I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is decide how much of a threat the Lovell and Stafford rebellions were.
Students are given the information about the two rebellions and then have to categorise them into causes, consequences and events.
There is an odd one out activity included to check understanding where students have to justify the correct and incorrect answers.
The plenary requires the challenge and thinking of but, because and so.
Students have to opportunity to plan and write an essay on how much of a threat to Henry the rebellions were. A planning sheet, markscheme and help is given if required.
There is an enquiry question posed and revisited to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is judge how Protestant England became under the Edwardian Reformation.
There is also a distinction made with the Protestant views of Edward and the contrast between the Edwardian Reformation under Somerset and Northumberland.
Students begin the lesson by studying an overview of the main changes during the Edwardian Reformation and analysing the Protestant views of Edward. They learn the distinct religious differences between the rule of the two Dukes before their evaluate how Protestant the country had become under both.
There is some guidance on some learning trouble spots concerning the spread of Protestantism within the country and therefore how hard it is to judge and answer this question.
There are some additional tasks if needed concerning the major players in the Reformation under Edward VI as well as some source analysis and details on the significance of the Chantries Act.
There is some exam practice to complete at the end, using sources with help, prompts and a markscheme is required.
There is an enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
This key word literacy display has been designed to be used on classroom walls (or on display boards outside) when introducing a new History topic to the students, such as the Cold War.
It is an easy resource to print and will hopefully save an incredible amount of time and effort when incorporating literacy into a new or existing scheme of work.
The slides can also be laminated and used as mobiles hanging from the ceiling or used as part of an informative display.
The slides cover the following words and their definitions:
Agent Orange, Arms Race, Bay of Pigs, Berlin Airlift, Berlin Wall, Cold War, communism, containment, Cuba, Cuban Missile Crisis, East and West Germany, exclusion zone, Fidel Castro, ideology, iron curtain, Marshall Plan, McCarthyism, NATO, Nikita Khrushchev, President Kennedy, red scare, soviet bloc, Soviet Union, Superpower, trade embargo, Truman Doctrine, U2, Warsaw Pact, zones of occupation
The slides come in PowerPoint format so they are easy to print, change and adapt.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution.
Students are introduced to the reasons why a constitution was introduced and a new Republic set up. They then have to analyse the details of the constitution, assessing its strengths and weaknesses. This also includes deciding the winners and losers and the issues still facing Germany as a consequence.
There is a focus on some key details such as Article 48 and the rule by Presidental decree as well as the survival of some undemocratic institutions.
There is some exam practice to complete if required, complete with hints and tips and a generic markscheme included.
The plenary concludes with a find and fix activity,
There is a enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to examine the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and assess the German reaction to it.
Students begin by completing a missing word task to gauge the German ‘acceptance’ of the Armistice.
They learn about Wilson’s 14 points and in groups put themselves into the shoes of the Big Three to decide how to punish Germany, with prompts given for help.
Students also examine and analyse the terms of the Treaty and decide where German pride, economic and military power were challenged. They then have to determine how justified German complaints were against the Treaty and whether they were being too unrealistic.
This is followed up by some exam question practice, complete with a detailed markscheme.
The plenary asks them to think of answers for because, but and so questions to challenge thinking.
There is a enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to assess the state of the Republic by 1924 as a consequences of risings from the left and right.
As there is a lot of information in the lesson, students are given an overview of the learning in the lesson and what is covered.
Students begin by rating how serious six political uprisings were and be able to justify their choices.
They also have to summarise the reason why coalition governments made the Republic so weak, using information provided.
Case studies also focus on the Spartacist Uprising, the Munich Beer Hall Putsch and political assassinations.
This will enable students to tackle a source based question on the political instability of the Weimar Republic between 1919-24.
The lesson comes complete with a generic marksheme and question planning sheet.
The plenary is a find and fix task, recapping on learning from the lesson.
There is a enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to question whether the ‘new woman’ in the Weimar Republic was no more than a myth.
The beginning of the lesson focuses on social welfare and who was entitled to what at the end of the war. However, students learn how many people felt cheated by the system and assess why so many different groups felt aggrieved.
In the second part of the lesson, students ascertain who was classed as the new woman in Weimar Germany. They also evaluate whether the new freedoms afforded to women were in fact inconsequential in areas such as politics, employment and sexual freedom.
