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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
This lesson aims to explain how the Spanish planning of the Armada was flawed from the start.
An analysis of the Commanders involved shows a plethora of mistakes made and how Philip decided to combine the plans of Santa Cruz and the Duke of Palma to placate the two and massage his ego as a superior naval commander.
The deteriorating relationship between Philip and Elizabeth is analysed and compared to a pressure cooker – students have to decide which events manipulated Philip’s anger between simmering, boiling and exploding.
A thinking quilt aims to challenge assumptions and evaluate the major weaknesses of these Spanish plans and their impact on overall victory.
The final challenge is to sort out the bodged names and key words used in 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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
The key to this lesson is to recap not only the causes of the Spanish Armada and the build up to its eventually defeat, but also to analyse the battle itself and reasons for English success and Spanish failure.
Furthermore, what were the consequences for Elizabeth and her successors?
How did Britain regain the initiative and establish Elizabeth as a Protestant force to be reckoned with in Europe and at home?
How did the defeat change her status as a world power for the next generation of explorers and seafarers as Britain became the dominant naval power in the world by the 19th Century?
Students make up and pour a toxic cocktail of causes before piecing together the reasons why the Armada failed and ran out of energy, by giving it an energy rating in a prioritisation exercise.
They also have to amend a number of statements and correct them on the Spanish Armada, explaining the reasons why they are incorrect as well as studying an interactive map as the events unfolded.
Finally students can complete a ‘How important’ GCSE practice question worth 8 marks to consolidate their learning with hints and tips of how to answer this.
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 Conflict and Tension 1918-1939
Students in this lesson piece together the events surrounding Hitler’s invasion of the Sudetenland and ultimately Czechoslovakia.
They are required to question the wisdom of the policy of appeasement, but also analyse the reasons why Chamberlain pursued this policy and the strengths and weaknesses of this.
The lesson is accompanied by a quiz in which points are accumulated for the correct answers, video footage and source material which enable students to answer a ‘how useful’ GCSE source question.
They also have to put events in chronological order culminating in the Munich Agreement. They then have to rate these events in order of seriousness and judge which event(s) ultimately contributed to the causes of World War II.
The plenary tests the students’ new knowledge from the lesson by analysing some odd one out statements.
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, some retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
AQA GCSE Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This lesson looks at how Hitler transformed himself and the Nazi Party to be able to secure enough votes to become Chancellor by 1933.
Many GCSE questions centre around why people voted for the Nazis before 1933. This lesson shows how he was able to do this focusing on four main areas: Hitler’s beliefs, organisation, leadership skills and voter support.
How Hitler dressed, spoke, acted and performed in public were crucial in his propaganda assault on the German people.
Students write this up and evaluate the success of this transformation using worksheets, video footage and visual aids.
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.
Rise of Dictators
The aim of this lesson is to decide how evil Tsar Nicholas was.
Students are given facts about Tsar Nicholas and his family which suggest he is a caring and devoted family man as well as a competent ruler. Inferences will be made using video, source and photographic evidence.
Students are then given more information which will challenge their original assumptions. Incompetence, an ambitious and influential wife, a massacre (Bloody Sunday 1905) as well as the growing influence of a ‘mad monk’ Rasputin will enable students to give him an ‘evil rating’ out of 10.
An extended written piece using argument words and a writing frame if required will allow students to give their final judgements and be able to justify their conclusions as to how evil they think he was, or not as the case may be.
In the plenary activity, students have to prove they are not a robot by ticking the correct images which link to the learning 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 some retrieval practice on Dictators, suggested teaching strategies, 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 Castro was a callous or courageous leader of Cuba.
Students will learn about how important Cuba was to the USA geographically as well as economically, with the rule of Batista and the corruption in his Government. They will have to decipher some text mapping and dual coding to find this out.
They will also be introduced to Castro using video evidence, before given key facts about his rule and his leadership.
They will then have to decide where this evidence fits in with their judgements of him being callous or courageous with the extra challenge of judging how strong or weak the evidence is.
An extended writing activity with a writing framework and key words to help will enable students to show off their judgements and new found knowledge.
The final task is a road mapping exercise with differentiated questioning to see how far they can travel in Cuba.
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 GCSE Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This lesson explores how the Nazis suppressed opposition in Germany through terror, repression, fear, propaganda and coordination.
Most student answers on the police state tend to focus on terror and violence, so hopefully this lesson will re-evaluate their thinking to take into account the ideas of indoctrination and persuasion.
Students analyse the types of propaganda used as well as control in all spheres of life before having to explain there was little opposition as asked at the beginning of the lesson.
They will also judge how effective the different forms of control are such as concentration camps, the SS and Gestapo, the law courts as well as the use of block wardens.
