. Students are given clear criteria (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery) and a set task with a list of key words which can help them. The slide also has a section to show students how long they have to work on this assessed piece of work.
Please note: this assessment task can very easily be edited for any assessed piece of work focusing on the second order concept of causation and works especially well with my lesson resource on the causes of slavery which can be found here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/the-causes-of-slavery-7-page-full-lesson-notes-hexagonal-card-sort-11920311
Thanks for your interest in this and I hope it helps you ! Best wishes, Daniel
This is one of my favourite lessons. It take a little bit of preparation by the teacher beforehand though, although there is a short cut you can take too.
In this lesson you will find six codes to crack and six missions all of which help answer the question ‘how did Rasputin die?’. As the class figure out the codes and complete the missions they fill in the worksheets provided. By the end they will have six different responses which help them understand the Felix Youssopov-inspired version of events but which also leave them questioning this version of events.
This lesson works best with a few props (beard, bottle, crucifix etc as well as six boxes and six padlocks) but you can if you prefer simply print off the codes and print them back to back instead.
Any questions please email me. This lesson has been pitched towards high achieving secondary aged students and please do be aware there is one image of a dead Rasputin in this lesson. Please include/leave out at your discretion.
This lesson begins with a fun starter activity where students view images of Putin and are introduced to the idea that Russians like a tough muzhik style leader (Geoffrey Hosking). They then read through a detailed 4-page pack of notes before completing a card sort where they divide information onto two ‘roads’ - one that suggests Russia was legitimately on the road to reform and democracy, and one that suggests it was on the road to revolution because of a Tsar who refused to give up any power. Students are then expected to write a short response to the overall question before the plenary which shows them two different Historians’ views on this question (Pipes and Morison). The class are asked to vote by standing either on the left or right of the room.
I hope you enjoy this lesson as much as I do when I deliver it and please do ask me if you have any questions. The lesson is pitched at high achieving secondary school students.
This is a four-part lesson in which students tackle the essential question ‘why did Russia do so badly in the First World War?’. The lesson begins with a starter activity in which students pick the odd one out. This is designed to get them thinking about the nature of fighting on the Eastern Front, something they might be less familiar. They are then given a set of detailed notes before attempting a card sort activity which is broken into three categories: socio-economic, military, and political reasons for Russia’s lack of success. The class can glue these into their books and then write up their own summary before attempting the plenary, which is a ‘Find Someone Who Can’ activity where they walk around the class asking peers to help fill in their sheets and in so doing test their own and the class’ subject knowledge.
I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine do and please don’t hesitate if you have any questions. This lesson is pitched towards high-ability secondary aged students.
This is a fully resourced lesson focusing on the second order concept of interpretation. Students watch two video clips (Disney and Alan Rickmann’s interpretations of Rasputin) and complete a VENN diagram as their starter activity to introduce the idea that there are very different views of Rasputin. They then work through a detailed set of notes before rifling through a 50+ piece card sort to identify arguments in favour of him being a Mad Monk or indeed a Holy Man. Students use this information to complete a written task (report for the Okhrana) using the criteria-driven assessment template provided. In the plenary students look through five different images of Rasputin and are invited to shout out their thoughts as the squares are taken away to reveal the picture.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope your students get as much out of this fully-resourced lesson as much as mine do.
In this lesson’s starter activity students are introduced to some of the weird ideas that existed before Marco Polo’s travels (such as headless men and women with single giant feet) and there are graduated learning outcomes provided (all of you will/some of you will/most of you will). Students are then provided with background information about Marco Polo’s voyage and are given a list of key events on slide 14. The main activity is that students are asked to use this information to create an Instagram style storyboard to narrow this down to the ten key events of his life (examples are given). The lesson concludes with a Dingbats plenary designed to get students to shout out some key words relating to Marco Polo’s voyage.
