Includes background notes, history mystery record sheet, and 15 evidence cards.

In this lesson students begin with a ‘what-would-you-do?’ style starter activity in which they score point according to their reactions to losing their freedoms. This stimulates discussion over how enslaved people might react and leads into the main activity which is a card sort. Students divide up the very precise 13 cards into examples of passive and active resistance and try to explain how they prioritised them. So for example was Nat Turner’s revolt much more high risk than say kicking a cow? Students then go on to use this card sort as an effective scaffold for a piece of extended written work before finishing the lesson off with a plenary about cultural appropriation (in particular whether it is right for a slave-trading nation like Britain to use a slave spiritual ‘Amazing Grace’ in its sporting fixtures). My students always find this a really powerful life lesson and one which hones their historical skills fantastically well. I hope you find it useful with your students too.

In this lesson students read up on background knowledge before assembling a 30 piece hexagonal card sort into a factor-led response. Evidence is very precise and being a hexagonal rather than square card sort students are encouraged to make effective links between the evidence used whilst also being encouraged to prioritise the evidence they find the most compelling. Once the class have formulated their card sort this sets them up extremely well for either a debate or a written piece of work. My students love this lesson and I really hope yours do too!

Students read up on background information before being divided into research groups. In this 23 page pack students research either 1) architecture, military & religion, 2) Government, public health, & women, and 3) Roads, slavery & leisure. The packs are really detailed and encourage students to make links and to decide to what extent Ancient Rome can be considered civilised. Students use the information to create presentations which they deliver to the class. As you can see from the pictures this is a project my students love and which really hones their historical skills. I know your students will love it also.

My students love this project! In this 14 page pack you will find background information on the Industrial Revolution as well as information cards on 20 different inventions ranging from John Kay’s Flying Shuttle through to James Watt’s Steam Engine. Students need to research their invention and make a case for its historical significance using specific criteria (durability, importance at the time, number effected etc). The class then present to the Dragon’s (for me its usually SLT). This mini-project really brings the past to life and is one of the highlights of my teaching career. I hope you enjoy it as much as my students do.

Background notes * 16 character cards * 48 piece evidence sort (small and large version) This 32-page pack contains background knowledge as well as 16 different character cards to issue to your students, ranging from Captain Smith, ship’s architect Thomas Andrews, down to lesser known characters such as 2nd Officer Charles Lightoller (who failed to fill the lifeboats). Once in character students then work through 48 detailed evidence cards to help them answer the question who was to blame for the large number of deaths (more than 1,500). This is one of my favourite activities and students always find it both fun and interesting and it helps hone historical skills such as evidence handling, refining questions, and formulating arguments. I hope you get as much out of this activity as my students always do.

This is a powerful lesson in causation. Students read through the detailed background information before arranging 17 extremely detailed and precise information cards into factors (economic, cultural, and people). This activity helps students scaffold a response to the key question which can then be used as the basis for a piece of assessed or extended written work. I hope your students find this as useful as I know mine have!

This is one of my most detailed and most enjoyable lessons. Students are issued with a suspect character card of their own (there are 21 including Druitt, Kosminski, and Chapman) and then have to siphon their way through 13 very detailed pieces of evidence to find information that suggests they might be the notorious serial killer. For example, Polish butcher John Pizer might argue that he is local (Evidence A), has an expert knowledge of anatomy (B), and came from Poland where there were a large number of Jews (Evidence L). Students then present their cases and the class vote on who makes the best case. This is an excellent lesson designed to engage students and get them to question evidence, structure, and present their findings. I hope you enjoy it as much as my students do!

This resource features a starter in which students compare two sources on life in 1930s USA using a VENN diagram. The PowerPoint then provides some background information before inviting students to break down 22 factor-led thought bubbles into columns (these are colour-coded into social, economic, cultural and political). Students then use this information to create a written account of what life was like before concluding with a fun singing plenary. I really enjoy delivering this lesson (partly because Hoover is my favourite US President!) and hope you find it useful!

My exam revision packs are the resources my examination students value the most. I offer essay plans to the most popular questions on topics within the Cold War which give students structure and which teem with precisely supporting material. In this pack the revision notes are focused on the following questions: Who was to blame for the start of the Cold War? What were the causes and consequences of US involvement in the Korean War? Who gained the most out of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Why did the USA get involved in Vietnam? Why did the USA withdraw from Vietnam? What were the similarities and differences between Hungary and Czechoslovakia? Why was the Berlin Wall built in 1961? What was the main reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union? Issuing these notes to students prior to an examination massively boosts their attainment in examinations and I’m very proud to share this resource with you and them. It certainly saves my students a lot of exam stress and has given me excellent results year after year.