By the end of the lesson, the students are given a GCSE practice question to analyse and mark, with guidance on how to achieve the higher marks with a model answer.
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.
Rise of Dictators
The aim of this lesson is to decide if Idi Amin was either an idiot or just simply evil.
Students learn about his early life with an absent father and a poor education, completing a missing word exercise, Thus their initial leanings of sympathy towards him may lead them to question the aims of the lesson.
However they will soon have to analyse information of how he came to power and his subsequent rule of Uganda, including Human rights abuses.
By rating each episode of his life, this should be able to challenge their original assertions and begin to make valid judgements about him. Further video evidence will enable them to make an overall evaluation on his reign as Ugandan President.
Being a heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda gives a nice link to a ‘boxing’ debate on his leadership qualities and personality.
The debate also recaps on some key words used as with the plenary which requires them to complete a literacy race.
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 bundle is the second part in a series of lessons I have created for AQA GCSE 9-1 Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship.
As well as focusing on GCSE exam practice questions, the lessons apply the skills necessary 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 Wall Street Crash and the transformation of the Nazi Party into an electable and indelible force.
They will study (AO2) second-order concepts such as change and continuity in the economic problems facing Germany and the causes and consequences of Hitler becoming Chancellor.
The analysis and evaluation of sources (AO3) are used in for example The Night of the Long Knives lesson whilst substantiated judgements are made (AO4) on the limited opposition in Nazi Germany as it moved from a democratic into a totalitarian state.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 The Wall Street Crash
L2 The rise of the Nazis and the transformation of the Nazi Party
L3 Hitler becomes Chancellor (free resource)
L4 Reichstag Fire and Enabling Act
L5 The Night of the Long Knives
L6 The Nazi Police State
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.
Each resource gives suggested teaching strategies and are differentiated . They come in PDF and Powerpoint formats and can be amended and changed to suit.
The resources all include suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and 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 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 (Free Resource)
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.
With the National Curriculum in mind, I have created a set of resources which focus on the study of an aspect or theme in British history that consolidates and extends pupils’ chronological knowledge from before 1066.
This bundle includes significant events in Crime & Punishment such as the abolition of Capital Punishment in Britain after the high profile cases of Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis.
It makes connections between crime and punishment through the ages such as between Roman and Modern periods.
Students will be introduced to key concepts of change and continuity between Anglo-Saxon and Norman Crime and Punishment as well as the the beliefs of the Christian Church and its influence on Crime and Punishment (cause and consequence).
Students will analyse sources in the Stuart period and examine different interpretations of terrorism through the ages.
They will be able to use historical terms and concepts in more sophisticated ways such as retribution and rehabilitation.
Finally they will be able to provide structured responses and substantiated arguments, giving written evidence and context to their extended writing.
The 11 lessons are broken down into the following:
An introduction to Crime and Punishment
Roman Crime and Punishment
Anglo-Saxon Crime and Punishment
Norman Crime and Punishment
Tudor and Stuart Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment in the 18 and 19th Century
The Whitechapel Murders
Modern Crimes
Modern Punishments
The case of Derek Bentley
The case of Ruth Ellis
Each lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies, retrieval practice activities and are linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lessons come in PowerPoint format and can be adapted and changed to suit.
These lessons are ideal as a way of introducing Crime and Punishment if you are teaching it at GCSE or if you wish to add an interesting unit of work to engage and challenge the students to encourage them to take History further in their studies.
Conflicts and conquest, The American West c.1876-c1895.
This bundle is the third part in a series of lessons I have created for Edexcel GCSE 9-1 The American West, c.1835-c1895
Students will be assessed on their knowledge and understanding of the conflicts and conquest with changes in the farming industry, the cattle industry and settlement.
Students will learn about the establishment of law and order across the period. They will recognise the significance of key people such as Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid and Benjamin Singleton.
They will study the destruction of the Plain Indians way of life with events such as the Wounded Knee Massacre as well as the Range Wars and extermination of the Buffalo.
Lessons will also target the cause and consequence of US government policy with the Dawes Act of 1887 and the declaration of the disappearance of an Indian Frontier.
I have dispensed with individual learning objectives for each lesson to focus throughout on a specific enquiry based question which addresses the knowledge and skills required for the GCSE questions and shows progression in learning required during this course.
Moreover it allows the students to critically think for themselves to decide who was benefitting from this rapid change to America as well as how and why.
