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.
The English Civil War
The aim of this lesson is to question if James I was the most ‘suitable’ candidate to succeed Elizabeth I as monarch of England, Scotland and Wales.
The lesson begins with the death of Elizabeth and the suggestion of the enormity of the task that lays ahead for the new monarch.
James I puts down his own marker quite forcibly from the start in a letter to her chief advisor, Robert Cecil.
Students have to sift through the evidence provided to make up their own minds.
They are then required to report back to Cecil with their findings with scaffolding and key words provided if required.
The plenary uses the blob playground for students to make links to James and his ‘characteristics’.
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.
Rise of Dictators
The aim of this lesson is to decide if Robert Mugabe was a hero or a villain.
Students are introduced to his early life in a text mapping exercise which they have to decipher to understand his credentials for Presidency.
They are given information about Mugabe’s career from which they then have to give a number of ratings as to whether he was indeed a hero or villain.
Subsequent video footage gives the thoughts of people from Zimbabwe today as well as other commentators to help them in their comprehension of the task in hand.
An extended written piece, using a writing frame, will allow students to demonstrate their understanding and give a full evaluation of his rule.
A fragment exercise as well as a find and fix plenary recaps on what they have learnt in the lesson and reinforces their judgements of him.
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.
This key word literacy display has been designed to be used on classroom walls (or on display boards outside) when introducing a new History topic to the students.
It is an easy resource to print and will hopefully save an incredible amount of time and effort when incorporating literacy into a new or existing scheme of work. The slides can also be laminated and used as mobiles hanging from the ceiling or used as part of an informative display.
The slides cover the following words and their definitions:
abolition, American Civil War, auction, slave, branding, captive, emancipate, flux, Guinea coast, Harriet Tubman, Indentured servants, lynching, manumission, Middle Passage, plantation, profit, repatriation, resistance, shackles, sharecropper, slave colony, tight pack, Triangular trade, Thomas Clarkson, trans-Atlantic, underground railroad, William Wilberforce.
The slides come in PowerPoint format so they are easy to change and adapt.
This key word literacy display has been designed to be used on classroom walls (or on display boards outside) when introducing a new History topic to the students.
It is an easy resource to print and will hopefully save an incredible amount of time and effort when incorporating literacy into a new or existing scheme of work.
The slides can also be laminated and used as mobiles hanging from the ceiling or used as part of an informative display.
The slides cover the following words and their definitions:
Agent Orange, Arms Race, Bay of Pigs, Berlin Airlift, Berlin Wall, Cold War, communism, containment, Cuba, Cuban Missile Crisis, East and West Germany, exclusion zone, Fidel Castro, ideology, iron curtain, Marshall Plan, McCarthyism, NATO, Nikita Khrushchev, President Kennedy, red scare, soviet bloc, Soviet Union, Superpower, trade embargo, Truman Doctrine, U2, Warsaw Pact, zones of occupation
The slides come in PowerPoint format so they are easy to change and adapt.
The Tudors
The aim of this lesson to find out about the hidden messages in Elizabeth I’s portrait paintings.
Students learn about how Elizabeth manipulated her portraits and added symbols, each of which had a hidden meaning.
The introduction to the lesson looks at anachronisms and modern day symbols put into portraits to get the students thinking how pictures should not always be seen and taken at face value. Thus inference skills are high on the agenda in this lesson.
Students are then given information about each of her paintings and have to analyse and evaluate their meanings and various symbolic codes.
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 Industrial Revolution
The aim of this lesson is for students to analyse the changes that were happening in the Industrial Revolution and then to question if these changes made peoples’ lives better or worse. (Thus focusing on the historical skills of change and continuity and cause and consequence)
The students are given a picture as they walk into the room which describes an invention that has been introduced during the Industrial Revolution. They then organise themselves into chronological order before discussing who it affected, why it would affect them and how it could transform the lives of people.
They also have to decide in a Britain’s Got Talent Quiz which invention is the most important and would win the Golden Buzzer.
Furthermore they analyse further changes which occurred, how they link together and for extra challenge decide how many of the changes refer to economic, social, demographic, political or technological changes.
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 assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Nazi economy.
I have always found this topic very dry; therefore I have tried to make it more accessible, more challenging as well as more relevant.
Students are taken on a journey of success, from video footage of the time to Goebbels propaganda, a fall in unemployment as well as the ‘Strength Through Joy’ scheme.
However further analysis, especially with aims of the Four Year Plan, shows the enormous cracks appearing in Nazi economic policy. A further look at the Home Front also proves how desperate Germans had become.
