A comprehensive fully resourced lesson. Students begin with a ‘what’s behind the squares?’ starter PPT which gets them to think about the brutality of the regime prior to the May 4th Movement. The class then work through a detailed set of notes before taking on the challenge of creating a rap-style confrontation between Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao (to help with this there are modelled responses and a crib sheet of key information on both). If students prefer they can of course also replace the rap with letter writing. The lesson concludes with a formative assessment PPT which tests students subject knowledge acquired in the lesson in which they decide if a piece of information relates to the GMD or the CCP. I love this lesson because it makes tracking student progress very clear. I hope you enjoy it.

In this lesson students begin by exploring Maoist propaganda of a source using the OPVL technique (origin, purpose, value and limitations) before moving on to work through a set of notes about the Great Leap Forward and the Five Year Plans. Students are then given a job application activity where they need to apply for one of two jobs using the information provided. The lesson concludes with a game of bingo to test understanding of all the key words (emboldened in the notes). My students love this topic and I created this resources whilst teaching History in China so they mean a lot to me. I hope you will find them just as useful in your own teaching.

In this lesson the class begin by playing a game where they are given a series of statements and need to vote with their feet to decide if they are true or false. Once incorrect they return to their seats and the winner is crowned as the last person standing. (This starter is based on the Great Helmsman goes swimming in order to introduce concepts of power and virility in Maoist China.). The class then work through detailed notes about different groups in society and are given a movie making activity. The lessons concludes with a great plenary PPT in which students are given a series of caption competitions and need to try to use some of the knowledge they have accrued thus far. There are examples given. My students love this topic and I planned these resources during my time teaching in Shanghai so they really mean a lot to me and my students. I hope you can get just as much use from them.

A 22-page pack of over 100 great ideas for the History teacher looking to improve his or her pedagogy. I use this within my team to shake up our teaching and revitalize old schemes of work. All of the activities are easy to implement and very transferable across topics. The pack can also be used as a great CPD tool for staff training. I’ve compiled these ideas over a 20 year teaching career and am very proud to share them with other education professionals. Daniel Guiney

My students love this activity. 160+ questions based on the following categories: USA & her allies Soviet leaders The People Wars Words & Phrases Statistics It takes a little while to cut out the cards and the board and works best once laminated but your students will love this revision activity. The questions are designed to boost subject knowledge and focus on precise historical detail which in turn helps student examination performance. I hope your classes enjoy this activity as much as my IGCSE and IB classes always do! You can watch a game in action with this URL here - https://youtu.be/i8TtkQZs3cU

These two sided front sheets look great when attached to student work. Moreover, they save teacher time and increase the level of precise feedback received by students. They have been designed specifically for the IB History course. I hope your students find them as useful as mine do.

A simple but very effective sheet which I pieced together to help my students improve their written work for IB Papers 2 and 3. It really does help and I have found the number of students achieving Levels 6 and 7 has increased in my classes since I began using this approach. I hope you find this useful and feel free to check out hundreds of other resources for History teachers here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/danguiney

This is a great lesson which encourages students to hone their historical skill of interpretation. Students begin by suggesting which of the historical characters are the ‘odd one out’ and this leads to a discussion about why so many of them were assassinated. From here we explore a detailed set of notes about those who opposed the New Deal and students complete the structured journalist activity to consolidate their learning. Students complete the lesson by reviewing some historiography and placing their argument within this. My students always make excellent progress in this lesson and I hope your students enjoy it just as much.

My students always feel exam-ready thanks to this lesson. The class begin with a source analysis starter in which they have to reconstruct a source from a jigsaw. This allows for great discussion about what is in the foreground/background etc. The class then work through a set of very detailed notes on the First and Second New Deals before creating an emoji storyboard to explain it in order to show comprehension. Finally a bingo plenary allows for testing of comprehension. I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine do.

