This lesson is aimed at getting students to understand the difference between the Roman Senate of the Regal Period and the Senate of the Republican Era. Historical evidence is sketchy at best and students are made aware of this during the lesson. Students who are familiar with studying this period in Roman History (in GCSE Ancient History for example) will already be aware of the lack of evidence and also its unreliability. Students are introduced to Cesare Maccari’s ‘Cicero denouces Catiline’ fresco and are asked to make inferences about the Roman Senate from it. This establishes the stock view of the Roman Senate that most people are familiar with. It gives students an anchor point from which to begin learning about how the senate was different earlier in Rome’s history. There are then two handouts (both included as slides in the .ppt file at the relevant points) for printing out. Literacy and Comprehension questions follow based on these handouts. Students are then encouraged to summarise the difference between the senate under the Roman kings and the senate under the new Republic using this information. The lesson ends with exploratory questions surrounding the extent of the Senate’s power.

This lesson provides an overview of the key themes of the Roman Republican period. I designed it as an introduction for my GCSE Ancient History class to their chronological study of the Republican period. The lesson uses Livy as a primary source and Mary Beard as a secondary source to outline the main themes that crop up in a study of the Republic. The lesson uses both authors as a ‘way in’ to the era. The lesson seeks to draw out an understanding of: The conflict between the patricians and plebeians How the Romans saw the Republic favourably in comparison to the Regal (kings) period What the main political offices were in Republican Rome The extent to which we can trust what ancient writers tell us about the early and later Republic. Progress checks are included throughout to promote literacy - matching key words to abstract/non abstract images to exhibit understanding. A video link is also included in the plenary which outlines the main political offices of the time and how elections were conducted. This is very much an overview lesson for the time period which can stand alone or be used as an introduction to the Roman republic. I felt it was necessary to ‘set the scene’ for my students before doing so and this lesson does this really well.

This lesson is designed with the new OCR Ancient History GCSE in mind. As Rome’s second Etruscan king, Servius Tullius introduced a number of reforms into Rome which this lesson looks at in detail using Livy as a primary source throughout. This is done because students need to be used to seeing, reading and understanding primary sources as they will be required to do so in their exam. The lesson starts with a discussion of the names of some of the Roman kings and how that influences the way Livy writes about them/interprets their legacy. It then proceeds onto Servius’ background and Livy’s scepticism of the legend regarding this story. Servius’ reforms are then looked at in brief and students are asked to rank them in order of their impact which they will revist later after looking at each reform in detail and recording it on a worksheet that is included. There are a number of handouts included within the .ppt file as slides which are located in the place within the lesson they need to be used and can be easily printed out from here and given to students. It is also clearly signposted within the lesson slides when each handout needs to be used and how. This presentation will likely take 2-3 hours worth of lesson time as there is substantial content. The lesson ends with a comparison of Servius to his predecessor and first Etruscan king Tarquinius Priscus. This is anothe rimportant skill they will need to develop for their exam.

This lesson gives an introduction to Alexander the Great, his background and early life. It begins with a map of his empire to give students an idea of the scale of his later conquest and leads with a comprehension on the story of his taming of Bucephalus according to Plutarch (adapted so secondary students can understand it). It is then useful to show the scene from Alexander (2004) a link to which is attached and compare the interpretations of the event. Another scene from Alexander the Great (1956) is linked to and a discussion and explanation of the influence of Aristotle on his life can then ensue. Students are then introduced to his character at the beginning of his campaign (Plutarch again!) with the idea being that they need to understand that he was literate and intelligent. Students leave with an understanding that, like his hero Achilles, he died young. A 'challenge' article on his life from the Telegraph (adapted) is also included.

