This lesson is designed with the new OCR Ancient History GCSE in mind. The lesson starter involves a memory drawing game that is meant to draw out the theme of exile (a Q&A can then ensue regarding Lucretia and the circumstances of Tarquin’s exile form Rome). A quote from Livy is then included with students encouraged to reflect on what it tells us about Brutus’ character (and how he was motivated -challenge). There is then a missing words exercise (one expected, one challenge) which introduces students to the story of how Superbus went about trying to keep hold of his property once exiled. Two 6 mark exam questions are included (with help on structure and content) which take 6 minutes each as per the ‘mark a minute’ nature of the GCSE exam. One is based on a passage from Livy that students are encouraged to summarise into 5 parts before they beign their answer. 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. The lesson ends with a series of abstract images, with students having to link the images to what they have learnt in the lesson.

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 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 lesson is designed with the new OCR Ancient History 9-1 GCSE spec in mind. All worksheets referenced here and in the lesson are included as Powerpoint slides within the .ppt file and can be printed off and given to students. Brief summaries of the Aeneas’ travels and the story of Romulus and Remus begin the lesson and the first activity involves dual-coding these stories to help commit them to memory. The lesson then turns towards how to answer the 10 mark questions that appear in the first half (period study) of each of the two GCSE papers. A Passage from Livy about Aeneas’ troubles with Turnus is the focus of the first question where students are taken through step by step guidance and then a model answer. Then it is students’ turn to have a go but this time they are given a passage from Livy about Romulus and Remus’ quarrel. They must follow the step by step guidance to answer the question in 10 minutes. They are then presented with another model answer and must use this to improve their own and then explain how they improved their answer. The lesson finishes with students needing to explain how to be successful in answering a 10 mark question and then as a plenary they are asked to match abstract images to what they have learnt in the lesson so that you can check their understanding before they leave.

This lesson is designed with the new OCR Ancient History 9-1 GCSE spec in mind. Any worksheets/resources referenced here and in the lesson are included as Powerpoint slides within the .ppt file and can be printed off and given to students. The starter for the lesson are exam ‘warm up’ 2 mark questions based on what students most likely already know about Romulus’ actions as king of Rome. This is revisited at the end of the lesson to see if students can remember and to try and get the learning to ‘stick’. Students then look Livy as a primary source and reflect on Livy’s opinion of the king and the context in which Livy was writing. Nine of Numa’s reforms are included in the .ppt file as a slide as ‘cards’ which students are to cut out and create a ‘diamond 9’ in order to get them thinking about which of his reforms were the most and least important. This is followed by a challenge where students try to categorise his reforms themselves to see if a pattern develops. A 15 mark exam question is then included based on a passage from Livy with step by step help in how to answer the question running alongside the passage. A video on the Roman Monarchy which includes a summary of Numa’s role is also linked to at the end to summarise.

This lesson is designed with the new OCR Ancient History 9-1 GCSE spec in mind, although it would provide an excellent introductory lesson to Rome’s early history for any students embarking on a study of Rome. It would be helpful if students had some prior knowledge of Rome’s foundation myths (Romulus & Remus, Aeneas) but this is not essential at all. All worksheets referenced here and in the lesson are included as Powerpoint slides within the .ppt file and can be printed off and given to students. The lesson begins with a quick quiz and quick-fire answers provided to establish what students know already about Rome’s foundation stories. This quiz is repeated at the end to see if students can retain any of this information - the idea being that giving them time to forget and remember helps them to retain the knowledge in the long run. Students are then given accessible information on: Romulus’ political intitiatives Rome’s abduction of the Sabine women The development of the Senate under Romulus And complete a table worksheet (included in the .ppt file) with details and then they are encouraged to think which event was the most significant. Students can then challenge themselves by considering the long term significance of these events in relation to each other. Three 6 mark exam questions are then included + advice on how to answer them. These can be used simply as summary questions for those not studying the OCR Ancient History GCSE and will allow you to assess the extent of their learning. Finally (prior to students attempting the initial quiz again) there is a link to a video summarising Romulus’ impact on early Rome which students can use to add to their notes they have made in the lesson.

