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.
Cold War
The aim of this extended lesson on the Vietnam War is to analyse its significance; from its dubious beginnings and inception to the types of weapons used, the war crimes which followed and the ensuing lack of support at home as well as the consequences for the civilian population of Vietnam.
So why did America fail to win this war despite overwhelming manpower, control of the air and sea and the most modern military weapons available at the time?
As a starting point, students focus on Paul Hardcastle’s 19 song and his reasons for writing it and analyse the photograph of Kim Phúc before examining the details surrounding the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.
They are given a number of differentiated tasks to analyse both American and Vietcong tactics to win the war (using printable worksheets) and the horrors surrounding search and destroy and the My Lai massacre, the tunnelling system as well as the use of napalm and agent orange.
At the end they will prioritise the reasons for Vietcong success and American failure and how this war played its key part in the Cold War.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons is to ask why did civilians fear for their lives during the Cold War? 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.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to explore how and why the D-Day landings were a success.
Students are given the details about the Atlantic Wall and learn how Hitler’s attempts to design and build it ultimately led to its flaws and weakness in repelling the Allied forces in June 1944.
Furthermore, students have to decide which landing site would be more advantageous to the Allies, the port of Calais or the beaches of Normandy.
They also analyse the various ingenious inventions of the Allies from the Mulberry Harbours to the underwater PLUTO pipeline.
There are some excellent visual sources to accompany the lesson and well as video footage from the BBC.
The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The Industrial Revolution
The aim of this lesson is to question how effective Victorian justice was.
This is an interesting and engaging lesson for students as they decide who was a criminal (from their looks), which were the most common crimes in the early 1800’s and what you could expect at a public hanging though some source analysis.
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to answer the following questions:
Why was it so easy to commit crime in the Victorian period in the early nineteenth century and if you were unfortunate to get caught what could you expect from Victorian justice?
What was the Bloody Code and why was the law so harsh to offenders irrespective in some cases of sex or age?
There are also three case studies to unpick and students are left questioning the morality and effectiveness of the punishments inflicted.
Please note that the reform of the criminal justice system is dealt with in other lessons such as the Victorian prison system and the setting up of the Metropolitan Police force by Sir Robert Peel and the abolition of the Bloody Code.
There are a choice of plenaries from hangman to bingo and heart, head, bag, bin which get the students to prioritise the most ‘effective’ methods used to deal with crime.
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.
The Tudors
This lesson poses the question ‘How much of a threat did Mary, Queen of Scots pose to Elizabeth I?’
Students are taken through Mary’s life from becoming Queen of Scotland to the controversy of her husbands and her eventual house arrest in England.
Through sources, visual and video evidence, students have conclude how much of a threat Mary posed to Elizabeth, after pleading their case through the eyes of Mary herself.
There is some help to write an extended answer using key words which help mention cause and effect, to sequence events and to emphasise judgements.
There is also analysis of the Babington Plot and a deciphering exercise to work out on how Mary was implicated.
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.
Norman Conquest
The aim of the lesson is to understand how WIlliam asserted his control over the population using the feudal system.
Students get to know how the feudal system works by interacting with each other in a Norman style ‘party’.
They each have a card to read which tells them their status and their oath to William. However they will have to decide and justify if they are happy with their status or not.
This lesson is designed to be fun, with students required to interact with each other and show their status by using the tables and chairs in the room.
The lesson uses video footage and music to engage and connect the learning.
Further learning tasks include creating a feudal system diagram using differentiated prompts, as well as explaining how it worked and analysing how pleasant it was to be a peasant under this system.
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 Suffragettes
The lesson focuses on the main differences between the Suffragists and Suffragettes, but also looks at their similarities.
Students are asked as to why women wanted the vote and how they were going to achieve it?
Further into the lesson, students have to analyse the various methods used by both groups and have to question, prioritise and justify their effectiveness.
Included is a thinking quilt which tests pupils’ understanding and links the key ideas, dates, people and definitions together.
A differentiated plenary questions and checks their understanding of 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, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to analyse Nazi policies towards women and then evaluate how effective they were at controlling them.
The start of the lesson questions the qualities Hitler is looking for in women and then questions what makes the perfect Nazi woman using key words.
Students then have some differentiated questions to complete, using text before evaluating how much certain women were controlled and explaining to what extent.