This lesson is designed with the OCR Ancient History GCSE course in mind. It takes students through the succession of Tarquinius Priscus (The first Etruscan king of Rome) through to his military achievementsvia the use of Livy as a primary source. There are a number of worksheets which are included in the .ppt file at various points which should be printed of and given to students. All instructions are clear at each point as to what students must be doing and taks are easily and clearly ‘chunked’. The aim of the worksheets (often with a passage from Livy on them) is to summarise what is being said by the ancient author at each point and then use this information to make answering exam questions (at the bottom of each sheet) more accessible. Included in this lesson are Priscus’ social, political, religious and military initiatives which students are given, and then have to analyse and evaluate in order to determine which were his most significant. At the higher end of the thinking scale is the idea that Priscus is considered a great military commander, but not necessarily a great king. Students should be invited to reflect on this at the end of the lesson.

This presentation and the worksheets included in the .ppt file are designed to span a number of lessons. The lesson starts with a discussion of Dionysus’ traits and depictions in art. A comprehension worksheet that can be printed in A5 size is then designed to get students familiar with some key terms they will need to know. A brief look at Pausanias’ account of the origin of the festival gives students the opportunity to interact with a primary source and then the attention of the lesson turns towards the sanctuary of Dionysus in Athens - with a brief comparison with other sanctuaries on the specification (The Acropolis dedicated to Athena in Athens and the Altis dedicated to Zeus at Olympia) Labelled diagrams of the sanctuary are included which can be printed off for students with the accompanying questions designed to help students enquire as to how Dionysus’ sanctuary differs from the others and where the focus really lies. Given that the sanctuary is at the heart of the festival, this is an important starting point. Students are also encouraged through discussion to realise the theatre’s significance as a religious building, not just a building designed for entertainment. I have then broken down the festival into ten main aspects. A worksheet for students to take notes on is then printable (recommended A3 size) and information on the ten aspects are included on separate slides which can be shown on the board and discussed, or printed and used as an information hunt/ carousel activity. The information includes all key words, what happened and when, and why, in addition to who took part in each activity. Study questions are also included along with two 8 mark comparison GCSE style questions (and a help box for each indicating how students should structure their answer). Through answering these effectively students can demonstrate their learning over the lessons you have taken with them on the City Dionysia. A homework activity is also included along with links to various helpful videos online.

This lesson is designed to introduce the ideas of Athenian democracy to students who already have some understanding of the Ancient world and Athens itself. The lesson starts in an SMSC-type way with students encouraged to think about what kind of society they would like to live in, if they had no knowledge of who they were going to be before they were born. The ideas of democracy and equality can be drawn out here. Students are then invited to discuss what democracy is and what it means in our day and age so that they can later compare it to Athenian democracy as a point of reference. A numeracy task allows students to work out what fraction of Athens’ population was actually eligible to take part in politics - a discussion of whether this counts as real democracy or not can then ensue. A link to an educational video is included so students can add to their notes and then some historical details are included on a handout on a slide within the .ppt file. This can be printed off and given to students who are set some tasks based on it. There is then a choice of two plenaries where students can summarise their learning in a creative or written way.

This lesson examines what Ancient Athens looked like from above and how the city was laid out in the first instance. After this students go on an information hunt around the room to gather information from print outs (located within the .ppt file) on each part of Athenian society. After this comes the evaluation of each part of society’s importance and freedoms in relation to one another (see pictured slide). Students are invited to compare how their lives are now to what their lives would have been like at their age in ancient Athens at their current age. This helps students to see the real distinct nature of life in Athens, but one that is not wholly departed from our lives nowadays. The lesson is suitable as an introduction to Athens for GCSE students or as a stand alone lesson on the city and what it was like for KS3 students.

There are two lessons included within this bundle. The first is a lesson examining the story of the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the Patronage of the city of Athens. This includes, among other activities, a storyboard activity which allows students to be creative in exhibiting what they have learnt. The second is a detailed look at how the story is represented in art; on the Eastern pediment of the Parthenon and in a Roman visual interpretation of the story. Students can be very much encouraged to compare and contrast the two interpretations of the story in art as a challenge task, with a view to looking at which is the more accurate according to the myth. There are a number of worksheets contained within the .ppt file which are located as slides in the appropriate place that they be used in the lesson. These can be printed straight from Power Point itself. Links to videos which help to consolidate students learning are also included.

