This is a comprehensive knowledge organiser for the AQA GCSE unit on Norman England, 1066-c.1100. Note that this resource is created in A3 size. It covers the entire specification for the Norman England unit - except for the Historic Environment - on three sides of A3. Students who have used this have given excellent feedback, and it has often ended up as their main resource for revision.

A worksheet to help students visualise the change and continuity in the military arrangements of Norman England. Students will arrange a series of statements on a Venn diagram, placing the statements under ‘Saxon England’, ‘Norman England’, or in the overlap to show that the statement applied to both Saxon and Norman England. This will help them to see the extent of change after the Norman Conquest. I have now added more to this resource. To save time, why not print out the statements (included on a PowerPoint) and have students complete a card sort on the board. Once they have done that, you can give them a completed version of the Venn diagram.

This resource was created for use in the AQA GCSE unit on ‘Norman England, 1066-c.1100’, although it could be used for other exam board units on Norman England. There is an expectation that students will have read - or should read while completing the tasks - about education in Norman England, from a text book. However, it would be perfectly possible for them to make some inferences from existing knowledge about Norman England in order to complete the card sort. There are three ‘stages’ to the card sort, which are set out in the PPT: (1) sort into true and false; (2) identify the three key points (which can then be shown on the PPT); (3) to arrange the rest of the cards under the key statements. There is a filled ‘teacher’ version, which has some additional information that could be included. This could be given to students rather than them writing everything out, or simply kept as a crib sheet.

This is a three-lesson sequence to give students the story of Thomas Becket, within the overall enquiry question of “Why was there conflict between the king and the Church?” In the first lesson, students consider the arguments put forward by the king and the Church regarding two major issues of the 12th Century - the appointment of bishops, and the power of the Church courts. In Lessons 2 and 3, students use their inference and oracy skills to study a storyboard of the story of Thomas Becket and tell the story in their own words. They then formulate questions that will help them to understand the story better; and finally read a narrative of the story in order to put the ‘flesh on the bones’. (Note: the actual murder of Becket has been omitted, so the sequence of lessons ends on a cliff-hanger, allowing you to tell the murder story as you see fit!) Includes PPT and worksheets, along with detailed teacher notes explaining how I have conducted these lessons.)

This was originally created for teaching the AQA GCSE ‘Norman England, 1066-c.1100’ unit, but it would be suitable for Edexcel ‘Anglo-Saxon and Norman England’, or OCR ‘The Norman Conquest, 1065–1087’. Students complete an interview with William I, in the format of a newspaper exclusive. The questions posed include: the king’s powers, his advisers, how he ensured his legitimacy, his use of patronage, and the use of the chancery and writs. There is also an ‘agony aunt’ page, posing questions on the Normans’ inheritance laws.

This is a comprehensive knowledge organiser for the AQA GCSE unit on Migration, empires and the people, c.790 to the present day. Note that this resource is created in A3 size. It covers the entire specification for the Migration, empires and the people unit. Students who have used this have given excellent feedback, and it has often ended up as their main resource for revision.

This is a comprehensive knowledge organiser for the AQA GCSE unit on America, 1920-1973: Opportunity and inequality. Note that this resource is created in A3 size. It covers the entire specification for the America, 1920-1973 unit. Students who have used this have given excellent feedback, and it has often ended up as their main resource for revision.

This worksheet introduces the ways in which language changed in England after the Norman Conquest. The sheet is aimed at KS3 students, but could be used in a KS4 unit on Norman England. Students can identify three short extracts of written language - in Anglo-Saxon (the first lines of Beowulf), Norman-French (some lines from the Song of Roland), and Latin (the opening lines of the Bible). Why not give them extra credit if they attempt to read the lines aloud? Students can then read a number of case studies, and identify which languages each character would have to be able to speak in order to survive or thrive in Norman England, with the extra challenge of which languages (if any) they might need to be able to read and/or write. At the end are two questions (with sentence starters) relating to the importance of language in Norman England, and the extent to which language changed with the arrival of the Normans.

This worksheet, suitable for KS3, explores the importance of religion in Medieval England. Students read a number of statements about the Church in Medieval England, and indicate how important the Church was on a scale of 1 to 5. They should explain their score. This resource lends itself to a lot of discussion, and teachers can take the opportunity to help students to develop their arguments and explanations - or to challenge them - in plenary. At the end of the worksheet is a sentence starter which encourages students to provide a synoptic explanation of the importance of religion in Medieval England.