Case studies for four women are scrutinised before students complete some exam practice, with help given if required.
The plenary requires students to compete some fragmented sentences.
There is a enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA GCE A Level 1C, The Tudors: England 1485-1603
This 59 page Revision Guide is broken down into 5 main sections: Henry VII, Henry VII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
This Revision Guide includes practice exam questions on both types and gives examples and tips on how to answer each.
I have been inspired to write this Guide by my students after they had complained about the difficulty of accessing and understanding the content provided by other Revision Guides and resources, including the AQA Democracy and Nazism course too.
The Guide is therefore clear, concise and content driven. It will enable all learners to achieve the higher grades with clear guidance on how to achieve them.
The information is also broken down into an easy to use format to aid the students. The Guide can be used for revision, interleaving, home learning as well as class teaching.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and can be edited and changed to suit, It comes in both Word and PDF format.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated. This Guide also compliments the lessons I have put on TES for the delivery of the whole course.
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. My email address can be found by visiting my shop at TES: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/PilgrimHistory
This lesson aims to question the qualities of William the Conqueror as the new leader in Norman England.
Students will learn and discover that to many of the English, he was a foreigner and a usurper, who spoke French and only favoured his friends.
Therefore this lesson focuses on his policies towards those who opposed his rule and the ‘harrying of the north.’
Students have to analyse the threat level posed by many of these rebels (by colour coding thermometers next to each rebellion) as well as evaluating how much control he was able to exert over them, by making judgements using a control ‘o’ meter.
There are accompanying worksheets and video links to reinforce the learning.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
I have created these set of resources for the History Key Stage 3 National Curriculum ‘challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day’.
These lessons are also useful if you are studying the Cold War at GCSE, where the students will gain an invaluable insight into the key terms, ideologies, events and people post 1945.
The central question throughout these eleven lessons is to find out why civilians feared for their lives during the Cold War. They are closely linked together and students continually plot their ideas around the key question, which can be referred back to each lesson (either dated or colour coded) to show progress throughout this unit of work.
Pupils will learn the significance and impact of the arms race on the wider world and be able to see the causes and consequences of the Berlin blockade and airlift finally culminating in the building of the Berlin Wall.
They will learn key historical terms such as containment, buffer zones, mutually assured destruction and the domino theory as well as understand the differences between the capitalist and communist ideologies.
They will be given sources to analyse such as the evidence from the moon landings in 1969 and make historical inferences from them as to whether they are fact or fiction.
Furthermore they will be able to write structured accounts and narratives on the Vietnam war as to whether US soldiers committed war crimes by killing innocent civilians or how much of a threat is North Korea to world peace?
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations and ideas used by current history teachers on twitter.
The lessons are fully adaptable in PowerPoint and can be changed to suit. I have included a couple of free lessons to give an idea of what is being offered.
I strongly recommend using GCSE style questions from your chosen exam board and markschemes to assess the pupils at the end of this unit, which are always available on line.
The 11 lessons are broken down into the following:
L1 The defeat of Germany in 1945 (free lesson)
L2 Introduction to the Cold War
L3 The Arms Race
L4 The Berlin Blockade and Berlin Airlift
L5 The Berlin Wall
L6 The Korean War
L7 The Cuban Missile Crisis
L8 Man on the Moon
L9 The Vietnam War
L10 Cold War sports
L11 Mikhail Gorbachev
(+ Key word History display)
Any reviews would be greatly appreciated.
The American West, c1835-c1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
The aim of this lesson to analyse the work of the cowboys on the Long Drives and on Cattle Ranches of the American Plains.
At the start, some myths are dispelled about cowboys, many of which can be attributed to Hollywood films and John Wayne.
Students learn the importance of the Long Drives and the roles the cowboys played in bring the cattle to their final destination, including all the hazards on the way.
They also study the life on the ranches and the further difficulties endured by the cowboys in their work.
Students are thus prepared to answer a GCSE exam practice question on the importance of cowboys to the cattle industry worth 8 marks, with help given if required.
The plenary challenges students to decide if the statements can be categorised to the Ranches or the Long Drive.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some recall retrieval practice is also included.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
This lesson aims to assess the roles of the two leaders of the Mormons; Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and examine the story of the Mormon migration West to Salt Lake City.