This is one of my most popular lesson activities. Here students will collate information to both sides of the historiographical debate and make links between their factors to create a visual map which they can use for an extended piece of written analysis. I am especially proud of the level of precision and detail in the historical content here as this is a niche area of mine formed whilst working for the Royal British Legion on the Somme a few years ago. The 60 cards are broken down and colour-coordinated for differentiation purposes into personality, tactics, technology, and politics in order to promote a factor-led response. I really hope you enjoy this activity and that your students get as much from it as mine do.

I designed this lesson to encourage my students to be reflective Historians capable of textured debate. Students divide 39 pieces of evidence (textual and photographic) into columns which suggest the leader of Charlie Company during the My Lai massacre in Vietnam was a war criminal or a scapegoat. The cards are colour-coordinated to allow for differentiation and provide the perfect scaffold for a debate or piece of exended written analysis. This is a hard-hitting lesson which always provokes outstanding levels of historical reasoning and debate but please be aware many of the images and text are graphic in content and should be taught to students with the emotional tools to deal with sensitive issues. Students will learn about the death of Ron Weber, the ‘and babies?’ photograph, Captain Medina’s role, and the ‘black blouse girl’ and much more. My hope in sharing this resource is that more students will learn about and learn from the heartbreaking tragedy which took place in My Lai.

Over 200 revision flash cards based on key people and events from Weimar and Nazi Germany. Simply print, cut out, and fold. These took me forever to create but they are my number one ‘go to’ revision tool for my exam classes and have had wholly positive feedback. Also works extremely well as an end of unit activity whereby students can use the cards to create a visual mind-map / layout of the course. Give them to your students before exams to ensure their subject knowledge is spot on!

This is one of my most detailed resources. Students are given a pack of 15 large information cards offering information as to how and why President Kennedy was assassinated and are encouraged to write their findings on the mystery sheets provided at the end of the pack. This is one of my very best lessons and has been designed to encourage students to think, question, collaborate and take risks. During this lesson students will explore the possibility that there was more to JFK’s death than the lone gunman theory and will offer alternatives using precisely selected evidence. I really look forward to delivering this lesson each year. I really hope you enjoy teaching this topic and that you find it gets your students truly acting as young Historians should.

I’ve designed this lesson as a History mystery to get your students to really 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 read through background information before siphoning through 16 detailed evidence cards about Suffragette activity in the horse race known as the 1913 Epsom Derby. The class then complete a History mystery grid based on their findings. 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.

I teach this lesson as part of my unit on 1920s USA and it always proves tremendously successful. Students are allocated one of seven detailed character cards - these include Sacco’s Defence Lawyer Fred Moore and the biased Judge Webster Thayer amongst others. From here students familiarise themselves with their character and work through 15 pieces of evidence ranging from ballistics documents to the hat that Sacco was reported to have worn (it did not fit). Once they have considered the evidence students then use the trial reenactment template provided to act out one of the most famous trials of the Twentieth Century. I get my class to shout out “Sono innocente!” upon news of the verdict and it is always a powerful lesson. I hope you enjoy this series of activities as much as my students do.

After reading through the background information students sift through the 21 evidence cards provided to create columns which show how skill, luck, mistakes, and technology explain the outcome of the Battle of Hastings. This is an ideal task to help scaffold student responses to a piece of extended written work or timed assessment. Cards are colour-coded for differentiation.

Students are given character cards, some pro and some anti dropping the bomb ranging from Einstein and Churchill to Hirihito and Stalin. In groups each side then works through 36 cards which are teeming with precisely selected historical detail, some of which support the dropping of the A-bomb and some of which argue against it. This activity prepares students exceptionally well for a debate about one of the most keenly argued historical topics - the dropping of the atomic bombs - and can also be used to help students structure an extended written response to this question. The cards are colour coded for students who require additional differentiation. This is one of my best lessons year on year and I hope it gets your students talking, evaluating, and arguing - especially in this nuclear world which we live in today.

This 36-page pack is the incredibly detailed and complete set of notes I have written for my students. It is basically an entire course on Stalin’s Russia in one pack! Suitable for 16+ including GCSE, AP, A Level, and IB students. Notes are broken down into the following sections: How did Stalin come to power by 1928? How successful were Stalin’s economic policies? How did Stalin control the Soviet Union through purges? How did Stalin control the Soviet Union through the cult of personality? *What was the impact of the Second World War on the Soviet Union? I am confident you will love this resource because there is nothing on the Internet which I have found which offers the same level of breadth and detail on this topic. Your students will find the notes supremely useful and they will help them achieve examination success.

This activity includes twenty detailed cards which are shaded to show the political, social and economic impact of the Black Death. Students acquire exceptionally precise and carefully selected historical detail and learn about the impact on salaries, the creation of the British pub, and the growth of the perfume industry as well as the many negative aspects of the disease. Its one of the lessons my students really enjoy because they get the opportunity to question previously held assumptions which in turn gives their ability to argue a case greater texture and resonance. I really hope you enjoy this as much as I do - makes for a great debate preparation task as well as a precursor to an extended piece of assessed written analysis.