The lesson starts with a task aimed at getting students to recall what they already know about Theseus through the study of his labours. Next the lesson focuses on the three versions of the Ariadne myth with a set of questions designed to look at the myth from their own perspective, but also through the eyes of an ancient Athenian. After this students are introduced to Theseus’ significance as king of Athens and then are presented with an extract from Plutarch’s Life of Theseus and asked 5 questions (can be printed as a handout) designed to get students thinking more deeply about primary sources in Classical Civilisation. Finally they need to consider why Plutarch decided to parallel Theseus to Romulus, even though their roles in terms of founding their respective cities are different. Students then read through the relevant parts of Euripides’ Heracles (included) and are asked 3 questions to answer for each part. Students can be assigned a different character and the relevant part of the play for students is split into six- From when Heracles learns he has murdered his wife and children, to the end of the play. This allows the play to be accessible and a chance for the teacher to address any misunderstandings or misconceptions. Obviously there is a focus on Theseus despite the name of the play, since it is Theseus who proves the greater man at the end of the play. 1 and 2 mark questions then follow based on their learning in the unit so far and finally there is an 8 mark comparative exam question. Students can recall their prior knowledge of Heracles’ association with Olympia from earlier in the course, and compare it to Theseus’ association with Athens. There is an extension task added on which involves students imagining they are at Theseus’ public funeral and writing an appropriate eulogy for him. This is designed for students to summarise their knowledge of Theseus’ life and demonstrate their ability to highlight the most significant moments.

Designed for the new OCR Classical Civilisation GCSE unit: 1.4 Myth and the City Ideally spread over 2 teaching hours, this lesson is designed to give students an understanding of how important both Aeneas and Romulus are in the story of Rome’s foundation. It begins with a slide that can be printed off as a worksheet studying the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite to determine the significance of Aeneas’ birth. It then moves on to the fall of Troy and students are invited to evaluate how heroic Aeneas was in the episode of his life. This is followed by a brief look at his wanderings and arrival in Lavinium through a summary of Book 2 of Virgil’s Aeneid (included) with some analysis. These two can be printed off and there are accompanying think/written response questions that students can complete. Finally, the lesson looks at Livy’s account of how Aeneas’ son, Ascanius, founds Alba Longa and spawns the line of kings leading to Romulus. Throughout the lesson are links to videos (all freely available on Youtube) which consolidate the learning going on at that point in the lesson.

This lesson was designed for GCSE students as an introduction to Cleopatra and the likely features of her early life/ childhood. The lesson covers both her likely experiences but also the reasons for the lack of evidence available to us when examining her formative years. Scholarship from Weigall and Tydesley is included in various places with students asked to make inferences about her earliest experiences from the text. Challenge questions are included throughout to encourage deeper thinking and both worksheets are included as slides within the .ppt file in the appropriate places ready to be printed out. All instructions are clear to both students and staff and it is a very straightforward, yet informative, lesson to teach. A progress check activity in the middle of the lesson is included and the plenary at the end is more creative/cross-curricular in its focus. There are multiple opportunities throughout for students to consider how her earliest experiences may have shaped her future actions as queen, without necessary prior knowledge of the events of her reign required.

The lesson begins with students making inferences about Cleopatra based on a single representation of her from Hollywood. This helps us to pick apart the generic view of Cleopatra as a seductress/ tragic queen as the lesson progresses. There is a wealth of different secondary history within this lesson. It uses excerpts from Roller, Morgan and Weigall to introduce what she was like as a person (as far as we can know). The second part of the lesson focuses on the limitations of the ‘primary’ sources from the ancient world we have available to us. There is a comprehension task included with a literacy focus and some challenge questions for HA learners. The final part of the lesson then moves onto what Cleopatra’s world looked like geographically and some of the potential pitfalls that would befall her thanks to her father’s ‘up and down’ relationship with Rome, the growing superpower of the time vs Egypt, which was on the decline. The end of the lesson very much sets the teacher up to teach lessons on the events of her life and ensures that students have a sound understanding of what she was probably like vs how she has traditionally been portrayed (both in the ancient world and in the ‘modern’ media).

