I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
This is a great game to be used after having studied attacking and defending a Medieval Castle in Norman England.
Students take on the role of the defenders of a Medieval Castle (in this case loosely based on the siege of Rochester Castle by King John in 1215).
They have failed to pay their taxes and King John and his knights are marching on the Castle.
Their job is to defend the Castle at all costs by making wise choices and thus collecting points as they go.
When they have completed the tasks, they are given a student friendly markscheme which will by the end give them great status as geniuses of siege warfare or not as the case may be!
Students can write out the choices they make or just the numbers and corresponding letters. They can only make one choice per question.
Please note that that it best presented by enlarging onto an A3 sheet.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The Collapse of Democracy 1928-1933
I have produced this bundle of resources on the collapse of democracy in Germany 1928-1933 to help A Level students gain a deeper understanding of Germany’s past and the collapse of democracy.
The enquiry question throughout these lessons will be to evaluate how unstable Germany was, politically, socially and economically.
Students will learn how the impact of the Wall Street Crash and the Depression a profound effect on the stability of the Weimar Republic and the significance of the rise of extremism as a direct consequence.
They will also learn about the appeal of Communism as well as Nazism and how electoral support for them changed throughout the early 1930s.
Students will evaluate backstairs intrigue as a succession of Chancellors failed to gain the support needed to effectively rule the country and how Hitler manipulated those around him to be appointed Chancellor in 1933.
Finally students will analyse Hitler’s first Cabinet, the significance of the Reichstag Fire and how democracy ceased to exit as Nazis began to create a one party state.
The resources provided include detailed lesson plans, case studies, source documents for analysis, chronological tasks and exam practice questions with comprehensive mark schemes.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 The Wall Street Crash and Great Depression
L2 The Collapse of the Grand Coalition
L3 The appeal of Nazis
L4 The appeal of Communism
L5 Papen’s Cabinet of Barons
L6 General Schleicher and backstairs intrigue
L7 Hitler’s first cabinet (free resource)
L8 The use of terror in 1933
The lessons include the two types of exam question used, with examples of how to tackle them, using model answers, helpful hints and tips, structuring and scaffolding as well as markschemes. However, please refer to the AQA website for further assessment materials as they are subject to copyright.
The lessons are also differentiated and fully resourced and allow students to reach the very top marks.
Democracy and Nazi Germany Part 3 resources can be found here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/democracy-and-nazi-germany-a-level-bundl-part-3-13059603
If you have any questions about the lessons, please email me via my TES shop, or any other information about the course.
I would also welcome any reviews, which would be gratefully appreciated.
The aim of this lesson is for the students to understand the causes and prioritise the reasons for the failure of the Spanish Armada.
As the students are posed with the question, ‘Why did the Spanish eat rope?’, they make up an explosive cocktail to understand the main causes of the invasion.
As the story unravels as to the failures of the Spanish invasion fleet, students have to analyse and prioritise which were the main reasons for English success, against Spanish superiority in numbers and firepower.
The plenary requires students to evaluate the Blob bridge and explain which blob represents the best fit in this story, from an English sailor, the Spanish public right up to Queen Elizabeth and King Philip.
The lesson is differentiated and includes video evidence as well as an interactive diagram plotting the route of the Armada.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The aim of this lesson is to challenge the overarching question as to whether the punishments fitted the crimes in the Middle Ages in Norman England.
There is a key focus on literacy throughout the lesson, as students are introduced to a number of key words which they have to fit into a missing word activity and well as using some differentiated story source scholarship to define certain key words using inference and analytical skills.
This resource uses visuals to explain the punishments used in Norman England as well as the causes of crime.
There is also some excellent BBC video footage to accompany the lesson.
Students will be required to complete an extended piece of writing, using the key words they have learnt from the lesson as well as having to justify and explain the key concepts of crime and punishment in an odd one out activity.
This lesson is designed to be interactive, fun, challenging and engaging.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end using a rate ‘o’ meter to show the progress of learning.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The aim of this test is to find out how much the students know about history.
The results will give you a baseline from which you can build upon. Once they begin to study history, they will begin to show progress in all areas, particularly in the amount of detail required in answers.
The test focuses on chronology, cause and consequence, change and continuity, historical enquiry, interpretation and significance.
This is a particularly useful assessment for a history department and as a starting point and ideally for Year 7.
Most students sadly will not have studied a lot of history at their primary schools (apart from the odd day to study the Victorians or World War 2) as literary, numeracy and SATS still dominate primary school curriculum planning.
The resource comes in Word and PowerPoint formats which can be amended and changed to suit.
Britain: Health and the People, c1000 to present
The aim of the lesson is for students to understand why penicillin was seen as a wonder drug and how it was discovered and then developed during World War 2
Students first of all learn about the role played by Alexander Fleming in the story of penicillin from his chance discovery and the acclaim that eventually followed.
The lesson therefore leads the students inadvertently to celebrate his attributes and significance.
The second part of the lesson devotes itself to the parts played by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain in the development of penicillin during World War 2.
