IMPORTANT: Some of the activities refer to the textbook "Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-1939 (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127347 and will not be usable without a copy of this text. This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 3-4 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand the reasons for the early unpopularity of the Republic, including the “stab in the back” theory and the key terms of the Treaty of Versailles. To understand the challenges to the Republic from Left and Right: Spartacists, Freikorps, the Kapp Putsch. To understand the challenges of 1923: hyperinflation; the reasons for, and effects of, the French occupation of the Ruhr. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying worksheets. These include a presentation on the context and terms of the Treaty of Versailles which asks students to consider why these angered the German people, a summary table of reasons why the treaty angered Germans and a 12 mark explanation question on this issue with advice and examples. There is also a homework which asks students to cross-reference a source with their own knowledge to prepare them for future work on interpretations. The Kapp Putsch is introduced through two sources and a problem solving starter. The concept of right and left-wing politics is explored before a summary table of the Spartacist and Kapp uprisings is completed. A card sort is used to explore the concept of hyperinflation and a video activity asks students to summarise causes, events and consequences of the occupation of the Ruhr. There is also another optional 12 mark question on this topic.

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 legacy of WW1. The abdication of the Kaiser, the armistice and revolution, 1918-19. The setting up of the Weimar Republic. The strengths and weaknesses of the new constitution. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying worksheets. These include an introduction to the Paper 3 question types, a timeline/overview starter activity giving context to the entire course, short video on the impact of WW1, an introduction to the inference question with a practice question and sample answer, a factual introduction to the foundation of the republic (matching questions to answers), and a card sort/analysis on the weaknesses and strengths of the Weimar constitution. There is a homework vocabulary sheet exercise.

IMPORTANT: One of the activities in this unit (Night of Long Knives fact file) refers to the textbook "Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-1939 (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127347 and will not be usable without a copy of this text or another text which explains the events of the Night of Long Knives. 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 Reichstag Fire. The Enabling Act and the banning of other parties and trade unions. To understand the threat from Röhm and the SA, the Night of the Long Knives and the death of von Hindenburg. Hitler becomes Führer, the army and the oath of allegiance. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources. Activities include a video starter asking students to consider how the Nazis overcame the obstacles to their dictatorship, conversion of a staged written explanation of the events into condensed bullet points, colour-coding of actions into legal and illegal, a Night of Long Knives fact file and an exam interpretation question on this topic including a possible structure.

This KS3 lesson should take around one hour plus a homework to complete (depending upon how much you ask students to write for the diary entry). The Power Point leads students through all of the activities with accompanying resources included. Aims and Objectives: To know what The Middle Passage was and how it worked as part of the Slave Trade Triangle. To use source material to investigate how slaves were treated. To consider what this shows us about attitudes towards slaves. To empathise with those who went through this horrific experience. Activities include a mystery image starter of a bird’s eye view of a slave ship below decks, a video and questioning exercise on the story of the slave ship Zong, a source analysis activity whereby students look for specified evidence in a range of source. There are extension questions and a simpler SEN source set provided. The finally activity is to write a diary entry from a former slave describing the treatment endured during the Middle Passage. This activity works in isolation, although my classes build the diary up over this and the subsequent lessons on living and working conditions.

This Edexcel 9-1 GCSE unit covers around 3 lessons depending upon your class and their overall ability/work rate. Aims and Objectives: To understand the political developments in 1932. The roles of Hindenburg, Brüning, von Papen and von Schleicher. The part played by Hindenburg and von Papen in Hitler becoming Chancellor in 1933. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources. Activities include a starter/paired discussion testing memory on state of Germany in 1932, a break down of each stage of Hitler’s rise which asks students to create memory jogger images at each point, creation of a summary timeline of key events, colour-coding actions of individuals involved and summarising their actions before ranking them according to level of blame, a usefulness exam source question with support and advice (comprehending written sources and reading in context, strategies for evaluating sources) and a final end of unit quiz.

This KS3 lesson should take around one hour to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities and all accompanying resources are included. Aims and Objectives: To know what Hitler’s aims were for young people in Germany. To know the methods that’s the Nazis used to indoctrinate/control young people. To use sources to reach a verdict on how successful the Nazis were in controlling young people. Activities include a starter which asks students to translate Hitler’s aims into an illustration of the ideal Nazi boy and girl (using symbols). A series of sources with questions are then used to investigate various elements of life in Germany from the Hitler Youth, to education and resistance groups. An SEN version of this exercise is also included. Finally, students write a paragraph answer/verdict on how effective the Nazis were in controlling young people.

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 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 covers the reigns of Edward and Mary. The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources. Having spent a long time studying Henry and later Elizabeth, I’m afraid these two monarchs have been condensed into one lesson (sorry Edward and Mary). We focus of the religious problems as this is so integral to the students’ understanding of Elizabeth’s problems and indeed later on, the Stuarts and the English civil war. Aims and Objectives: To know and understand the main changes that Edward and Elizabeth made to the church in England. To reach a judgement on their actions- did Mary deserve to be known as “Bloody Mary”? To empathise with people living in England at this time and how these changes must have made them feel. The lesson starts with a whole class recap on Catholic and Protestant beliefs. All students have to get involved with their C and P cards. We then read a series of statements about Edward’s actions deciding which are true and false (based on the fact that he was Protestant). Mary is introduced with the Horrible Histories song. If you have the DVD then you can see the video in full but You Tube currently only has this clip with lyrics alone due to copyright. Students rank the cards on Mary’s actions from best to worst.They finally show their understanding by writing a letter using the framework provided from either a Catholic or Protestant perspective, explaining the religious changes implemented by Henry, Edward and Mary.

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.

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.