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 aims of this lesson are to explain how weapons developed during and after World War 2.
The new destructive power of the atomic bomb is shown in a great video link and students colour code a worksheet (differentiated) with challenge questions to describe and explain the development of the arms race.
Facts and figures are also given which students have to interpret, as well as key word tasks and source analysis, with help given if required.
The plenary is literally an arms ‘race’ complete with interactive dice and bombs as board pieces.
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.
Cold War
The aim of this lesson is to explain how Germany was divided post 1945, as agreed at the Potsdam Conference and analyse the subsequent Berlin blockade and airlift which followed.
Students learn the intentions of both the USA and USSR and how this played out in the Cold War theatre of Europe.
This is a great opportunity for students to be creative as they plot the preceding events on an airport landing strip, using symbols and signs found in every international airport.
They will track the obstacles thrown up by Stalin and the immediate problems this caused in Berlin as he attempted to prevent any further western moves in Germany and with his aim of starving the West Berliners into submission.
Therefore this is intended to be a fun, challenging and engaging lesson to suit all abilities.
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.
The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
This lesson explores the role of the Chief in Plains Indian society, with his different qualities, role and duties to perform.
Students learn as each tribe could have many chiefs, this led to confusion and distrust amongst the US Government Officials who struggled to come to terms with their customs and traditions.
Famous Chiefs such as Sitting Bull are analysed as well as the role of a council. Students will also evaluate the role of warrior brotherhoods and women in Plains Indian society.
Students are also questioned on how the Plains Indians way of life might change if the US Government struggled to develop relationship with them due to the tribes having many Chiefs.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some key word retrieval practice is also included.
It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Conflict and Tension 1918-1939
This lesson aims to focus on how the League was organised and run on a day to day basis.
Despite some strengths, students analyse its inherent weaknesses from the start.
Using source material, video footage and worksheets, students work out how and why each part of its structure (such as the Assembly or the Council) was a strength as well a weaknesses.
They can then put their new found knowledge to the test using specific skills to analyse and evaluate source exam practice questions.
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.
Conflict and Tension 1918-1939
This lesson is split into two; the first part concentrates on the Mukden incident and the causes of Japan’s invasion into Manchuria in 1931.
Students analyse a map of the area before completing a jigsaw puzzle and explaining in their own words (or pictures) the causes of the invasion.
The second part of the lesson focuses on the consequences on the invasion and how powerless the League was to act, despite the moral condemnation from Lord Lytton’s report.
There are some excellent links to video footage of the invasion in the lesson and how the League reacted to reinforce the learning.
Students also have to decipher some visual images and text to build up a clear picture of the whole incident before they are ready to tackle a ‘write an account’ question.
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.
The British Empire
This lesson explores the rise and fall of Robert Clive of India. Should he be regarded as a hero or a villain of the worst kind?
The first part of the lesson establishes his heroic reputation through video and source analysis.
Students then sift through a variety of source information and plot a graph coming to their own conclusions and judgements.
They also analyse the Battle of Plassey as an additional task and decide whether their judgement has been correct all the time.
The plenary requires them to create a plaque for Clive of India to sum up his reputation according to the evidence.
The lesson comes with suggested teaching and learning strategies and are linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This lesson focuses on the change in policy towards the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis.
Students have to put events into chronological order and understand why the beginning of World War II changed everything.
Students also learn about the Wannsee Conference and the experimental attempts by the Nazis to murder the Jews in Europe from shooting to mobile gas vans before deciding upon the use of Zyklon B crystals.
Using numbers and figures they also discover the sheer scale of the atrocities involved in this genocide and what happened in the concentration camps.
There are some excellent links to video evidence to accompany the lesson, which are suitable to show.
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 Holocaust
The aims of this lesson are to explain how Jewish people rose in rebellion or resisted against Nazi atrocities during the holocaust.
The first part of the lesson examines the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, using a thinking quilt to challenge ideas and ask key questions about the motivation and determination to succeed against overwhelming odds.
The second part of the lesson analyses resistance in the extermination camps in particular events in Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz.