Questions and sources are used to analyse why they were unhappy with Fleming and how they had tremendous problems initially producing enough to treat patients effectively.
Students have to now question their original assumptions and finally evaluate the most significant of the three in the story of penicillin.
There is also some source analysis for exam question practice.
The lesson is accompanied by video footage and other documentary evidence as it establishes the part played by factors such as individual genius, science and technology as well as chance.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate how effectively the Nazis controlled its Youth.
The lesson is split into two parts and can be delivered over two lessons.
The first part looks at the Hitler Youth, the activities organised for boys and girls and the purpose behind them.
Students then have to analyse four pieces of evidence and evaluate how much they are being controlled.
Some differentiated questioning and higher order thinking allows you to see how much they are making progress in the lesson.
The second part focuses on education and what the young people are taught at school.
Again the students are challenged and questioned on how effective this diet of propaganda was, with an emphasis that not all lessons were anti-Semitic.
Various and excellent video footage is used to consolidate understanding.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
American Civil RIghts
The aim of this lesson is to show a different approach to achieving Civil Rights pursued by Malcolm X.
The start of the lesson asks why Malcolm Little changed his name and makes a link to the film by Spike Lee.
It follows his early life chronologically and some higher order thinking questions are posed.
The lesson then looks at his later life and beliefs and analyses some of his views and most famous quotations in a fun and engaging way.
Students have to finally decide the most important aspects of his legacy and prioritise them, as well as deciding the fundamental differences of his beliefs and approach compared to Martin Luther King.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the effects of hyperinflation upon German society.
There is much debate on whether Germany had the ability to pay its reparations; students have to decide how exaggerated German woes actually were.
Moreover Germany had been suffering from inflation since 1918; students again have to decide why the government pursued an inflationary policy and how this was enforced politically upon them.
Students are also required to assess the winners and losers of hyperinflation and who was affected in the short, medium and long terms.
Finally there is a literacy bodged plenary to complete together with some source exam question practice, with a planning sheet and generic markscheme if required.
There is a enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the role the Black Tudors played in Tudor society.
Students are given the context of the Tudor times, where they use some source scholarship and questioning to decide how and why Black Tudors came to Britain.
Students then have to ascertain which roles and forms of employment they had using a dual coding activity to decipher them.
There are video links included as well as a thinking quilt, which is designed to challenge concepts and judge the value and importance of their impact upon Tudor England.
The main task is some research which requires students to analyse five Black Tudors in some differentiated Case Studies.
The plenary concludes by checking what they have learnt in the lesson using an odd one out activity or by linking symbols and images used throughout the lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The aim of this lesson is to explore how historians find out about the past using historical sources.
Students are firstly questioned about how we can find out about Castles or Roman artefacts for example with usually some interesting replies.
They then have to study four historical sources with differentiated questioning to help decipher and discover their provenance.
There is an extended writing task to complete with their new found knowledge, with help and prompts given if required.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The aim of this lesson is to understand how successful William the Conqueror was controlling England through his survey.
Students will learn how he needed to find out as much as he could about the Anglo-Saxon population.
They are encouraged at the start to answer a series of questions (a survey) of what they own; this is exactly what William did, but minus the enthusiasm shown in the class to list all their belongings!
Through a study of horrible history video footage and source analysis, students realise just how intrusive this new book was and they have to justify, whether in written form or orally, why people in medieval society began to resent it.
For homework they have a chance to find out about their own area and what it offered in 1086 with an exemplar given.
This is a fun, interactive and challenging lesson in which all the students can take part and make their own conclusions.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end using a rate ‘o’ meter to show the progress of learning.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
I have created a set of resources for ‘the causes and events of the civil wars throughout Britain’ which comes under the development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745 in the National Curriculum.
These lessons are also useful if you are studying this period at GCSE (such as AQA 9-1 GCSE Power and the People and OCR Explaining the Modern World)
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations and debate from the BBC and other sources.
The lessons are fully adaptable in Powerpoint format and can be changed to suit. I have included a couple of free lessons to give an idea of what is being offered.
The lessons are broken down into the following:
L1 Who was James I?
L2 The Gunpowder Plot
L3 Who was Charles I
L4 The Causes of the English Civil War (free resource)
L5 Cavaliers and Roundheads
L6 How did the two sides fight?
L7 The execution of Charles I
L8 Who was Oliver Cromwell
L9 Witches and Witchcraft (free resource)
L10 Charles II and the Restoration
L11 The Glorious Revolution
Additional lessons:
L12 Causes of the Great Fire of London
L13 Consequences of the Great Fire of London
( + Key Word History Display included)
Any reviews would be greatly appreciated.
Cold War
The aim of this lesson is to understand the causes behind the building of the Berlin Wall and the consequences for Berliners during the height of the Cold War.
Students analyse the differences between life on the East and West sides of Berlin to understand why thousands of Germans continued to cross the border to make a better life in West Berlin.
