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 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 one hour to complete. The Power Point leads students through all activities and all accompanying resources are included. This is my first Year 7 lesson at the start of our first unit on Medieval Realms.
Aims and Objectives:
To know some facts about life in the Middle Ages.
To select evidence from sources to answer a question.
To apply this evidence to reached a balanced judgement about life in the Middle Ages (good and bad things).
Activities include a true/false introductory medieval quiz, a source analysis exercise that encourages students to use source material effectively to support their points (this starts with a collection of negative sources before balancing these with positive sources), a vocabulary homework with test sheet on the next unit- The Battle of Hastings.
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 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.
This KS3 unit of work should take at least two hours to complete (depending upon how long you allow your class to spend on the board game activity). The Power Point leads students through all activities with accompanying resources included.
Aims and Objectives:
To know how medieval people practised their faith and the key words that are linked to this.
To understand why religion was so important to them.
To understand medieval views on Heaven and Hell and apply this by creating a board game.
Activities include key words/definitions matching, independent reading and summary note-taking, analysing a medieval wall painting, sorting actions into good deeds/sins and ranking these and creating a medieval religion snakes and ladders board game.
This KS3 unit of study should take at least 15 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:
What was life like in the Middle Ages?
Who should be king? Claimants 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 Middle Ages?
Why was religion so important to people in the Middle Ages?
Who was to blame for the murder of Thomas Becket?
How did people in the Middle Ages view the Black Death?
Did Robin Hood really exist?
There are a great range of activities including discussion, problem solving, card sorting and ranking, source analysis, comparison of continuity vs. change, introduction to explanatory essay writing and evaluative essay writing and board game creation. There are three formal assessment- the explanatory essay on why William won the Battle of Hastings, the comparative writing on developments in castle design and the evaluative writing on whether or not Robin Hood was real. Writing frames and mark schemes are included for these. For more details, please refer to individual lesson summaries.
This KS3 lesson should take at least two hours to complete. The Power Point leads the students through all activities with accompanying resources.
Aims and Objectives:
To know the main events leading up to Becket’s murder.
To have ideas about who was to blame and why?
LESSON 1: Activities include a recap on the feudal system and a discussion on how the role of the Church could cause problems for the king. A whole class reading of the story with initial thoughts on blame. An analysis of Edward Grim’s first-hand account and source bias. A storyboard homework to consolidate the key events.
LESSON 2: A starter which recaps the main events through matching pictures to sentences. A card sort where students group information into evidence that either Henry, Becket or the knights were to blame. A final write up with writing frame provided where students explain how each person/group might be to blame before reaching a conclusion.
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.
This KS3 unit will take at least two lessons to complete. The Power Points lead students through all activities with accompanying resources included.
LESSON 1: Aims and Objectives:
To be able to define apartheid.
To understand how and why apartheid existed.
To be able to explain how apartheid affected people in South Africa.
LESSON 2: Aims and Objectives:
To know some facts about his life.
To understand how Mandela’s life was linked to apartheid.
To reach a judgement on whether Mandela’s campaign was more peaceful or violent.
LESSON 1: Activities include a role play starter whereby students enter the room according to eye colour and are treated differently. They are asked how this made them feel. Key terms for this unit are then linked to their definitions. A short video is used to answer students’ who, what, why, where, when and how questions on Apartheid. Students then read through the fact cards and pull out those which are untrue. The remaining facts are sorted from the most to the least oppressive. Finally, students write a paragraph summarising what they have learned so far.
LESSON 2: Having watched a 4 minute biography, students complete a cloze exercise on Mandela’s life. Using a Mandela quote, they consider what method he claims to have used to end Apartheid (co-operation with enemy). Students then use the timeline to find evidence to test his claim that he worked with his enemies, rather than fought against them. They end the lesson with a paragraph answer to this debate.