Students are then asked to justify the best and most effective ways to resist from passive to active resistance. Finally a find and fix activity checks understanding and the 3 R’s.
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.
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.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to assess the strength of the Weimar economy under Stresemann.
Students recap in the Ruhr crisis before they had to complete sentences to predict how the economy will fare under Stresemann.
They are given a exam question to plan and prepare using the information provided – they will need to focus on the economy’s short and long term strengths and weaknesses.
The thinking hats plenary uses differentiated questions for the students to decide the extent of the recovery.
A final source exam question can be used for a homework with a planning sheet and generic markscheme provided.
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 English Civil War
The aim of this lesson is to be able to distinguish between the two sides in the English Civil War.
Students will be researching how they differed from their dress, their mannerisms, what they believed in and their goals.
They will also be analysing some real life examples from people today who discuss which side they would prefer to be on and why.
Students will be using various written sources and video evidence to find out which side they would support.
Ultimately they will have to produce a propaganda leaflet encouraging people to join their campaign as a Royalist or Cavalier using persuasive literacy techniques and song lyrics. Exemplars and scaffolding is included if required.
This is a fun lesson with a number of activities designed to get all students involved actively and to enjoy their learning.
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.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to understand how the British Government prepared for war.
The lesson leads students through a wealth of primary sources from path𝑒 news, government films and information leaflets.
It analyses how the government used propaganda to rally and convince the nation to stand firm against Hitler and how they could endure and eventually win the war.
How effective and convincing their messages were is up to the students to unpick and judge for themselves.
Primary evidence, which not surprisingly gives a positive outlook on events such as the evacuation of Dunkirk, Churchill’s radio broadcasts and the bombing of cities, is used; but how effective is their message and will the nation adhere to their warnings about spying and what not to say?
Students are questioned throughout the slides and complete some independent research on the types of propaganda posters published.
A summarising pyramid at the end builds upon the evidence and judgements they have made.
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.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to assess the impact of Albert Speer in armaments production.
The lesson begins with a recap of the policies previously mentioned of Hjalmar Schacht and Goering in his Four Year Plan. Students will assess how much of an impact their policies had preparing Germany for war and if the German economy was on the verge of collapse before from 1942.
Students will learn about the background of Speer and how he implemented reforms and efficiency to turn the economy around with his appointment as Armaments Minister and War production.
There is some source analysis to complete together with a true or false quiz at the end of the lesson.
The exam practice will allow students to evaluate the successes of Speer’s policies as well as questioning deep rooted divisions and problems within the economy, which were unreconcilable and ultimately led to its collapse with the defeat of Nazi Germany.
The lesson is quite literacy heavy and may have to be delivered over two lessons.
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.
I have created these set of resources for the History Key Stage 3 National Curriculum ‘challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day’.
These lessons are also useful if you are studying the Cold War at GCSE, where the students will gain an invaluable insight into the key terms, ideologies, events and people post 1945.
The central question throughout these eleven lessons is to find out why civilians feared for their lives during the Cold War. They are closely linked together and students continually plot their ideas around the key question, which can be referred back to each lesson (either dated or colour coded) to show progress throughout this unit of work.
Pupils will learn the significance and impact of the arms race on the wider world and be able to see the causes and consequences of the Berlin blockade and airlift finally culminating in the building of the Berlin Wall.
They will learn key historical terms such as containment, buffer zones, mutually assured destruction and the domino theory as well as understand the differences between the capitalist and communist ideologies.
They will be given sources to analyse such as the evidence from the moon landings in 1969 and make historical inferences from them as to whether they are fact or fiction.
Furthermore they will be able to write structured accounts and narratives on the Vietnam war as to whether US soldiers committed war crimes by killing innocent civilians or how much of a threat is North Korea to world peace?
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 couple of free lessons to give an idea of what is being offered.
I strongly recommend using GCSE style questions from your chosen exam board and markschemes to assess the pupils at the end of this unit, which are always available on line.
The 11 lessons are broken down into the following:
L1 The defeat of Germany in 1945
L2 Introduction to the Cold War
L3 The Arms Race
L4 The Berlin Blockade and Berlin Airlift
L5 The Berlin Wall
L6 The Korean War
L7 The Cuban Missile Crisis
L8 Man on the Moon
L9 The Vietnam War
L10 Cold War sports
L11 Mikhail Gorbachev
(+ Key word History display)
Any reviews would be greatly appreciated.