A GCSE practice question focuses on ‘Which source is the most convincing?’, complete with simplified markscheme and notes on the slide for more guidance.
The key words are then revisited in the plenary.
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 Tudors
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 English Civil War
This lesson aims to analyse the personality of King Charles and questions how and why this might have implications for his reign.
Following in his father’s footsteps, his vanity and obsession with the Divine Right of Kings are major causes of concern for those in Parliament.
Students learn about his fragility in his younger life to eventual arrogance as he became King and will link a number of reasons together as to why this was to lead to Civil War.
Video footage and sourcework are used to gather the evidence and the students will have to think outside the box to understand his motives and actions and link ideas together.
The plenary is a literacy challenge to help evaluate his personality using key words from the lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Norman Conquest
The aim of this lesson is to challenge the overarching question as to whether the punishments fitted the crimes in the Middle Ages.
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 the Middle Ages 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.
Historic Environment Question for 2024
This nine page Revision Guide is aimed at students to help study, organise, revise and be prepared for the AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England 1568-1603 Historic Environment question for 2024.
I have included 6 possible questions for GCSE exam practice on the themes I believe stand out in the literature provided. Within the guide itself, I have broken down the main details of the Americas and Drake’s circumnavigation into manageable chunks.
This guide focuses on the main concepts prescribed by AQA. For example it examines the location of the New World and its growing importance for Drake and his fellow navigators, the function and structure of seafaring as new navigational techniques and ship design allowed more exploration.
It will also analyse the people connected to Drake’s circumnavigation including Sir John Hawkins and Diego as well as giving information on Drake and the different interpretations of him at the time.
Furthermore the culture, values and fashions connected with Drake’s circumnavigation are examined as untold riches such as feathers, pearls, jewels and gold became essential accessories for the fashionistas of Elizabethan England.
Finally important events are linked to Drake’s voyages from his initial slave excursions to his revenge attacks on Spanish shipping and his circumnavigation, as well focusing on the detailed maps and illustrations in his diaries and journals of new lands he discovered.
All the information and more included is advised by AQA through their Paper 2: Shaping the nation resource pack guidance.
I have also gained a brilliant insight into the Americas and Drake’s circumnavigation from renowned historians such as Ben Johnson, Miranda Kaufman and the superb Professor Jowett, as well as numerous other sources, including the fabulous BBC History Today magazine and podcasts.
The resource comes in PDF and Word formats if you wish to adapt and change.
Any reviews on this resource which would be much appreciated.
This is the complete bundle in a series of lessons I have created for AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c.1000-present.
I have taught this course for more than 20 years now and have decided to completely overhaul my lessons to bring them up to date with the latest teaching and learning ideas I have picked up and with a focus on the new 9-1 GCSE.
Furthermore I have dispensed with learning objectives to focus on specific enquiry based questions which address skills required for the GCSE questions.
As well as focusing on GCSE exam practice questions, the lessons are all differentiated and are tailored to enable the students to achieve the highest grades. They are also fully resourced and contain easy to print worksheets.
The lessons will allow students to demonstrate (AO1) knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the periods studied from the impact of Hippocrates and Galen on medieval medicine to the new ideas of the Renaissance, the laissez-faire approach of preceding Governments through to modern day Government and the nanny state.
They will study (AO2) second-order concepts such as change and continuity in the development of ideas about disease as well as the causes and consequences of medical treatment throughout the ages
The analysis and evaluation of sources (AO3) are used in for example, surgery, Public Health and the introduction of the NHS whilst substantiated judgements are made (AO4) on the discovery and development of penicillin, the development of the welfare state and the influence of the seven factors in medicine.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 An introduction to the course
L2 Hippocrates and Galen
L3 The influence of the Christian Church
L4 Islamic Medicine (free resource)
L5 Doctors and surgeons in the Middle Ages
L6 Public Health in the Medieval towns
L7 The Black Death and the Plague
L8 Renaissance Medicine
L9 Medicine in the 17th and 18th Century (free resource)
L10 John Hunter
L11 Edward Jenner and smallpox
L12 Surgery in the 19th Century
L13 Florence Nightingale and hospitals
L14 Pasteur, Koch and Tyndall
L15 Public Health in the 19th Century
L16 Liberal Reforms
L17 Medicine and war (free resource)
L18 Magic Bullets and the Pharmaceutical Industry
L19 Penicillin
L20 The NHS
L21 How to answer the factor question
Please note that setting a full mock examination in class after completing each unit is strongly recommended (L1-7, L8-15 and L16-21).
