The Industrial Revolution The aim of this lesson is to introduce the new breed of Factory Owner in the Industrial Revolution What made Richard Arkwright such a success and how far did he change social and economic fabric of Britain forever? Students learn how he built up his business and the steps he took became a millionaire and questions how people at the time felt about this. Activities include completing a thinking quilt and a worksheet on the steps to his success with an explanation as to why, analysing video evidence as well as studying and evaluating text before making a conclusion at the end. 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.

The English Civil War This lesson aims to explore the problems Charles brought upon himself to cause the English Civil War. Students are given information which they have to analyse and decide how and why there were opposing views from Parliament and the King on how to run the country. The use of contemporary accounts and propaganda posters will challenge the more able as well. Students justify who in their opinion is to blame for the Civil War and demonstrate their learning at the end of the lesson using factor and function symbols. The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning. The resource includes suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

The English Civil War The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the devastating consequences that alleged witchcraft had on communities in Stuart England. Students will be posed questions such as: Why were the Stuarts so obsessed with witches and witchcraft? How and why did the Pendle witch trials cause so much historical notoriety and infamy? and How could you even recognise a witch and why should they be feared in the local community? These questions will be answered and explained in this lesson, which ultimately focuses on the Pendle witch trials and its results for English society as a whole, who soon lived in fear and terror for their lives. Activities include evidence collection, a true or false quiz, a literacy challenge as well as video analysis. The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning. The resource includes suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

World War II The aim of the lesson is to question how we should treat prisoners of war in Britain during World War 2. Students might be influenced initially in their thoughts by their prior knowledge of Nazi and Japanese treatment of captured prisoners. There is a discussion task with a number of scenarios which will allow the story to unravel of Italian and German prisoner experiences in Britain. Pathé news also has some excellent links to video footage of capture prisoners and the commentators emphasis on their good treatment and being given a square meal each day. A case study of Eden Camp in Yorkshire, site of a former prisoner of war camp, will enable students to analyse what happened there and if treatment was good, fair or bad. It is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning. The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

Cold War and the Olympics This lesson explores the link between the Cold War and sport. As with technology and space exploration, sport was an area where rival powers could prove or assert their dominance without going to war. Students compete a recall, retention and retrieval task on the previous Vietnam War lesson before undertaking a true or false quiz. They analyse and evaluate medal tally statistics from previous Olympics and make judgement about the anomalies in different years. They are given an account of the history of Olympic success and are challenged as to why it was so important to do well for your respective country. As with previous lessons they use the light bulb and key question to continue to annotate around as the fear of losing spurred both nations on to different extremes. No lesson on Cold War sports would be complete without refence to the Rocky film and the US propaganda machine is in full force as grit and determination to train is pitted against the use of drugs to cheat. Students can then determine which statement to agree with and use argument words to convince their peers. . The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated. I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.

Cold War This first lesson aims to set the scene of Europe from 1945 with the defeat of Germany. The first part of the lesson investigates Hitler’s death, as the students break down and summarise some text into headings before writing a narrative account of the events. The second part investigates the aims of the Big Three and what they agreed should happen to Germany and Berlin at the end of the War. Students scrutinise and decide what each of the leaders (Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill) might have said at Tehran and Yalta and complete a suspicions grid to be able to explain and justify these growing tensions. The central theme throughout this and the proceeding ten lessons is to ask why civilians feared for their lives? In a new era after World War 2, suspicions and rivalries arose between the two new superpowers, the USA and the USSR. Each lesson explores these growing tensions and ultimately questions why people thought a nuclear war was imminent. The resource comes in PowerPoint format 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 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603 The overarching aim of this and the subsequent bundle of lessons is to question and explore how Elizabeth asserted her authority and control in the second half of her reign. The lessons are therefore linked together to build up a picture of this golden age and question if it really was a period of stability and prosperity. This lesson questions if there really was an Elizabethan Golden Age or was it really a myth? Was it just some Elizabethan propaganda to promote Elizabeth I and the Tudors? The students get themselves involved in a mini debate agreeing or refuting the question using Cornell Note taking before presenting their findings to the class. They will also tackle a GCSE ‘write an account’ question before peer assessing it and deciding what went well and how they need to improve the answer. 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.

The Holocaust This lesson analyses the story of Anne Frank and celebrates her short life. It asks in a sequence of lessons I have produced, who is to blame for the holocaust? Was it the SS who rounded up the Frank family or was it friends or spies to blame for theirs and countless death during World War 2? The lesson tells her story and asks students to think of but, because and so. There are some great video links to accompany the lesson as well as some analysis on an extract from her diary and a virtual tour of the annex. A final true of false quiz checks recall and retrieval from the lesson. 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.

AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45 The aim of this lesson is to assess the political and economic impact of the Ruhr invasion upon Germany. Students begin by recapping Germany’s inability to pay reparations and its request to suspend payments to stabilise their currency. They also learn in more depth how they were required to pay and how a bad situation was made worse by the Allies. Students also have to answer a series of questions and predict how Germany reacted to the occupation by French and Belgian troops. A chronological task completes the lesson together with some source exam question practice. Some help is given if required together with a generic markscheme. 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 reasons why Hindenburg felt confident enough to appoint Hitler as his Chancellor. Students are given the context, the details of Hitler first cabinet and the key people within it. They are questioned as to the pitfalls Hitler might face and the obstacles thrown up by the constitution. A gap filling exercise and some source analysis will help to consolidate the learning from the lesson. The 3-2-1 plenary will ascertain the learning from the lesson An enquiry question posed at the beginning of the lesson will be revisited throughout to track the progress of learning during the lesson and the subsequent unit of work. The lesson is available in PowerPoint format and can be customised to suit specific needs. It is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.