This lesson uses a range of primary and secondary sources to examine how Romans really felt about foreigners. The lesson starts with a look at definitions of ‘foreigner’ to us today vs what ‘foreign’ meant to the Romans and discussion can ensue about potential reasons behind this difference. Students are then provided with a worksheet (as a slide in the .ppt file ready to be printed out) where students examine evidence from the following sources: Juvenal Livy Watts (secondary) Cicero Tacitus Athenaeus Ulpian Beard (secondary) Students have to infer from passages of the authors’ own writing (all included) what the Romans believed about foreigners living in their city, but also examine Romans’ own identity as ‘foreigners’ themselves from the beginning of the city’s foundation. The progress check invites students to define Roman attitudes to ‘the other’ halfway through the lesson, but then revisit this answer at the end to see if their views have changed (they should be more nuanced by the end of the lesson). There are a series of questions at the end of the lesson designed to allow students to exhibit their understanding. HA students are challenged by being asked to consider how Romans perceived foreign rulers, using Cleopatra as an example. An SMSC plenary centring around whether the Romans are that much different than modern society (in terms of distrust of foreigners) using Brexit and Immigration controls as a parallel, rounds off the lesson.

The lesson starts with a creative drawing competition starter activity familiarising students with what Alexandria would have looked like. Students are then presented with a timeline of events from Cleopatra’s life and asked to outline the 5 most significant events and explain their reasoning. This allows students with little prior knowledge of Cleopatra understand the significance of her life in a short activity. The focus of the lesson then moves onto lands she managed to secure from mark Antony and students are encouraged to come up with a memorable acronym to help them remember which lands she gained. Students are then introduced to the Donations of Alexandria and have to analyse its significance in relation to the first lands she managed to secure from Antony. Students are then given an extract from Plutarch’s ‘Life of Mark Antony’ and given two 5 mark OCR Ancient History GCSE questions to think about. Sentence starters are included to help them structure their work. After they have had a go they can look at the two model answers provided and use these to improve their own. Students finally are asked in the plenary to consider how she managed to be successful in expanding Egypt’s influence when her predecessors had failed in this regard.

This lesson contains numerous handouts with a literacy focus but also seeking at analysing whenever possible, the accuracy and reliability of the primary sources we have available to us, when discussing Cleopatra’s personality traits; namely her courage, humour and how she was perceived by her own subjects. The .ppt file contacins all handouts as slides ready to print and clear instructions as to what to do with each handout. Plutarch’s Life of Antony and Horace’s Odes are used to give us an insight into what she was like and the characteristics she needed to exhibit in order to be a successful queen of Egypt. Both of these primary sources are prescribed sources for the new 9-1 OCR Ancient History GCSE. There is also plenty of discussion included surrounding the accuracy and reliability of both sources and students are challenged at every turn to consider this and back their explanation up with evidence from the text. The lesson ends with a discussion on how she was perceived by her own subjects and students use the information they have gathered over the course of roughly 2 hours worth of work to create a letter from Cleopatra’s point of view to Antony, discussing proposals to raise taxes on grain. Through outlining her worries and advice she needs from Antony, students can demonstrate the nuances of how she was viewed by different parts of Egypt and the effect of her actions on the wider world i.e. Rome.