All the examination resources and markschemes are subject to copyright but can easily be found on the AQA website.
Unfortunately TES restrict bundles to 20 lessons and therefore please download Lesson 17 separately, which is a free resource.
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.
The Tudors
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.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to assess how effective the different types of opposition were towards the Nazis in Germany.
This lesson is split into three main areas of opposition to the Nazi regime: resistance, non-conformism and open criticism.
The lesson also looks in depth at Church opposition, youth opposition, passive resistance, Jewish resistance and the Stauffenberg Bomb Plot.
Students are given a list of ways of opposing the Nazis which they have to categorise and through some independent research decide the best and most effective forms of opposition.
Moreover by the end of the lesson students will be able to assess and judge why opposition was ineffective against the Nazi state.
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 for students to analyse and evaluate the winning tactics used in by William in the Battle of Hastings
Students commence by analysing the Bayeux Tapestry, sources of the battle and information on the leadership qualities of the two combatants.
They then complete a differentiated task using a storyboard to map out the events of the battle before completing a summarising pyramid on William’s skills.
There is also a chance to recreate the battle with suggestions of role play before the plenary requires some recall and retention skills.
An optional homework suggestion is also provided.
The resource is therefore differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The British Empire
This lesson focuses on the role Gandhi played in achieving Indian independence from Britain which ultimately cost him his life.
The first part of the lesson looks at why the Indian population were unhappy with British rule, from the Indian Mutiny of 1857, events happening abroad to the Rowlatt Act culminating in the Amritsar Massacre.
They are then introduced to Gandhi, his philosophy of passive resistance (or as he called it satyagraha) and why he set up his Independent Congress Party. This is accompanied with some excellent video footage from the BBC as well as clips from the film ‘Gandhi’ by Sir Richard Attenborough.
The second part of the lesson centers around his life and by analysing various sources from which they complete either a table or grid; students then have to decide how big a part Gandhi played in many events leading to Independence and his lasting legacy for India in 1947.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching and learning strategies, differentiated materials and is linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to question whether the breaking of the Enigma Code led to Britain winning the Second World War.
Having watched the ‘Imitation Game’, I was fascinated to learn more about the story of Alan Turing and the injustice he received at the hands of the British Government.
I was therefore inspired to write this lesson for my department especially after his contribution to the war effort and his brilliance of mind.
The first task naturally is for students to crack the code and find out what they will be learning about in the lesson.
They will also learn about the significance of Bletchley Park and how the code for the Enigma Machine was deciphered by Turing and his team in Hut 8, using a missing word activity.
A thinking quilt will also test and challenge their understanding of his early life, his work during the war as well as his legacy.
There are some excellent video links using the bbc website and an exert from the film above.
The plenary will finally test their understanding of the lesson, using a true and false quiz as well as images to link to the key ideas of the lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Norman Conquest
This lesson is an introduction to the Bayeux Tapestry and follows the enquiry question of the previous lessons which seek to understand how much control William the Conqueror had over the population.
The lesson explains some key facts about the tapestry and its propaganda purposes for the Normans.
There is a crossword to fill in as well as some analysis of the tapestry itself.
A brilliant animated video of the tapestry brings it to life and students are questioned to how the Normans and Saxons are portrayed.
Students are also challenged in a Bayeux Tapestry thinking quilt, which requires them to link key words and definitions together and explain their overall significance.
The lesson is interactive and gets students moving around the classroom. It is also ideal for non-specialists.
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 and notes on the slides for further information.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The Tudors
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the consequences of Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries and who were the winners and losers.
The start of the lesson gets the students to imagine walking into a monastery, with accompanying music to set the tone. They are given character cards (for both monks and nuns) and introduce themselves to each other to learn about their various roles.
Students then have to analyse information, which is starting to make them scared of the changes that are happening all around them and subsequently decide what will happen to their character as a consequence of the dissolution.
The plenary tests them in a six minute challenge of what they have learnt in the lesson and adds a competitive edge at the end.
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.