This lesson is crucial to an understanding of the USA in the 1920s. Students begin by exploring how First World War propaganda impacted on marketing techniques with a detailed PPT before progressing to a very detailed set of notes. From this students complete a worksheet designed to explore the significance of various 1920s inventions. The lesson concludes with a Dingbats-style plenary to test comprehension. My class always make exceptional progress in this lesson and I hope yours find it just as useful.

This is a great full lesson. Students begin with a starter activity which teaches them the basic steps to the Charleston before progressing through a very detailed and comprehensive set of notes covering the changes in the period in music, women, sports, architecture, religion, leisure and cinema. Students are then allocated a character card (flapper, housewife, young black American, Italian immigrant, gangster, businessman, Klansman, farmer) and complete a scaffolded worksheet explaining how there character would feel about the changes. They are then paired together to hold a discussion with another character in a meaningful way in order to reveal the different attitudes in the period. My students love this topic and I really hope yours do as well.

This is one of my favourite lessons. Students read through a very detailed set of notes focusing on the roles of Gorbachev, Reagan, economics, Solidarity and people power. Students then test their understanding of their newly acquired knowledge through a game of Jenga (attach the cards to a block - students place them into factors using the colour coordinated bricks. This activity can also be done as a more traditional card sort). Students then complete the lesson with a word search to promote key terms and literacy. I really hope your students enjoy this as much as mine do. It is pitched at very able 16-18 year old students.

This is one of my most detailed IB lessons. Students are introduced to the topic with a hard hitting starter (please use with discretion) to introduce them to the idea of chemical weapons and to make links over time. They then read through the extremely detailed information pack before completing a range of source activities designed to help them with IB Paper 1 source handling skills. Students then test subject knowledge with the charade cards provided and conclude with a plenary PPT. I hope your students get as much from this lesson as mine always do.

This is one of my students’ absolute favourite lessons. They are given the starter activity ‘sellotape challenge’ and are asked to design a castle defence on their desks. Following this students then proceed to work through an incredibly detailed set of notes which outline the key features and changes as well as reasons for this. The cloze / scaffolded activity then tests and measures comprehension. I really hope your students gain as much from these activities as I know mine always do. These activities are fantastic for setting up a ‘build a castle competition’ - the kind of showcase event that brings great kudos and energy to a History Department!

In this lesson students work through a ‘what’s behind the squares’ starter activity which introduces them to the horrors of the First World War. They then proceed to work through the detailed set of notes and use this knowledge in the main activiation tasks (questions to test comprehension and a mind-map activity) before testing their chronological understanding of the notes in the ‘play your cards right’ plenary. My students always love this lesson and it is a great introduction to life in 1920s USA. I’m confident your students will love it too.

This is the most detailed lesson pack on TES in terms of prohibition and gangsterism. Purchasing this will give you an exceptionally detailed set of notes and three different activities for students to engage with. I have also included PowerPoint starter and plenary activities so the entire lesson is here for you. This is a gripping topic which my students always love and I hope your classes enjoy it just as much!

In this lesson students read through incredibly detailed notes designed to really boost their subject knowledge and understanding of factors which caused Franco’s nationalists to prevail in the Spanish Civil War. Students then complete a mix and match dominoes activity to test their comprehension before completing the lesson with a ‘find someone who’ activity which involves them interviewing classmates to complete differentiated tasks. This lesson is pitched at very able students and my classes always find these notes and approach an excellent way to grasp the topic. I hope this lesson can be of use to you and if so please feel free to browse through my other resources in my shop. Best wishes, Daniel

In this lesson students work through fantastically detailed notes before completing a range of written activities and comprehension questions. This lesson also features a ‘play your cards right’ style plenary to check chronological understanding.

I use this as an introduction to Historical skills for my 7th graders and it works really well. Students are given background knowledge and then handed the 13 sources in order. As they receive them they discuss what can be inferred from each piece of evidence and complete the history mystery grid. This is a great lesson designed to get students thinking and handling evidence. I hope your students enjoy it as much as mine do! It also works really well as a transition lesson for students coming to high school and perhaps studying History as a specialist discipline for the first time. This activity sets students up really well for a piece of follow up Historical writing.