American Civil RIghts This lesson sets out to ask the question if Abraham Lincoln was the ‘Great Emancipator’ that history claims him to be. By analysing his statue at the Washington memorial and using video evidence as well as a brief summary of the 13th Amendment and the American Civil War, students are given evidence (which is differentiated according to ability) from which they question this belief. Their ideas are then presented on a Venn diagram and presented to their peers. A true or false quiz at the end will attempt to consolidate their learning as well as questioning how emancipated the slaves were after the amendment became law. 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, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

The Tudors The aim of this lesson is for the students to help Elizabeth with some tough choices on marriage. Who should she choose to marry if at all? Why was there so much pressure upon her to marry in the first place? Students prioritise the reasons for marriage on a grid before they analyse the potential suitors in Europe, complete with their availability and faults (on paper of course). They then have to decide who is the best of a bad lot and justify their decisions. Some excellent video evidence is included. The plenary focuses on a dinner date; students decide who Elizabeth would like to sit near to the most and who would be placed at the far end of the table. 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 lesson aims to introduce the main contenders to the vacant throne of England in 1066 with the deat hof Edward the Confessor. Students have to understand why a chair (a throne) would cause a war and read a script to understand who the main contenders were and the reasons they put forward for having a claim to the English throne. Diffetentiated bloom’s questions aim to deepen their understanding and get them to analyse who has the best claim and why (thus extracting fact from fiction). A brilliant video link to English heritage and extra work sheets will give them all the knowledge required to create a newspaper report or table to ultimately evaluate these claims of the contenders The resource comes in PDF and Powerpoint formats 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. The accompanying script for the lesson can be found here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/medieval-britain-script-for-the-normans-who-had-the-best-claim-to-the-english-throne-in-1066-11456418 If you like this resource, please visit my shop where I have created further resources on Medieval Britain which can be found here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resources/shop/PilgrimHistory

Edexcel 9-1 Medicine in Britain, Thematic study and historic environment This lesson aims to show the devastating effect upon the soldiers, both physically and mentally from the new technological advances in warfare used at the beginning of the twentieth century. The weapons analysed, for example, include the use of the Lee Enfield Rifle, the machine gun, grenades, artillery shells as well as the use of gas. Activities include retrieval practice, the evaluation of the weapons used and their effect on the soldiers, the use of video evidence, a true or false and noughts and crosses quiz as well as GCSE question practice, with help given if required. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.

The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel This lesson explores the role of the Chief in Plains Indian society, with his different qualities, role and duties to perform. Students learn as each tribe could have many chiefs, this led to confusion and distrust amongst the US Government Officials who struggled to come to terms with their customs and traditions. Famous Chiefs such as Sitting Bull are analysed as well as the role of a council. Students will also evaluate the role of warrior brotherhoods and women in Plains Indian society. Students are also questioned on how the Plains Indians way of life might change if the US Government struggled to develop relationship with them due to the tribes having many Chiefs. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some key word retrieval practice is also included. It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel This lesson aims to examine push and pull factors which contributed to the migration west. Students are introduced to the Oregon Trail and learn how the Government promoted its use by providing $30,000 for an expedition led by John Fremont to map it out and report how exciting and achievable it was to travel along it. An excellent accompanying video in contrast shows the realities however of travelling to the west. Students are given various scenarios which they have to decide are push and pull factors and for extra challenge decide if they are social, political or economic factors. There is some follow up exam question practice using the ‘consequences’ question worth 8 marks. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice is also included on spelling key words. It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.

The American West, c 1835-c1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel This lesson aims to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the Homestead Act of 1862. What was the Homestead Act and who could apply? How did the US Government make it easier for US citizens to become Homesteaders from what had happened previously? Students will also be required to think and judge who really benefitted from it. Was it all US Citizens who benefitted or did anyone else? Were the Plains Indians considered when this Act was passed and how did it affect them? There are notes on the slides to help. Students are required to complete a GCSE ‘importance’ practice question and are challenged to think why each specific term was significant. The plenary requires connecting and linking key words and dates. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice is also included using an odd one out activity. It comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

The American West, c1835-c1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel This lesson focuses on the impact of Pacific Railroad Act of 1842. Students analyse maps and original advertisements to evaluate how effective the railroad companies were in encouraging people to move west and the difficulties involved in building a railroad in the first place. They focus on the effects of the American Civil War and judge the economic impact of the railroad in terms of travel, immigration, the rise of towns, farming as well as the growth of the cattle industry. They also have to determine the negative impacts the railroad had on the Plains Indians and the Buffalo. There is some GCSE exam practice on the ‘consequences’ question, with help given if required. The plenary requires thinking around the popular head, heart, bin and bag activity. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some key word retrieval practice is also included using a spider diagram. It comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel The aim of this lesson is to analyse some of the problems the early settlers faced moving west onto the Great Plains. Students have to work out the initial problems through various images and think through how they could solve these. They also have to decide how to deal with the swarms of locusts that descended on the Great Plain such as in 1874 when an estimated 120 billion grasshoppers devastated over 300,000 square kilometres of land. There is some GCSE exam question practice on the consequences question with some help given if required. The plenary requires students to use dice to pick and link key words together to create sentences. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice with talking heads is also included on the front slide. It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

The American West, c1835-c1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel The aim of this lesson is to explore the consequences of overstocking the open range and the subsequent move to small ranches after the Great Die up of 1886-87. Students are required to tackle some GCSE exam question practice from the start as they have to work out reasons why and the consequences for the changes to the cattle industry. They also analyse the impact on cowboys and reasons for a decline in their demand. Students are also challenged into deciding which policies went before or after 1887 and what constituted this new change in direction. The plenary requires them to demonstrate what they have learnt in the lesson using a summarising pyramid. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. It comes in Powerpoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.