I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine and thanks for your interest. Please be aware this lesson is pitched at high ability secondary aged students (11+). I hope your students enjoy it as much as mine do (I teach in China so this is always an extremely popular lesson with my students!) and please let me know if you have any questions.
In this lesson students begin with a starter activity which reveals Marco Polo believed in some odd things, including men with dogs’ heads! From here they work through some background information including the views of historian Dr. Frances Woods who believes Marco Polo never really made it to China after all. In the main activity students sort evidence from a card sort into two columns, things that suggest he did go to China (the accuracy of his descriptions of things like currency for example) and evidence that suggests he did not actually visit China (his book was ghost written and he makes no mention of things like chopsticks or the Great Wall etc.) The lesson concludes with a plenary where students vote on their beliefs.
It is a great lesson designed to get students thinking and can be taught as part of an Ancient China/Mongol Empire unit or as a stand-alone lesson.
Please note this lesson has been pitched towards high achieving secondary aged students. Please do ask if you have any questions and I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine always do.
In this lesson students begin with a quick starter activity to see how many Rolls-Royce owning celebrities they can identify - they’re usually rather surprised to see that Lenin is one of these! The lesson has learning objectives which are graduated (all of you/most of you/some of you) and the class then work through a very detailed set of background information/notes focused on Lenin’s big promises of peace, land, and bread. The main activity is then for students to collate information on how well he achieved his aims in these three areas by creating a ‘school report card’ on him. A completed example is also included. The lesson then concludes with a simple voting plenary which asks students to answer the lesson’s question and to support it with evidence (ie did he achieve his promises of peace, land and bread).
This lesson is aimed at high achieving secondary students. Please do ask if you have any questions and thanks for popping by. I hope your students get as much out of this activity as mine do.
This is a one-page Power point slide (editable) which can be set as a project-based assessment on consequences of the Romans. Students are given clear criteria (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery) and a set task with a list of key words which can help them. The slide also has a section to show students how long they have to work on this assessed piece of work.
Please note: this assessment task can very easily be edited for any assessed piece of work focusing on the second order concept of consequence and works especially well with my lesson resource on what the Romans gave to us which can be found here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/how-civilised-were-the-romans-23-page-full-lesson-notes-project-pack-11920978
Thanks for your interest in this and I hope it helps you ! Best wishes, Daniel
Please note this assessment is designed for Secondary aged Students.
This is a one-page Power point slide (editable) which can be set as a project-based assessment for the second order concept of change and continuity (this one about castles). Students are given clear criteria (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery) and a set task with a list of key words which can help them. The slide also has a section to show students how long they have to work on this assessed piece of work.
Please note: this assessment task can very easily be edited for any assessed piece of work focusing on the second order concept of change & continuity and works especially well with my lesson resource on how and why castle design changed across time which can be found here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/how-and-why-did-castles-change-6-page-full-lesson-notes-worksheet-project-12016455
Thanks for your interest in this and I hope it helps you ! Best wishes, Daniel
In this lesson students tackle the question ‘what were the causes of the February revolution in 1917?’ and complete an assessed piece of work.
The lesson begins with a starter activity (short movie clip with comprehension questions to introduce the question). The class then explore some background notes and a range of long and short term reasons on the PPT provided. From this the class digest this information into their own protest boards and these are then compiled by the teacher and either printed or shared digitally so the class can create their own personalised storyboard. After this students are given as assessment rubric (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery is the graduated criteria) in order to help them write a piece of extended written work to the question. The lesson concludes with a quick odd one out plenary.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this lesson, which is pitched towards high achieving secondary students.
I give my students a learning journey sheet for each topic covered for Core Content B: International Relations since 1919 and also the B and C Depth Studies on Germany 1918-45 and Russia 1905-41. These come as PPT and are easily editable but ensure students constantly know where on there learning journey they are. Each separate journey includes inquiry questions, lesson headings, assessment information, and tips on how to challenge oneself further.
