This KS3 unit of work covers several lessons and I’ve generally been quite flexible and allowed classes who are particularly engaged with the topic and research to spend longer on it. The lessons build up the students’ knowledge and understanding of trench structure, purpose, conditions and warfare. The booklet ensures that all students know the key facts surrounding this topic with the Power Point leading students through all of the activities. A few different starter activities are included at the end of the Power Point which can be selected according to the length of time spent on the main activities. Having worked through the key facts and background, the students undertake more independent research. Support materials are included for weaker classes, such as research tables and a source booklet which covers all of the key areas. I have used a great variety of resources depending upon each class- textbooks, library lessons, Internet, videos etc. Once the research is complete, the students complete the Trench Diary assessment task which is levelled according to subject knowledge and understanding of cause/effect. A mark scheme is included. Support materials are also included in this pack, such as a plan outline for students who require a little more guidance and a writing frame for the less able.

This Key Stage 3 unit explores the causes of WW1 and then goes on to analyse the reasons why the German Schlieffen Plan failed, leading to trench warfare. It will take around two lessons to complete. The Power Point leads students through all of the activities. There are a number of very nice short video clips on the causes of WW1, including a great Horrible Histories clip (when available) but I particularly like the Blackadder clip attached. Be warned- the final punchline is “bollo**s” and I often censored this with a timely cough much to the annoyance of the class. The lessons start by contextualising Europe in 1914 with some map work and identification of alliance systems. We then identify and analyse the causes of WW1 using the passage provided. The following lesson, the students start by problem-solving Germany’s dilemma and proposing their own war plans- I’ve had some very interesting and intelligent responses to this, along with some quite frankly bizzare/amusing. After studying the Schlieffen Plan, students translate the actual events into a series of annotated maps before analysing the reasons for the plan’s failure and writing this up in an extended paragraph.

This KS3 lesson should take around two hours to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources included (although for the research stage the Power Point refers to school textbooks as one source of information and I’m obviously unable to include copies of pages I’d use. Wikipedia has a very detailed page on this topic and the link is included). Aims and Objectives: To know basic facts about a slave’s life and work. To extend this knowledge and understanding through group research and presentation. To be able to empathise with the psychological impact these conditions must have had upon the people effected, considering coping mechanisms. Activities include an inference starter using “The Sabbath among slaves” drawing which appears at first-glance to to be far less sinister than it actually is. Students then make further inferences with support from a range of images. They begin their research into mental/physical health, work and punishments using a ten minute video before breaking into groups of four to specialise in one area. The class collectively produce an assessment criteria for their poster presentations before researching and creating their posters. The following lesson, their poster presentations are peer assessed using their criteria and I use this as a competition. Finally, students add an entry to their ongoing slave diary about living and working conditions.

This KS3 lesson should take at least one hour to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources included. Aims and Objectives: To consider the problems which William faced immediately after the Battle of Hastings. To understand that he applied different methods to each of these problems. To empathise with people who lived through the Norman Conquest. Activities include a think, pair, share starter considering what William’s potential problems might be and how he may address them. His problems are then summarised as 1) Controlling population 2) Resistance in the north 3) Collecting taxes and tackled separately. An extended source is analysed to understand how the resistance in the north was handled. The nature of hierarchies is introduced via modern-day examples before students complete their own diagram of the feudal system using the structure and jumbled phrases. An SEN version is also included. Students consider who they would most/least like to have been. A five minute video is finally used to explain the Domesday Book.

This KS3 lesson should take around 2 hours to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources included. Aims and Objectives: To know the main features of a motte and bailey and stone keep castle. To understand how and why castle design changed over time. To weight up the advantages and disadvantages of each type of castle. To compare both types of castles, considering similarities and differences. Students compare the design of a motte and bailey castle to that of a stone keep, looking for areas of similarity and difference. These are recorded in table and venn diagram format. This then leads into an assessed piece of writing on continuity versus change in castle design. A mark scheme is included.