Students learn the teachings of the Mormons and how isolationist the movement became in the face of so much hostility and persecution, which led to the westward expansion of the Mormons…
Students have a choice of tasks using key questions or a story board to plot the life of Young and then annotate some text to analyse the leadership qualities of Brigham Young.
They also complete a prioritisation activity as well as a planning thinking quilt of Brigham Young to ascertain his successful migration west.
There is some GCSE exam question practice on the ‘importance’ question, with help if required and a noughts and crosses quiz at the end to reinforce the learning of the lesson.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice is also included.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format is there is a wish to adapt or change.
The Holocaust
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the reasons why Josef Mengele escaped justice for the part he played in the Holocaust.
I have been inspired to write this lesson after reading an article by Gerald Posner who spent three decades trying to track him down.
The story makes fascinating reading; but was Mengele a brilliant mastermind at escape and evasion tactics or was it pure incompetence on the part of the West German authorities and a lack of will from the Western governments to track and find him?
Students are given the context to Josef Mengele, his background and a very brief description of the war crimes he committed at Auschwitz, without going into specific details.
They complete a missing word activity, before analysing the fake passport he used to flee to South America.
The main task is to judge how believable his escape story really is, with some red herrings thrown in for good measure to get the students really thinking.
Some key differentiated questions, an extended writing piece, with some ‘believable’ words as well as a thinking quilt will give the students an accurate account of his double life.
There is also an excellent link to video footage of a documentary by Gerald Posner himself.
The resource comes in PowerPoint formats if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
AQA GCSE Britain: Health and the People c1000 to present
The aim of this lesson is to make the factor question (factors affecting the development of medicine such as war, individuals, science and technology, government, individual brilliance and chance) more accessible to students.
A question that we think is an easy one for them to answer in fact causes the students the most difficulty.
I find students begin to panic and forget everything they have learnt over the course; many answers become scrambled into a vague paragraph or into a few sentences on some individual’s stories.
This lesson can be delivered over two as there is quite a lot of information to get through.
A ‘model’ answer is given to them, only for it to be dissected and the ‘generalisations’ identified and highlighted.
Some key assessment tips and advice from the exam board to their markers is shared to show students how to create a model answer reaching the higher boundary grades.
Students can be properly assessed using recent specimen questions which come complete with an up to date mark scheme from the exam board and my own student friendly mark scheme to peer or self assess in class, where they are shown how they can improve.
Further activities include revision on how to categorise the factors and topics which could possible come up in forthcoming exams.
It is inevitable that this question will undoubtedly become more demanding and specific as the course embeds itself.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
The overarching aim of this and the subsequent bundle of eleven lessons is to question and explore how Elizabeth I tried to assert and establish her authority in the early years of her Elizabethan reign.
The lessons are therefore linked together to build up a picture of her difficulties in trying to overcome this.
This is the third lesson and attempts to clarify the problems Elizabeth I faced as a ruler in her first ten years; from being a female to the succession, foreign policy, Ireland, taxation and religion.
Students have to answer a variety of different questions from the start and engage in a thinking quilt to challenge them and link definitions to key words.
Students are given a chance to review her biggest problems either in a knockout tournament or using structured questions.
This will enable them to answer two of the exam question types; the ‘interpretation’ question and the ‘write an account’ question.
Two plenaries focus on retrieval practice and what the students have learnt in the lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
AQA GCSE Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This lesson is split into two parts. The first part looks at the various racial groups within Germany (Hitler;s enemies and scapegoats) who were targeted and excluded by the Nazis and the reasons behind this.
There is a case study of the Grefeneck Asylum where its inmates mysteriously disappeared; the students are given clues as to how to unravel the story about what happened there.
They subsequently learn of the T4 euthaniasia programme secretly enacted by the Nazis and the sheer scale and numbers involved.
The second part of the lesson focuses on anti-Semitism within Germany, the history and context behind it and how the Nazis used propaganda posters to get their vile message across.
Students have to analyse why the Jewish population was targeted and explain how this prejudice and discrimination manifested itself
There are some brilliant video links which explore these issues further and a plenary which attempts to change some student perceptions of Hitler’s own anti-Semitism and ideas of racial purity.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
AQA GCSE Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This lesson analyses the reasons why the SS executed Ernst Rohm and the leaders of the SA in the purge of 1934.
After a recap of the previous lesson, students start unpicking the events leading to the Night of the Long Knives.
Students are put into Hitler’s shoes; who should he choose to lead him forward in his new Third Reich - the Brownshirts or the Army?
