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.
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.
As a child growing up during the Gulf Wars and someone who has worked in the Middle East I am extremely proud of this lesson. Download this and you will find an extremely detailed set of notes along with a starter and plenary activity to bring this topic to life.
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
This lesson will really get your students to engage with evidence handling and to think like Historians. I am confident that the level of detail and precision in my resources is much stronger than you will find elsewhere (because of the amount of pride I take in my own historical research). During this series of activities students are introduced to John through singing along to the lyrics of a Disney song in the PPT. They then read through background information before siphoning through 31 detailed factor led and differentiated evidence cards about King John’s life ranging from his military defeats in France through to his love of bad wine and fondness for chewing his nails. Students place these two columns, positive and negative qualities and choose which cards are most significant and which to discard. The lesson concludes with a PPT asking students to vote on a report that John was the ‘worst Briton’ ever. I hope you enjoy this lesson as much as my students do! It is an excellent lesson in helping students comb through evidence to form historical interpretations.
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.
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.
I really enjoy teaching this lesson but it makes a content-heavy subject very easily understood. Students begin by breaking down a source using the OPVL method (origin, purpose, value, limitations) before proceeding to work through an extremely detailed set of notes. The class then use this information to create their own cults of personality before attempting a mix and match memory card game to test their comprehension. The lesson concludes with an exit ticket plenary.
I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine do.
My students love this activity. 120+ questions based on the following categories:
Rise to Power
Purges & Show Trials
Cult of Personality
WWII
Five Year Plans
Collectivisation
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. Allow students to use Ipads or Internet devices to research answers depending on their level of subject knowledge. At IB/A Level I expect students to answer unaided but at GCSE/IGCSE and below I use this activity as a research lesson and allow them to research responses.
I hope your classes enjoy this activity as much as classes always do! Its one of my favourite revision activities.
My students love this lesson. They begin with an odd one out activity designed to get them thinking about Stalin as the ‘man of steel’ before working their way through detailed notes. They then proceed to take part in a tale of the tape activity where they identify Stalin’s strengths and Trotsky’s mistakes/weaknesses. Following this students complete a piece of structured piece of writing before completing a plenary exercise in which they create a pentagonal plan of reasons which address the Key Question.
I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine do.
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.
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.
My students love this activity. 180+ questions based on the following categories:
The Qing Dynasty
Warlords
Mao’s rise to power
The Great Leap Forward
The Cultural Revolution
Daily Life
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.
My students love this activity. 125+ questions based on the following categories:
Early problems 1919-23
Golden years 1923-29
Rise of the Nazis 1929-33
Terror 1933-45
Propaganda 1919-45
Life in Nazi Germany 1933-45
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! The questions are based around the notes from my lessons so should stretch most students but if you require a differentiated version you can allow students a fixed time to research responses on the internet as they play.
In this lesson students work through a comprehensive set of notes before attempting a Tarsia card sort activity to consolidate knowledge acquired. The lesson concludes with a game of Nazism Guess Who whereby students ask only questions which require a yes/no response (they can use the internet to help respond). Please note prior to purchase this game works best if you already have a board upon which you can stick the pictures!
I hope your students find this lesson on Widerstand as useful as mine always do.
This is one of my most important lessons because not only is the content very precise but it refines student’s ability to consider significance as an historical concept. The lesson begins with a starter activity which invites students to consider the basest aspects of Nazism and then leads into a detailed set of notes. The class then complete a ‘clever cross’ activity where they measure who gained the most and in which they complete a numerical exercise. The lesson concludes with a powerful plenary in which students are introduced to Anthony Partington’s criteria for measuring historical significance and this is linked directly back to the Key Question. I hope your students gain as much from this skills and content based lesson as mine do.
This is a powerful lesson which really gives students pause for thought. The class start with a what’s behind the squares activity which reveals a female Soviet sniper and which is designed to stimulate discussion about the nature of war. The class then read through an incredibly detailed set of notes before beginning a design-a-memorial task for which they are expected to include precise historical detail. The lesson concludes with a powerful piece of source analysis which invites further informed comment on the nature of fighting on the Eastern Front.
I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine do.
In this lesson students explore how Hitler consolidate power between 1933-34. The class begin with a mix and match starter to test subject knowledge before working their way through the notes. They then complete a playdoh storyboard to consolidate their learning (this can be done as a simply drawn storyboard if the teacher prefers). The lesson finishes with a back to back plenary in which students are awarded points for guessing their partners key words (there are given words they are not allowed to use). In this lesson students explore a high level of content in an engaging and active manner designed to embed subject knowledge in long-term memory.
In this lesson students begin to explore the concept of totalitarianism by a class discussion of photographs of a much-loved Hitler in the starter activity. This the leads to students accessing a detailed set of notes before beginning a mind map exercise in which the class explore the role of propaganda, economics, crushing of opposition and use of terror. Students conclude this lesson by participating in a Connect 4 style plenary to measure subject knowledge.
I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine do.