This KS3 lesson should take at least two hours to complete. The Power Point leads the students through all activities with accompanying resources. Aims and Objectives: To know the main events leading up to Becket’s murder. To have ideas about who was to blame and why? LESSON 1: Activities include a recap on the feudal system and a discussion on how the role of the Church could cause problems for the king. A whole class reading of the story with initial thoughts on blame. An analysis of Edward Grim’s first-hand account and source bias. A storyboard homework to consolidate the key events. LESSON 2: A starter which recaps the main events through matching pictures to sentences. A card sort where students group information into evidence that either Henry, Becket or the knights were to blame. A final write up with writing frame provided where students explain how each person/group might be to blame before reaching a conclusion.

Activities to develop the students’ understanding of conditions in industrial towns through source inference and analysis (cause and effect). Students then demonstrate their understanding through creating their own advisory poster to help people stay safe in a Victorian city.

IMPORTANT: Some of these activities refer to the textbook “Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History, Medicine through time, c1250-present” (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127378 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 3+ lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To learn about the context of the British sector of the Western Front and the theatre of war in Flanders and northern France. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying worksheets and resources. It also provides feedback/answers/advice at intervals which is rather useful when covering so much detailed content. Activities include a starter on source usefulness and enquiry areas, background event ordering, analysing diagrams of trench structure and photographs/written source illustrating problems with transport and communication. There is also an independent note-taking section on the key events following a worked example.

IMPORTANT: Some of these activities refer to the textbook “Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History, Medicine through time, c1250-present” (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127378 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit technically covers 3-4 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability-work rate. However, as this is the point in the course where I introduce the 8 mark source evaluation question and the follow-up question, it could easily take a lot longer if all of the practice opportunities are carried out in full. Aims and Objectives: To learn about the main medical problems, wounds and injuries that were faced on the Western Front and how they were dealt with. To learn how to answer the source evaluation exam question and the source follow-up question. The Power Point leads students through all of the activities with accompanying worksheets. It also provides regular feedback and answers which is useful with so much content being covered. Activities include source analysis video starter, independent note-taking, scenario diagnosis of case studies plenary, a developed analysis of Dulce et Decorum using video, a detailed introduction to the source questions with my technique for answering them (poster and handout to reinforce this), source evaluation work on gas attacks and problems with transport, follow-up source question and opportunities for peer assessment.

IMPORTANT: Many of these activities refer to the textbook “Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History, The American West, c1835-c1895” (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127309 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 4 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: Specification area: Conflict and tension in the American West, 1876-1895 To understand the extent of solutions to problems of law and order: sheriffs and marshals. The significance of Billy the Kid, OK Corral (1881), Wyatt Earp. To understand the range wars, including the Johnson County War of 1892. To understand the conflict with the Plains Indians: the Battle of the Little Big Horn, 1876 and its impact; the Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources. It also provides feedback/answers at intervals. Activities include group discussion on the causes of lawlessness analysis of Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp using summary written material, card sort on the Johnson County War, video Q&A on the Battle of Little Bighorn, timeline analysis of the battle, Wounded Knee Massacre storyboard and Facebook posts exercise on reaction.

This KS3 series of lessons investigate whether or not Field Marshal Haig deserves the nickname “The Butcher of the Somme” leading into a final source assessment. The Power Point leads students through all of the activities with accompanying student task booklet. Two short video clips are used to introduce the way in which Haig has been portrayed and the true nature of the Battle of the Somme. A simple cloze exercise outlines the key facts before a collection of sources are analysed to determine whether or not Haig does deserve to be known as “The Butcher”. This leads into a formal assessment where the students are asked to use the sources critically to produced a balanced written answer with a final judgment. A writing frame and mark scheme are included.

This lesson analyses the reasons why Churchill was such a great war leader. The starter asks students to consider a range of fabulous Churchill quotes and select their favourites and consider those which would be the most motivating in war time. Having established the popular view of Churchill, students then analyse factual information about the leader, categorising this into evidence that he both was and was not a great leader (the point being that he was not perfect). Students then listen to the famous “Fight them on the beaches” speech an annotate their own copy to appreciate the techniques at play. Using this knowledge, they then write their own motivational speech in the style of Churchill.