Students will complete their own chart and scrutinise the evidence to come up with their own conclusions before deciding if the Nazis truly brought economic success.
The GCSE question at the end focuses on which groups were more affected with Nazi economic policies and a self and peer assessment task is included to help the students mark their answers.
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 Industrial Revolution
This lesson aims to evaluate the problems within Industrial towns and the impact they had on the growing population during the Industrial Revolution.
The lesson starts by analysing the source from Punch in 1852, 'A Court For King Cholera’, which is later annotated to help aid discussion.
Various images, video evidence and headlines allow students to build up a picture, which they then have to explain to a friend in a letter - using scaffolding and a writing frame if required.
Students also evaluate how and why the living conditions became like this and question if this was the case across the country as they are given further evidence from the wealthy in Victorian England, comparing the dwellings of the rich and poor.
Students will therefore be able by the end of the lesson be able to give an effective and balanced answer to this lesson.
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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c1000 to present
The aim of this lesson is to judge the contribution and impact Florence made to medicine.
Did Florence Nightingale singly handedly improve hospitals or were improvements afoot before she went to the Crimea?
This is the driving question students will have in mind as they evaluate the reputation of women, nurses and hospitals before the Crimean War.
Students will also analyse the story of Florence Nightingale and decide which factors helped each part of her story – thus recognising and understanding how to link different factors to one individual.
The lesson thus includes a GCSE practice question, a fabulous video link and literacy challenges throughout.
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.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to assess how much of a threat early opposition to the Nazis was.
From the off, students have to decide and give reasons why there would be political, worker, Church and youth opposition.
They then have to complete some source scholarship from an SS article, promoting total allegiance and devotion of the state.
The main task is to analyse the different forms of early opposition giving reasons for why and how resistance was shown, as well as the Nazis reaction to it
A headline plenary will aid the consolidation of learning from the lesson.
There is some source exam practice to complete if required, with help given together with a generic markscheme.
An enquiry question posed at the beginning of the lesson will be revisited throughout to track the progress of learning during the lesson and the subsequent unit of work.
The lesson is available in PowerPoint format and can be customised to suit specific needs.
It is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution.
Students are introduced to the reasons why a constitution was introduced and a new Republic set up. They then have to analyse the details of the constitution, assessing its strengths and weaknesses. This also includes deciding the winners and losers and the issues still facing Germany as a consequence.
There is a focus on some key details such as Article 48 and the rule by Presidental decree as well as the survival of some undemocratic institutions.
There is some exam practice to complete if required, complete with hints and tips and a generic markscheme included.
The plenary concludes with a find and fix activity,
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.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to examine the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and assess the German reaction to it.
Students begin by completing a missing word task to gauge the German ‘acceptance’ of the Armistice.
They learn about Wilson’s 14 points and in groups put themselves into the shoes of the Big Three to decide how to punish Germany, with prompts given for help.
Students also examine and analyse the terms of the Treaty and decide where German pride, economic and military power were challenged. They then have to determine how justified German complaints were against the Treaty and whether they were being too unrealistic.
This is followed up by some exam question practice, complete with a detailed markscheme.
The plenary asks them to think of answers for because, but and so questions to challenge thinking.
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.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to question whether the ‘new woman’ in the Weimar Republic was no more than a myth.
The beginning of the lesson focuses on social welfare and who was entitled to what at the end of the war. However, students learn how many people felt cheated by the system and assess why so many different groups felt aggrieved.
In the second part of the lesson, students ascertain who was classed as the new woman in Weimar Germany. They also evaluate whether the new freedoms afforded to women were in fact inconsequential in areas such as politics, employment and sexual freedom.
Case studies for four women are scrutinised before students complete some exam practice, with help given if required.
The plenary requires students to compete some fragmented sentences.
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.
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.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to judge how significant the role played by Thomas Cromwell was in the break with Rome.
Students recap on the weaknesses of the Catholic Church on the eve of the Reformation and how Henry was being influenced by numerous Humanist writers as well as his new Chief Minister.
There is some source scholarship to complete on Cromwell to emphasise the part he played, as well as some focused reading to ascertain if he was just a master planner for Henry or a devious master manipulator.
They are given a print out of the Reformation Parliament containing all the Acts passed between 1529-34. There is also a distinction made between statute law and canon law.
There is some exam practice to complete on the role of Cromwell in the break with Rome, complete with a model answer to scrutinise and a detailed markscheme.
There is an 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.
This resource (in booklet form) sets out the WJEC GCSE Germany in Transition 1919-39 course in two sides of A4.