The conclusions are never totally clear in favour of one or the other, making sure the students are challenged and have to think things through and justify their choices.
The events are also explained through a text mapping grid which the students also have to decipher as well as video evidence as Hitler eliminated Ernst Rohm and other rivals.
There is also a choice of two plenaries from Connect 4 to a talk like an historian quiz and some GCSE exam question practice to complete if required.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
This bundle is the first part in a series of lessons I have created for AQA GCSE Britain: Health and the People, c.1000-present.
I have taught this course for more than 20 years now and have again decided to completely overhaul my lessons to bring them up to date with the latest teaching and learning ideas I have picked up and with a focus on the new 9-1 GCSE.
Furthermore I have dispensed with learning objectives to focus on specific enquiry based questions which address the knowledge and skills required for the GCSE questions.
As well as focusing on GCSE exam practice questions, the lessons are all differentiated and are tailored to enable the students to achieve the highest grades.
The lessons will allow students to demonstrate (AO1) knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the period studied from the impact of Hippocrates and Galen on medieval medicine to the power and control of the Christian Church.
They will study (AO2) second-order concepts such as change and continuity in the development of ideas about disease and the causes and consequences of the Black Death and the Plague on Britain.
The analysis and evaluation of sources (AO3) are used in for example surgery whilst substantiated judgements are made (AO4) on the progression or regression of medicine from new ideas from the Islamic world as well as the Christian Church .
The lessons are as follows:
L1 An introduction to the course
L2 Hippocrates and Galen
L3 The influence of the Christian Church
L4 Islamic Medicine (free resource)
L5 Doctors and surgeons in the Middle Ages
L6 Public Health in the Medieval towns
L7 The Black Death and the Plague
The lessons are fully adaptable in PowerPoint and can be changed to suit.
Please note that setting a full mock examination in class after completing this unit is strongly recommended.
All the examination resources and markschemes are subject to copyright but can easily be found on the AQA website.
This bundle is the third part in a series of lessons I have created for AQA GCSE Britain: Health and the People, c.1000-present.
I have taught this course for more than 20 years now and have again decided to completely overhaul my lessons to bring them up to date with the latest teaching and learning ideas I have picked up and with a focus on the new 9-1 GCSE.
Furthermore I have dispensed with learning objectives to focus on specific enquiry based questions which address the knowledge and skills required for the GCSE questions.
As well as focusing on GCSE exam practice questions, the lessons are all differentiated and are tailored to enable the students to achieve the highest grades.
The lessons will allow students to demonstrate (AO1) knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the period studied from the brilliance of the surgical skills learnt during wars and conflict to the growth of the pharmaceutical companies such as Wellcome.
They will study (AO2) second-order concepts such as change and continuity in the development of ideas about disease and the causes and consequences for health care with the introduction of the NHS.
The analysis and evaluation of sources (AO3) are used in for example in the Factors Question whilst substantiated judgements are made (AO4) on the progression of medicine from twentieth century developments in sulphonamides and the discovery of Penicillin.
The lessons are as follows:
L16 The Liberal Reforms
L17 Medicine and War (free resource)
L18 The Pharmaceutical Companies
L19 Penicillin
L20 The NHS
L21 The Factors Question
The lessons are fully adaptable in PowerPoint and can be changed to suit.
Please note that setting an assessment in class after completing this unit is strongly recommended. All the examination resources and markschemes are subject to copyright but can easily be found on the AQA website.
AQA GCSE Conflict and Tension 1918-1945
This 28 page revision guide is tailored to the above AQA specification for GCSE. It is broken down into 3 main sections: Peace Keeping, the League of Nations and the Road to War.
This Revision Guide includes practice exam questions and gives examples on how to answer each. This revision guide will enable all learners to achieve the higher grades with clear guidance on how to achieve them. The questions target the four main questions in the exam from source analysis, chronology, cause and consequence, significance and evaluation.
The information is also broken down into an easy to use format to aid the students. The Guide can be used for revision, interleaving, home learning as well as class teaching. For home learning, each student taking GCSE History in my school has a copy assigned to them on the google drive and it is used frequently when using google classroom assignments, such as homework and revision for assessments.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and can be edited and changed to suit, It comes in both Word and PDF format.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated. Please email me for a free copy of any of my resources worth £3.00 if you do.