The lessons are as follows:
L21 Changes to farming on the Plains
L22 Changes in the Cattle Industry
L23 Exoduster Movement
L24 Billy the Kid
L25 Wyatt Earp
L26 Battle of Little Big Horn
L27 Wounded Knee Massacre
L28 Range Wars
L29 Extermination of the Buffalo
L30 Dawes Act of 1887
For assessment purposes each lesson is accompanied by one of the three exam questions with help and exam tips given if needed. These can be completed in the lesson or for homework tasks if required.
The lessons are all differentiated and are tailored to enable the students to achieve the highest grades.
The lessons come in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the reasons why the RAF won the Battle of Britain.
With Hitler having conquered France, he soon began his preparations to invade Britain. But with a numerical advantage in planes and skilled fighter pilots, how were the RAF able to defend Britain so effectively? How were they able to overturn another certain disaster into a victory?
Students analyse video footage and a ‘top secret report’ to evaluate how the RAF gained an advantage.
They also judge how effective the Government’s poster campaign was to convince the public they were in safe hands with the RAF.
Ultimately students decide and explain why the RAF won, be it through pilot skill, fuel advantage, the technology of radar, winning the propaganda war or through sheer determination and grit.
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.
Edexcel 9-1 Medicine in Britain, Thematic study and historic environment
This lesson aims to give the context of medical treatments and the advancements made before the outbreak of war in 1914.
The lesson focuses on three areas: the strides made in the understanding infection and aseptic surgery, x-rays and blood transfusion.
Activities include two different types of retrieval practice, note taking using video evidence, analysis of text and questioning, as well problem solving and GCSE question practice.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowePoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
The British Empire
The aim of this lesson is to explore the reasons for why Africa became so important to the British Empire and how its people were affected in a global race to exploit it.
The scramble for Africa was the reference given by the Times newspaper when several European nations, including Britain, took over most of the continent of Africa.
These countries looked to Africa to enrich themselves; students learn which resources they could acquire and analyse the various reasons these European powers grabbed whatever land they could.
A thinking quilt challenges thinking and ideas for this scramble and the dangers involved for European nations, whilst a true or false quiz and summarising pyramid checks understanding and reinforces the aims of the lesson.
There is also an excellent video link to Cecil Rhodes and his importance to British colonial power in Africa.
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.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to analyse the rise of the Duke of Somerset to power.
Students are given a timeline of Somerset’s life and the significant events in his rule during Edward VI’s reign.
They can also complete some source scholarship with views from various historians summarising his rule.
Students also complete a multi-choice quiz on how he consolidated his power and with it the views of his contemporaries.
Students then have to justify why he was criticised at the time and if this i a fair reflection.
The plenary looks at fragments of sentences which the students have to convert to full sentences, using their learning from the lesson.
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.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to analyse the Battle of Bosworth Field and decide how and why Henry won.
Students are given the context to the battle and how Richard III and Henry VII lined up against each other.
Using video evidence, they mind map the key events of the battle and its turning point leading to Henry’s victory.
Students are also given the account of the battle from the Tudor historian, Polydor Virgil. They have to determine from the account how Henry used his skills in leadership, tactics, communication and religion to win, which is a useful exercise when studying Tutor propaganda throughout the course.
The plenary requires they to decipher a jumbled up number of words in a botched activity.
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.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to judge the significance of Catherine of Aragon in the reign of Henry VIII.
Students are introduced to Catherine’s background and her loyalty as a wife to her husband.
Moreover they learn about the importance of the papal dispensation Henry was given by the Pope to marry his brother’s widow, a decision which of course was to haunt him in later years.
However far from rejecting her, Henry’s initial years of marriage were successful and harmonious, as shown in the artwork on Hampton Court and her influence on the young king.
There is an excellent video link to use and focused reading throughout.
The plenary uses the thinking hats to challenge student ideas.
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 Holocaust
The aim of this lesson is to analyse and evaluate the reasons why anti-Semitism became the norm in Nazi Germany and how Hitler and the Nazis fuelled the flames of discrimination.
Students build up a picture of the ideal Aryan according to the Nazis and how the Jews were made and expected to feel inferior using source analysis.
They will also organise themselves into a continuum line of importance in Germany pre 1933, only to see their roles reversed according to the numbers on the German citizen lists provided.
They also complete a colour coding exercise which maps the persecution of Jews within Nazi Germany as well as a plenary linking exercise to challenge understanding.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons in the bundle is to ask who was to blame for the holocaust?
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 difficult it is to blame a single individual or event for this catastrophe.
There is some excellent video footage to accompany the lesson and printable worksheets.
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.
I have put together a few ideas I have had on retrieval practise, which is helping my students discuss and debate more than ever before.
Many thanks to @mrfitzhist for the inspiration to make them.
They come in PDF and Powerpoint format so you can change and adapt if needed.
If you like these resources, please follow me on twitter for more ideas @pilgrim_17