I hope they are of use to you and please do email me if you have any questions about this resource.
Please note: To use this lesson you need to have a copy of the 1998 animated Disney movie Mulan.
This is a great lesson in which students are given graduated learning objectives (some of you will / most of you will / and all of you will) in order to help them answer the essential question 'what can we learn about Ancient China from the Disney movie Mulan?".
The lesson begins with a starter activity to engage your students in which they are invited to guess the odd one out from a group of Disney characters (the answer is Mulan - because she has killed whereas the others, Bambi’s mother et al, had been killed. This leads them into the lesson nicely and the idea that the ballad of Hua Mulan is no ordinary ‘Disney Princess.’
The class then work through 45 different evidence cards and arrange these into things they can learn from the movie (ie accurate things like the use of rickshaws and only the Emperor being allowed to wear yellow etc) as well as movie mistakes and things which are inaccurate (such as Mulan being allowed to hug the Emperor and the way she inserts her chopsticks vertically into her rice etc). There are two versions of this card sort, one for students who like a challenge and a differentiated version for students who need a more straightforward task. Students can also divide them using the labels given (info relating to women, family, rule and government, culture, society, military etc.
Students then watch the movie and tick off those they spot (a nice end of term type activity - but not simply ‘watching a movie for the sake of it’!).
From this the class then complete a movie review exercise using the template given before attempting a plenary in which they vote with their feet to establish how many stars (1-5) they would rate the movie for historical authenticity (ie they now answer the essential question). I have also included a final slide which is an assessment rubric should you wish to turn this series of lessons into a formal testing point.
I teach this to high achieving high school students as part of a scheme of learning about Ancient China and I hope your students get as much out of it as mine always do.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask and thanks again for your interest in this lesson, which is in PPT form but which does need the buyer to have purchased a copy of the 1998 animated movie (not the 2020 version.)
My IB students always do really well in their exams, especially on Paper 3 (Higher Level). One of the main reasons for this is the detailed and focused set of revision menus I give them to help them prepare for exam success. Now you can have them too.
Of all of my resources these revision menus are my must-haves!
I hope they can be of much use to your students as they are to mine. If you enjoyed this resource please leaf through my collection of other revision menus and resources.
This pack focuses on Russia from c. 1953-1991 and includes revision content for the following topics:
How successful was Khrushchev’s rule?
Was the USSR stagnant under Brezhnev?
Was Gorbachev the “gravedigger of Communism?”
How successful was the rule of Boris Yeltsin, 1991-1999?
This lesson has clearly defined learning objectives and a starter activity which asks students to consider two very different historian’s perspectives on the reign of Alexander II. The 56-slide PowerPoint then provides very detailed information on the reforms Alexander put in place including the Emancipation Statute of 1861 before giving students a task of creating a mind map showing the positive and negative aspects of the reforms. There is a two part plenary - a fun DingBats exercise which goes over some of the key vocabulary - and a voting exercise based on the starter and main activity.
This lesson is pitched at high-achieving post-16 students and has been created by a UK teacher so is in English rather than American English.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and I hope this lesson helps you deliver this fascinating topic!
Have a terrific day, Daniel
This lesson explores how reactionary Alexander III was. Lesson objectives are differentiated and very clear and there is an interesting starter activity (about the ‘hippo’ statue of Alexander in St. Petersburg). The 52 page PPT proceeds to discuss the various changes Alexander made to Russia (economy, society, politics and opposition, Russification) and the class then have a two part main task. One is to create a speech as a particular character, and the second is to plot this on a graph to show which groups were repressed, like Jews, Poles, Zemstvos etc and which were doing well like the black clergy and Pobodonostev etc. The lesson concludes with a plenary in the form of ‘Have I Got News For You’ where students test their knowledge retrieval of what they have learned.
The lesson also comes with a set of ready-made student notes.
I hope you enjoy this lesson as much as my students do. It has been designed for high achieving post-16 students and is written in English, not US- English.