The second part of the lesson focuses on the building of the wall, using statistics, graffiti art and the personal account of Conrad Shuman in a thinking quilt to develop further understanding and evaluate its significance in the context of the Cold War.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons is to ask why did civilians fear for their lives? Students will map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around the key question) and build up a picture of how these and different countries in the world responded and acted in this new nuclear age.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is rate the power of the Church under Henry VII.
To understand the power of the Church, students have to learn how it pervaded throughout peoples’ lives. They also have to comprehend the structure of the Church, from the Pope in Rome, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops and their dioceses as well as the ordinary priests, monks and nuns.
Students will also undertake a research task in groups within the lesson to discover the influence of the Church in politics as well as the underlying corruption at its heart.
Some exam question practice focuses on this corruption and a grid assessing whether the Church was in need of reform will go some way to help students answer the question. Some scaffolding, help and tips as well as a generic markscheme come as standard
There is an enquiry question posed and revisited to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
The Industrial Revolution
The aim for writing this lesson is to challenge the traditional view that Jack the Ripper targeted prostitutes or sex workers in Victorian London.
Whilst much has been written about the Jack the Ripper and how clever he was to avoid detection, very little has been written about the lives of his victims.
Therefore with this in mind, students will learn how difficult it was for Victorian women to lead comfortable lives as marriage, children, work, alcoholism, the workhouse and poverty took its toll on them.
Students begin the lesson with an overview by learning what is known about Jack the Ripper, who he killed and how the police had little evidence or clues to go on. There is a video link and a true or false activity to complete this.
They will then have to use a number of images to decide how hard life was for Victorian women and the pressures they were under. A differentiated missing word activity can be completed to piece together many of these problems, based on the lives of the five women murdered.
A case study of Annie Chapman, the Ripper’s second victim, will centre around her privileged life before alcoholism took over, forcing her to separate from her husband and children as she moved from a village near Windsor Castle to the doss houses of Whitechapel.
Here, students have to colour code the main factors and problems which affected her life.
An extended writing task can then be completed, with a writing structure and key words given to help if required.
The plenary poses some differentiated questions from the learning completed in the lesson.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
A big thank you goes to Hallie Rubenhold, whose fabulous book ‘The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women killed by Jack the Ripper’ inspired me to write this lesson.
The Tudors
The aim of this lesson is to decide which Tudor explorer deserves the most recognition in a seafaring ‘Hall of Fame’.
Students are led through the journeys and discoveries of sailors in Elizabethan England from the Cabot brothers to Gerardus Mercator and his brilliant Atlas. (This was to give the navigator a map, where a line of constant bearing would cross all meridians at the same angle)
The sailors achievements and the problems they encountered are given through learning activities such as a play your cards right, video evidence, a true or false quiz and a plotting exercise of Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe on a blank world map.
The main task is to analyse and evaluate the achievements of the Tudor explorers - Drake, Hawkins and Raleigh with differentiated resource materials.
Students are given specific criteria to judge this before ultimately deciding who had the greatest impact and should be given the most recognition for Elizabethan exploration.
The lesson concludes with a literacy key word game.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Power and the People, c.1170 to the present day
This 33 page Revision Guide is broken down into four sections: challenging authority and feudalism, challenging royal authority, reform and reformers and equality and rights.
The Guide starts by explaining the 4 questions types asked in the exam and gives suggestions and tips on the easiest way to tackle these.
The Revision Guide gives over 20 typical exam questions asked on each topic (from significance, to how useful, to similarities and differences to factors) and how to put these questions into practise with model answers.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and can be adapted and changed to suit with PDF and Word formats supplied.
This Guide can be used for revision, interleaving, within the classroom as well for homework purposes.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated.
Britain: Health and the People c1000 to present
The aims of this lesson is threefold; for students to recognise the introduction of sulphonamides and how the first magic bullets were discovered, analyse the growth of the pharmaceutical industry and evaluate the difficulties of eradicating the new superbugs which are resistant to antibiotics and alternative medicines.
The first task for students is to analyse the work of Ehrlich and Domagk in their quest to cure diseases such as syphilis, malaria and blood poisoning.
Students then have to judge how significant their work was and justify this in a grid (from not a all, partially, moderately, substantially and significantly)
The second task evaluates the work of the Pharmaceuticals such as Wellcome, KlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, the positive work they do into researching new medicines but also looking at the negatives as well, such as the drug Thalidomide.
The final part of the lesson requires students to analyse how and why there are diseases resistant to antibiotics using current research available from the NHS as well as reasons why people are turning in increasing numbers to alternative treatments and medicines such as acupuncture and homeopathy.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
Cold War
The aims of this lesson are to explain what the Cold War was in post war Europe and how it developed between the two existing Superpowers in 1945.
The USA and the USSR had different ideologies and students will learn the differences between Capitalism and Communism.
Furthermore, despite cordial relations at the three meetings held before the end of the war at Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, suspicions were soon aroused.
Students will analyse the preceding decisions made about the divisions of Germany and Berlin and make informed judgements as to why these suspicions developed.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons is to ask why did civilians fear for their lives? Students will map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around a lightbulb) and build up a picture of how these and different countries in the world responded and acted in this new nuclear age.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