The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
The aim of this lesson is to analyse some of the problems the early settlers faced moving west onto the Great Plains.
Students have to work out the initial problems through various images and think through how they could solve these.
They also have to decide how to deal with the swarms of locusts that descended on the Great Plain such as in 1874 when an estimated 120 billion grasshoppers devastated over 300,000 square kilometres of land.
There is some GCSE exam question practice on the consequences question with some help given if required.
The plenary requires students to use dice to pick and link key words together to create sentences.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice with talking heads is also included on the front slide.
It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Suffragettes
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate how much the vote gave independence to women in the roaring twenties.
Students have to assess how and why women became more confident and empowered with new technology and the introduction of the reckless flapper, shocking society with her wild behaviour.
There is video evidence, text mapping and source analysis for the students to complete to aid them in justifying their decisions.
Students will also evaluate the role of four pioneering women in a differentiated task by colour coding batteries to rate their contribution to ‘girl power’.
There is a chance to complete some extended writing using importance words as well as adding appositives to simple sentences 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.
World War I
This lesson aims to analyse how the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the spark for World War 1 to start.
Students will question how frightening the assassination was and the speed of European countries to mobilise for war.
As video evidence is used to explain the events that led to the shooting in Sarajevo, an analogy is made to a bar brawl as students try to ascertain the causes of it and link these to the events which unfolded after 28th June, 1914.
Students also have to complete a chronological exercise of the events as well as deciding the personalities of the main countries involved.
The plenary is a catchphrase check (complete with music) on 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 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.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the significance of the Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht.
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 and Kristallnacht in 1938 are two significant events which can sometimes be overlooked when students write about Nazi policies towards the Jews in Germany, as they tend focus on the events after 1939 only.
What were the Nuremberg Laws, why were they introduced and in which order did policies towards the Jews change after these laws were introduced?
Moreover, was Kristallnacht a spontaneous or well planned atrocity led by the Nazis?
Students are given evidence from which to make an informed decision which they must justify.
A car number plate activity further assesses their understanding before the students plan an examination question for some GCSE exam practice.
There are some great video links to help the learning as well.
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 establish how much the students know about history, how historians talk about the past and how this can be applied in a historical context.
They are introduced to key words such as chronology, where they form a human timeline, millennium, decade, century and periods of history as well as the misconceptions around AD and BC.
Students then have to use these words to describe their favourite piece of history, with the challenge to include as many of these time associated key words as possible.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
Norman Conquest
The aim of this lesson is to assess how scary the Black Death was in1348.
Students are introduced to the idea of why the Black Death was so scary, learning about the symptoms of the Bubonic Plague and Pneumonic Plague and the devastation that lay in its wake from empty villages today to paintings showing devastation and death.
They learn key words such as contagion, flagellants, humours and miasmas and how these words link to the learning objective through a thinking quilt.
They will also find out how the peasants gained in status as a result of the reduction of the workforce and how this gave them more bargaining power with their landlords over wages.
The plenary is a Black Death connecting wall which requires students to link four key phrases and to explain how and why they link together.
This lesson is therefore designed to be interactive, fun, challenging and engaging and could be used over two lessons.
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.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The aim of this lesson is to decide to what extent the Nazis achieved their aims towards women in Nazi Germany.
Students are forewarned about how views today cannot be applied back then and therefore Nazi policies towards women, as misogynistic as they were, would not necessarily have been rejected but welcomed by women.
Some source analysis using images and text begin the lesson, as students gauge what Nazi policies were towards women in 1930’s Germany.
They are questioned on policies to raise the birth rate as well as the organisational apparatus established to do this.
There is a case study of Gertrude Sholtz-Klink before students evaluate the successes or failing of these Nazi policies.
The plenary uses talking heads to decide who would have said what and why at the time.
There is some exam practice to finish focusing on the aims of the lesson, complete with a markscheme and help if needed.
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.