This resource can be used at any point during any sort of study of Alexander the Great. In our school we have designed it to sit at the beginning of our OCR Ancient History 9-1 GCSE unit on Alexander. One of the biggest issues with studying Alexander (and something crucial to the 20 mark essay question on the GCSE paper!) is our sources for his life and conquests. This resource tackles the four main problems with our sources. It also encourages students to come to a judgement in the form of an exam question at the end of the lesson as to how much we can ever really know about Alexander. There are ample notes in the ‘notes’ section on the Powerpoint to support teachers in delivering the lesson accurately and the aim has always been to create an easy-to follow, high quality resource that can be used ‘off the shelf’ and can easily slot in to any scheme of work as a stand-alone lesson.

This lesson is designed with OCR Ancient History 9-1 GCSE spec in mind. Although it fits snugly into any study of the Roman Republic and plays a pivotal role in the ‘Conflict of the Orders’; the struggle between the Patricians and the Plebeians in Ancient Rome as the plebs struggled to secure more rights, freedoms and controls from their Patrician counterparts. The lesson begins by studying a cartoon and trying to draw inferences about the story from it, after briefly looking at lictors and their job (since lictors play as big role in the first part of the story of Publilius’ ascencion to tribune of the Plebs). There is then a ‘gap fill’ exercise sheet to be printed off aimed at nailing key vocabulary. Brief audio files (edited and adapted from the free Ancient Rome Podcast The Partial Historians are included along with relevant questions for students to answer based on these audio clips (each roughly 5 minutes in length). It is important to note that the podcast is free and is available to download at https://partialhistorians.com/category/podcast/from-the-founding-of-the-city/ But the audio files are included for ease of use and obviously no copywright infringement is intended. I have found these podcasts really enjoyable and an invaluable resource as a teacher of this unit given the lack of available CPD and cannot recommend them highly enough :) I have also tried to point my students in their direction as a revision resource. There is then a brief discussion about the reliability of Dionysius and Livy’s accounts of Volero Publilius’ reforms and then a comprehension sheet which can be printed off (included within the relevant point in the lesson) which has a 6 mark exam question as a challenge at the end.

This lesson was designed with the OCR Ancient History 9-1 GCSE spec in mind. The starter of the lesson offers 5 interpretations of Alexander’s motives for invading Persia, and 5 different characters. Students have to match the interpretation to the character. The point of this exercise is for students to realise there are a wealth of interpretations for Alexander’s motives at every stage of his journey. The focus then turns to our sources. A passage from Plutarch is presented and students are directed to annotate it while discussing it’s implications. Similarly, A passage from Arrian is then presented where students do the same. Both passages, when compared to each other, show different motives for Alexander setting fire to Persepolis, based on their own bias/sources/moral point of view. A discussion of that these implications then ensues, followed by a directed 20 mark exam question complete with sentence starters. A model conclusion is then included to allow students to a) see before they begin answering to know what direction in which to take their essay, and b) to use to improve their own answers/conclusions in self-assessment. The final plenary centres around the fact that Diodorus remains mostly silent on what, to the other authors at least, seems a turning point in Alexander’s Persian campaign.

This lesson has been created with the OCR Ancient History GCSE 9-1 spec in mind, but provides suitable challenge for any A Level students needing to confront the reliability of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus as historical sources. The lesson really tries to use scholarship in an accessible way. Summaries of journal articles are given to students initially in bite-sized formats. Students are questioned on these before completing some straightfoward comprehension questions to solidify their learning (on a sheet included as a slide within the .pptx file). Students are then presented with summarised information sourced from another journal and academic book which looks at Dionysius’ and Livy’s motives for writing and key learning is then available for note-taking. Students are then given a print out of an empty table where they fill in information about the two authors as the teacher goes through the information on the screen, with students having to guess whether the information belongs in their Livy table or their Dionysius table (teacher led - it’s made obvious on the screen at each point!). Students can then check their tables against a completed one on the screen at the end. The plenary task asks students to come to a decision on who they believe is the most reliable author when it comes to learning about Rome’s earliest history, given all the limitations, biases and the political context constraining each author.