This is ideal for the student who wants a quick recap before the exam as it includes all the main details in bullet form.
It is also great for quickly printing and giving out for revision lessons, especially when the students claim they cannot remember anything that has been taught!
The resource can also be used for interleaving and homework tasks.
I have included both PDF and Word formats if there is a need to change or adapt.
Conflict and Tension 1918-1945
This 28 page revision guide is tailored to the above AQA specification for GCSE 9-1. It is broken down into 3 main sections: Peace Keeping, the League of Nations and the Road to war.
This revision guide includes practice exam questions and gives examples on how to answer each. This revision guide will enable all learners to achieve the higher grades with clear guidance on how to achieve them. The questions target the four main questions in the exam from source analysis, chronology, cause and consequence, significance and evaluation.
The information is also broken down into an easy to use format to aid the students. The Guide can be used for revision, interleaving, home learning as well as class teaching. For home learning, each student taking GCSE History in my school has a copy assigned to them on the google drive and it is used frequently when using google classroom assignments, such as homework and revision for assessments.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and can be edited and changed to suit, It comes in both Word and PDF format.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated. Please email me for a free copy of any of my resources worth £3.00 if you do.
I have created these set of resources for the History GCSE 9-1 Edexcel Historic Environment for the British sector of the Western Front, 1914-1918.
The central question throughout these seven lessons is to find out how medicine developed throughout the conflict of World War 1. They are closely linked together and address all the content required for this unit.
Pupils will learn about the injuries, treatment and life in the trenches for the soldiers. Key ideas include:
The historical context of medicine in the early twentieth century and the move to aseptic surgery
The trench system and its construction and organisation
The context of the British sector including Northern France and Flanders
The problems with communications and infrastructure due to the nature of the terrain
The nature of wounds received and the conditions requiring medical treatment
The work of organisations such as RAMC and FANY
The significance of the Western Front for experiments in surgery and new techniques used.
The lessons are broken down into the following:
L1: Introduction and the trench system
L2: Flanders and Northern France
L3: Move to aseptic surgery (free lesson)
L4: Deadly weapons and injuries
L5: Trench warfare and the problems of transport
L6: Helping and treating the wounded
L7: GCSE exam question practice
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations and ideas used by current history teachers on twitter.
The lessons are fully adaptable in PowerPoint and can be changed to suit. I have included a free lesson to give an idea of what is being offered.
This bundle is the second part in a series of lessons I have created for Edexcel GCSE 9-1: Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941-1991.
The lessons are all differentiated, fully resourced, amendable on Powerpoint and are tailored to enable the students to achieve the highest grades.
The lessons will allow students to demonstrate (AO1) knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the period studied from the building of the Berlin Wall and its eventual collapse to the end of the Cold War.
They will also explain and analyse (AO2) second-order concepts such as change and continuity in tensions between East and West such as détente and Reagan’s Second Cold War and the causes and consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Prague Spring, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and Gorbachev’s new ideas.
The lessons are as follows:
L12 Berlin Ultimatum
L13 Building the Berlin Wall
L14 Cuba and the Bay of Pigs
L15 Cuban Missile Crisis
L16 Prague Spring
L17 Détente and SALT 1
L18 Helsinki Accords and SALT 2
L19 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
L20 Reagan and the Second Cold War
L21 Gorbachev’s new ideas
L22 Fall of the Berlin Wall
The lessons are enquiry based with a key question of how close was the world to a nuclear war using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lessons and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The lessons in this bundle are therefore linked together to build up a picture of how diplomacy, propaganda and spying led two Superpowers with opposing political ideologies to create tensions, rivalries and distrust as well as form mutual understanding and cooperation over the time period in question.
The resources include retrieval practice, suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and GCSE exam practice questions.
They all come in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
This bundle is the second part 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 again 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 the knowledge and 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.
The lessons will allow students to demonstrate (AO1) knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the period studied from the brilliance of the surgical skills of John Hunter to the discovery of the vaccination for smallpox by Edward Jenner.
They will study (AO2) second-order concepts such as change and continuity in the development of ideas about disease and the causes and consequences for surgery with the discovery and anaesthetics and antiseptics.
The analysis and evaluation of sources (AO3) are used in for example Public Health in the 19th Century whilst substantiated judgements are made (AO4) on the progression or regression of medicine from the Renaissance pioneers such as Vesalius, Pare and Harvey to the discovery and isolation of germs by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch.
The lessons are as follows:
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
Please note that setting a full mock examination in class after completing this unit is strongly recommended.
All the examination resources and markschemes are subject to copyright but can easily be found on the AQA website.
.
