Having taught History across KS3, 4 and 5 for seventeen years within state education, I have built up quite an extensive set of resources! I’ve spent several years working as a head of department and also spent a year working as a university subject tutor for Schools Direct. I’m currently out of the classroom and supporting my own children through their secondary experience and keeping relevant by becoming an Edexcel examination marker this summer. Planning for fun and hopefully your benefit.
Having taught History across KS3, 4 and 5 for seventeen years within state education, I have built up quite an extensive set of resources! I’ve spent several years working as a head of department and also spent a year working as a university subject tutor for Schools Direct. I’m currently out of the classroom and supporting my own children through their secondary experience and keeping relevant by becoming an Edexcel examination marker this summer. Planning for fun and hopefully your benefit.
This KS3 unit should take 2-3 hours to complete. The Power Point leads the students through all of the activities with accompanying resources included. Advice on writing technique is also included.
Aims and Objectives:
To know the main events of the Battle of Hastings.
To understand the main reasons why William won.
To reach a verdict on which reasons were more or less important.
To be able to write up your ideas as an essay.
Activities include a starter which asks students to draw inferences from the Bayeux Tapestry, followed by a short video which recaps prior events and then shows the key events of the battle. Students use this knowledge to cut out the jumbled events and match/stick them onto the storyboard. There is an extension on source bias using William of Poitier’s account. Initial on why William won are recorded in a thought-shower. Students then complete a card sort activity, categorising the reasons why William won into William’s strengths, Harold’s weaknesses and luck. There is an SEN version of simpler cards with a sorting grid included. Essay writing and PEEL paragraphing is then introduced with a worked example of poor-good paragraphing using PEEL. Students write their answers in essay style using the writing frame provided. A mark scheme is included.
This unit of work should take at least 3 hours to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities with answers when required along with the necessary contextual subject knowledge. All accompanying resources are included. I have previously broken this unit down into three classroom lessons and one final IT lesson where students researched their Holocaust hero.
LESSON 1 (Growing anti-Semitism of 1930s): Aims and Objectives:
To know Hitler’s racial theories.
To use sources to explore how these were put into practice throughout the 1930s in Germany.
To empathise with those effected through producing a piece of creative writing in the first-person.
LESSON 2 (Life in a ghetto): Aims and Objectives:
To know what ghettos were and where they were set up.
To understand the purpose of the ghettos.
To carry out independent research into conditions inside the ghettos and demonstrate empathetic understanding of what it must have been like to live in one.
LESSON 3 (The Final Solution): Aims and Objectives:
To know the key events which led to the construction of death camps in Eastern Europe.
To understand why these camps were created and how they eased the process of mass murder.
To understand the motivation and psychology of those involved.
The three lessons focus on the journey of two fictional Jewish children throughout the period 1933-45. A short diary entry is written at the end of each lesson explaining what has happened to them at this stage. Lesson 1 explores the growing anti-Semitism of the 1930s using a range of sources to chart the development and escalation. Lesson 2 explores conditions inside the ghetto using video clips and handout. The final lessons explains the process of the Final Solution and focuses upon how it was able to happen (from a psychological angle). The student booklet for this lesson uses a series of sources to explore the key issues. To end the unit on a more optimistic topic, students consider those who stood up against the Holocaust and create a information poster on their hero of the Holocaust.
This complete KS3 unit of study covers around 14 lessons depending upon how long you devote to the research task and how much of the work you set as homework. Every lesson includes a Power Point which leads students through the activities with support/answers and all resources referred to are included.
The unit works in a loosely chronological structure as follows:
Causes of WW1 and Schlieffen Plan
WW1 Propaganda and Recruitment
Trench Warfare (extended research unit with Trench Diary Assessment)
WW1 Christmas Truce
Field Marshal Haig and the Battle of the Somme (source study and assessment)
Why the Allies won
There are two key assessments with mark schemes included. There are also differentiated materials throughout including writing frames.
For more information please refer to individual lessons.
This KS3 unit of study should take around 18-20 hours to complete. There is a Power Point included for every lesson which leads students through the activities and provides advice and guidance where required.
In teaching/loose chronological order, the lessons include:
Communism, Democracy and Dictatorship: Introducing political concepts and their 1930s context.
The Causes of WW2.
The Main Turning Points of WW2.
The Dunkirk Evacuation: How accurate are film portrayals?
How Dangerous were the D-Day Landings?
How were Commonwealth soldiers treated during WW2?
What was it like to be a young person in Nazi Germany?
The Persecution of the Jews: Nazi Germany, Ghettos and The Final Solution.
Was “Blitz Spirit” real? The British Home Front.
Why was Churchill a great war leader?
What was it like to be evacuated?
The Nazi defeat in Europe and aftermath of WW2.
Should the US have dropped the A-bomb?
There are a great range of activities including discussion, debate, source analysis, independent research, creative writing and formal assessment. Please refer to individual lessons for more detail. The D-Day lesson introduces GCSE-style source questions (Edexcel) and the Dunkirk lesson assesses cross-reference with a mark scheme provided.
Students develop their understanding of both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X’s contributions towards US Civil Rights. They weigh these against their failings and limitations to reach a verdict on who achieved the most. The final activity asks students to create a persuasive piece of writing in support of one of the leaders.
There are two versions of each text- a simpler version and a more developed/advanced. There is also a table available to support weaker students. Persuasive writing is modeled as part of the Power Point.
This KS3 unit of study should take around seven hours to complete. There is a Power Point included for every lesson which leads students through the activities and provides advice and guidance where required.
In teaching/chronological order, the lessons include:
Who should be king? Claimants to the throne in 1066
Events leading up to the Battle of Hastings
Why did William win the Battle of Hastings?
How did William control England?
How far did castle design improve during the MAs?
There are a great range of activities including discussion, problem-solving, argument formation, chronological ordering, formal essay writing and comparative writing. The two formal assessments are the essay on “Why William won?” and the comparative writing on castle development. Support, advice, writing frames and mark schemes are provided for both of these. To avoid completing two asessments in quick succession, I generally teach the castles lesson a little later having looked at other medieval topics such as living conditions and religion in between. For more details, please refer to individual lessons.
Includes a set of revision notes for each area of the specification. These notes are used in conjunction with my full revision guide. In contrast to the full guide, they follow a more analytical structure which matches previous exam questions. The notes can be used separately or put together into one booklet. I integrated previous exam questions and mark schemes which had been sorted by topic rather than by date set. Students used the full guide and revision notes to prepare essay plans on each unit in preparation for the exam.
IMPORTANT: This Edexcel 9-1 History GCSE unit is structured around the textbook "Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History, The American West, c1835-c1895 (editor Leonard A. and published by Pearson) ISBN 9781292127309. The lessons will not be usable without a class set of these textbooks. However, if you’re looking to change course and can’t face all the fresh planning then I can guarantee that this bundle covers the entire specification with all supporting resources and assessment opportunities throughout.
For a summary of activities etc. please see individual items. Every section of the specification is supported with a Power Point which leads students through all of the activities and includes feedback/answers. Every worksheet and resource referred to is included in the bundle.
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.
The first two lessons of Edexcel 9-1, Medicine Through Time (although in reality this work will take longer than two lessons to do thoroughly).
Aims and Objectives:
To understand the supernatural and religious explanations of the cause of disease.
To understand the rational explanations: the Theory of the Four Humours and the miasma theory; the continuing influence in England of Hippocrates and Galen.
The Power Point leads students though all activities with accompanying worksheets. It also provides feedback/answers at intervals. A 12 mark explanation question is introduced and set with a writing frame provided.