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.

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.

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.

And how well did each one rule the Persian Empire? This lesson has been designed as an ‘opening’ or ‘overview’ lesson for OCR Ancient History GCSE students, embarking on their study of the Persian Empire/ Achaemenid kings (Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes). It has also been used however as a stand alone lesson, for example as a lesson in a thematic unit on different empires throughout history. The starter introduces students to the geography of the Persian Empire in relation to Europe and the rest of the world - giving students some context. The main bulk of the lesson is based around an activity involving four A5 cards. Each A5 card has details about each king. Students identify positives and negatives of each king from the cards and then evaluate the relative success of each one in relation to the others. The information cars are included as slides within the PowerPoint, ready to be printed. Students are then advised how to apply the knowledge they have gained to the June 2019 summer exam essay question through the use of visuals, followed by an effective plenary involving students judging their own progress (with your support) using ‘post-it’ notes. This lesson is designed to last an hour, unless you elect for students to attempt the exam question, in which case it will run to nearer two. The resources are very accessible are designed with the research behind ‘dual-coding’ in mind. The resources do not shy away from some ambitious vocabulary though and teachers may find spending some lesson time unpicking some of this vocabulary useful.

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 aims to comprehensively cover all of the Renaissance influences prevalent throughout the castle buildings and, particularly, the castle gardens. It would be particularly useful to anyone teaching AQA GCSE History, wehre the 2021 site study is Kenilworth Castle. The lesson starts by quickly analysing the view of a historian about the balance between the Medieval and Renaissance features of the castle. There is then brief discussion of what the Renaissance actually was (with reference to early (low) and later (high) Renaissance architecture. There are various examples of Renaissance architecture then presented to students alongside the ancient Classical buildings they were influenced by. This allows students ti visually compare the buildings and see how Classical architectural styles influenced buildings during the Renaissance. The notes section also provides the key thinking behind each slide if you are unsure of the discussion points pertinent to a particular slide. Robert Dudley’s Renaissance extension of Kenilworth Castle is then discussed, followed by a discussion on how he was somewhat of a trend-setter, influencing later Renaissance architecture in England (e.g. Hardwick Hall). But also why Dudley, Earl of Leicester, believed them to be important. The imagery surrounding the Roman goddess Diana is also discussed as well as parallels Dudley was perhaps seeking to make between her and Elizabeth. Finally, there is advice on an exam-style question (16 mark essay question) and students revisit the initial historian’s interpretation to see whether their views have become more nuanced. Key learning is emphasised on slides throughout the lesson to be printed off or just to help anchor the lesson.

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.

I have created this lesson due to the lack of resources available to secondary teachers above and beyond the standard trope of "Romulus was celebrated because he founded Rome and established the city among its neighbours’ and Tullus Hostilius was a bad king because he focused far too much on war and neglected religion’ This view is expounded by nearly all freely available information on the Roman kings online and in secondary text books. This has arguably come about because Livy is the ‘go-to’ source for a history of the Roman regal period. This is fine but often other resources take his moral stances and opinions as fact. It is well known in academia (as the lesson points out using scholarship in an accessible way) that Livy uses the first four Roman kings as a vehicle for his messages regarding proper decorum from Rome’s public officials. He claims there are lessons to be learnt from History and shapes his narrative to do this. This lesson therefore seeks to dig into the similarities between Romulus and Tullus, both war-like and easily compared, and to challenge the notion that Tullus’ kingship should be seen in the negative light in which school-level resources tend to (all too easily) paint him. It introduces the opinions of Dionysius of Halicarnassus and of Cicero in order to draw out the nuance in the ways Romans themselves interpreted Tullus’ reign in light of Romulus’ achievements. There is suitable challenge in this lesson as you might imagine but I have also been careful to provide plenty of support in the way of glossaries of key terms and key questions teachers should be posing at each point within the lesson.