Please let me know if you have any questions and thanks so much for your interest in this lesson.
Have a great day fellow teachers!! Daniel
This book features 11 high scoring IB essays for the Paper 3 topic Imperial Russia, revolution, and the establishment of the USSR 1855-1924.
Teachers – this book is for you if you have high-performing students asking what a good one looks like (WAGOLL). Set an essay and staple the corresponding exemplar to your students’ effort for instant assessment for learning. Included are over 70 annotations by an experienced IB examiner offering tips and tricks to improve your students’ Paper 3 technique. Don’t just tell them what to do, show them.
Students - this book features high-performance essays for popular IB examination questions from real past papers. You’ll learn great essay mechanics and clever ways to dazzle the examiners. Learn how to apply Q SPEND, write an introduction using the DCO technique, and use fancy words like panegyric, quixotic, potentate and more to make your essays stand out from the rest. What is ‘snowballing’ and how is an essay like a Grand Prix? Look at real examples of how to evaluate perspectives effectively. Discover how topic sentences can help you and how anecdotal evidence can add colour to your response. Are you guilty of post hoc ergo propter hoc? How can you ensure you are more conceptual and when exactly should you challenge the premise of a question? If you are a student achieving Level 6 but want to reach for the very top grade in IB History this book is for you.
Parents - this book will help you support your child to think critically and to produce deluxe essays.
Essays include:
To what extent do you agree that Alexander II was the Tsar Liberator? (May 2021)
“Alexander III was a political reactionary, but an economic moderniser.” To what extent do you agree with this statement? (November 2013)
How significant were the weaknesses of Russia by the end of the Nineteenth Century? (May 2008)
Discuss the causes of the 1905 Revolution in Russia. (November 2018)
How effectively did Nicholas II respond to the 1905 Revolution? (November 2005)
Why did Russia lose the First World War? (May 2003)
Discuss the reasons for the final crisis of autocracy in February/March 1917. (November 2019)
How effectively did the Provisional Government rule Russia in 1917? (November 2017)
Evaluate the reasons for the overthrow of the Provisional Government in October/November 1917. (May 2021)
Why did the Reds win the Russian Civil War, 1918-21? (November 2001)
“The Bolshevik state under Lenin between 1918 and 1924 was a ruthless dictatorship, caring little for the Russian people.” To what extent do you agree with this statement? (November 2008)
Daniel Guiney is a highly experienced IB teacher, examiner and assessment author. He has led highly successful History departments in the UK as well as Singapore, Egypt, and China.
This fully resourced lesson begins with two starter activities designed to introduce the topic. First students watch a short video clip about the first McDonalds in Pushkin Square and are asked to guess the price of a Big Mac in four countries in the early 1990s. Russia is by far the most expensive and this leads to a question of why. They then watch a second video clip which shows some of Yeltsin’s eccentricities and they are invited to offer three adjectives. Students then divide a page into four and there is detailed information for the teacher to run through describing economic successes/failures and political successes/failures. An overall crib sheet to summarise is provided also. The lesson concludes with two plenaries designed to test subject knowledge. A fun dingbats game focusing on some of the key words (shock therapy, Chicago school, depression etc) and a fill in the blanks Have I Got News for You style exercise. It is a PowerPoint with 75 slides.
I hope your students get as much from mine from this resource. If you have any questions please ask away and I wish you a wonderful day. This resource is written in English and is pitched at high achieving IB / A Level students.
In this 21-page PPT students are introduced to the events of 1066 with a short video activity. Lesson objectives are clear and graduated and there is detailed information about the Tapestry which runs through some key moments, including in note form. The main activity asks students to sequences the events in order by matching the heads and tails of the sentences. It also includes extension questions for more able students. The lesson concludes by asking students to evaluate which level they achieved in the lesson objectives.
I hope your students get as much from this lesson as mine do. It has been pitched to 11 year old students in mainstream settings.