Two lessons which firstly consider why the US took the decision to drop the A-bomb and then whether they should have done it. The first lesson introduces Hiroshima and Nagasaki by considering a series of mystery images. Students then learn the key facts using sources and video footage. They then complete a source-based activity analysing possible reasons for dropping the bomb. There are three versions of this activity including a more detailed G&T version and an SEN colour-coding version. The second lesson evaluates whether the USA should have dropped the bomb by considering a range of arguments both for and against. This leads into a final hot-seating activity whereby a panel of representatives from the US government defend their actions against the critical journalists.

The two objectives of this lessons are to emphasise the extreme dangers involved in the D-Day landings but also to introduce KS3 students to the new type of source utility questions at KS4 (focus on Edexcel “How useful is… for an enquiry into…” but can also work more generically for source evaluation in general). The starter is a WW2 prior knowledge quiz which reveals panels of a mystery image for students to guess. This quiz may need to be adapted depending upon students’ prior knowledge but the questions are quite standard causes/events of WW2. Students then use a fantastic 3 minute video to answer who, what, why, where when? questions about the event. To gain the necessary contextual knowledge to effectively evaluate the sources, they read a passage an highlight “Dangers faced by soldiers”. There is then an introduction to a source evaluation technique we call COP (content, own knowledge and provenance). Students evaluate the usefulness of a first-hand account of a landing on Omaha. They then write up their evaluation using a writing frame if required (SEN support). As an extension, students can try to apply the COP technique to a completely fresh photograph source. Alternatively, this extension activity makes a good homework. In the plenary, students hear some extracts from a high-level answer and have to idenify them as either content, own knowledge or provenance.

The lessons starts by testing the students’ prior knowledge of the plague from general knowledge or previous work on the Black Death. They then link the “Ring a Ring o’ Roses” nursery rhyme to the plague. After going through some key knowledge, students label a diagram of a plague doctor and consider which parts of his costume might actually have protected him. They then answer some comprehension questions on Samuel Pepy’s diary extracts to gain a sense of life at the time. The main activity is to create a public information poster to help citizens of London stay safe using only the knowledge available at the time. For the plenary, students consider how this poster would be different if they could have used modern-day knowledge.

IMPORTANT: Some of these worksheets and activities refer to the textbook “Edexcel GCSE (9-1 History, Medicine through time, c1250-present” (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127378 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 2 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand the new approaches to prevention: the development and use of vaccinations. Case Study: Jenner The Power Point leads students through all activities with feedback and accompanying worksheets. These include a mystery image starter, storyboard and knowledge recall activity, analysis of reactions to and impact of the vaccine, cut, sort and stick on the development of vaccinations. The key assessment is a 12 mark explanatory question “Explain why there was rapid change in the prevention of smallpox after 1798.” This includes exam technique guidance and the opportunity for peer assessment.

IMPORTANT: Some of these worksheets refer to the textbook “Edexcel GCSE (9-1 History, Medicine through time, c1250-present” (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127378 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers at least one lesson, depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand the extent of change in care and treatment: the Public Health Act 1875. The Power Point leads students through all of the activities with accompanying worksheets and activities. These include a short video/recall starter giving an overview of changes, comprehension questions, card sorts and class discussion on impact.

IMPORTANT: Some of these activities refer to the textbook “Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History, Medicine through time, c1250-present” (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127378 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around one lesson depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To learn about the fight against lung cancer in the twenty-first century; diagnosis, treatment and government action. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying worksheets/resources. It also provides feedback and answers at intervals. Activities include paired and class discussion, individual research and note-taking and a card sort on government action with venn diagram.

IMPORTANT: Some of these worksheets refer to the textbook “Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History, Medicine through time, c1250-present” (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127378 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around one lesson depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To learn about Fleming, Florey and Chain’s development of penicillin. The Power Point leads students through all activities with an accompanying worksheet. It also provides answers/feedback at intervals. Activities include an introductory overview video clip with questions, analysis and colour-coding of reasons for development of Penicillin, a comparison of Fleming v. Florey and Chain and judgement upon their relative achievements and a thought-shower on continuing developments.