Get your students to work out the order of the kings of England, from 1066-1485, using a set of challenging clues. All the kings of England, from William I to Richard III, are placed into two groups. Each group has a set of clues, from which students work out the correct order. Some of the clues are easy … some of them require a little more thought. There is a grid at the bottom of the sheet where students can write out the kings in the correct order.

A guide to source analysis on German reactions to the Treaty of Versailles, using the ‘Clemenceau the Vampire’ cartoon. A source analysis question, using similar wording to source evaluation questions in the AQA GCSE, guides students through a structured source analysis of the ‘Clemenceau the Vampire’ cartoon. This was produced for students at KS3, and omitted the source evaluation element; but it could be used with KS4 students as well. A series of sentence starters helps students to build up a structured response to the question, while a number of prompts are given to help them developed each sentence or paragraph.

A game of bingo to help students revise the Vietnam War. The words or phrases for this bingo game all focus on the fighting in the Vietnam War, including My Lai and the Tet Offensive. There are 25 words and phrases shown on a PowerPoint slide, along with a set of questions for the teacher to ask - one for each of the words/phrases (along with the answer). I have also produced a bingo card with 20 ‘slots’ - two on the page, which can then be cut into A5 cards for the students.

Move away from the Western Front, and have your students investigate the contribution of the British Empire to World War I. Students can gain an overview of the massive contribution of soldiers from the Caribbean, India, and Africa to Britain’s efforts in WWI, by annotating a world map with a range of information. The information sheet contains a number of pieces of information about the contributions of soldiers from the Empire. Students can write the information in the appropriate boxes on the map, to show why the war really was a ‘world war’. Note that the map sheet has been produced in A3 size.

A set of 221 knowledge retrieval questions for the AQA GCSE unit ‘America 1920-1973: Opportunity and inequality’ - with answers! I produced these retrieval questions for my students so that all they had to do was to find the answers, transfer to flash cards, and start to learn the content. I thought it would be useful (and time saving) to produce a full set of answers, as well - whether you give these to your students is up to you! The questions are divided into 12 sections, roughly corresponding to the headings in the AQA specification: A. The ‘Boom’ (25 questions) B. Entertainment in the 1920s (15 questions) C. Women in the 1920s (13 questions) D. Immigration in the 1920s (14 questions) E. African Americans and the Ku Klux Klan (13 questions) F. Prohibition and the rise of organised crime (20 questions) G. The Great Depression (15 questions) H. The New Deal and economic recovery in WWII (24 questions) I. Post-war economy and society (20 questions) J. Racial tension and civil rights (1) (27 questions) K. Racial tension and civil rights (2) (20 questions) L. Social developments in the 1960s and 1970s (15 questions)

A set of 313 knowledge retrieval questions for the AQA GCSE unit ‘Conflict and tension in Asia, 1950-1975’ - with answers! I produced these retrieval questions for my students so that all they had to do was to find the answers, transfer to flash cards, and start to learn the content. I thought it would be useful (and time saving) to produce a full set of answers, as well - whether you give these to your students is up to you! The questions are divided into 10 sections, roughly corresponding to the headings in the AQA specification. There is also a section on the Cold War background up to 1950, to provide context for the outbreak of the Korean War. A. Cold War background (20 questions B. Background to the Korean War (27 questions) C. The Korean War (23 questions) D. End of the Korean War (26 questions) E. Background to the Vietnam War (27 questions) F. Increasing US involvement in Vietnam (34 questions) G. The Vietnam War (68 questions) H. Nixon’s war in Vietnam (28 questions) I. Opposition to the Vietnam War (35 questions) J. End of the Vietnam War (25 questions)

This is a comprehensive knowledge organiser for the AQA GCSE unit on ‘Conflict and tension in Asia, 1950-1975’. Note that this resource is created in A3 size. It covers the entire specification for the Conflict and tension in Asia unit, on four sides of A3. As well as covering the Korean War and Vietnam War, there is also a section on the beginnings of the Cold War, in order to help contextualise the wars. Students who have used this have given excellent feedback. Many of them have turned to it as their primary revision resource.

A quick dual coding exercise for students, as an add-on to any lesson on the Domesday Survey. For a long time I followed what I considered was the ‘typical’ way to teach Domesday - when it was compiled, how it was compiled, etc. But I realised that I had never explored with my students what, exactly, we can learn and not learn from the Survey. This dual coding exercise will work well as a quick homework exercise - or, indeed, an in-class exercise if you want your students to get on with something independently and show a bit of creativity.