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.
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.
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.
Rise of Dictators
The aim of this lesson is to question if Saddam deserves his reputation as the ‘Butcher of Baghdad’.
Students are at first questioned as to what they know about Saddam and are given information on the importance of Iraq and the Middle East with its oil rich economies.
Some source scholarship analyses the death of Saddam and the reasons why he was executed.
Together with a thinking quilt, students learn about Saddam’s brutal reign of terror together with the Iran-Iraq war and his invasion of Kuwait.
Thus so far, the lesson appears straightforward and there is little to argue against his reputation. However students will also learn through video and source evidence of revisionist ideas of Saddam and the consequence of his execution with the instability within Iraq today.
Thus they will be challenged on their original assumptions and evaluate how this reputation has been given to Saddam; is it a just a Western perception? Whilst Iraqis may not necessarily doubt his brutal regime, do they insist life was better than now?
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.
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:
Alliance, armistice, arms, barbaric, bellicose, conscientious objector, cowardice, desertion, escalate, imperialism, inevitable, Jerry, Kaiser, militarism, munitions, nationalism, naval, propaganda, stalemate, trench foot, tommy, shellshock, shrapnel, trenches, Triple Alliance, Triple Entente, Victoria cross, warfare.
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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
The overarching aim of this and the subsequent lessons is to question and explore how Elizabeth asserted her authority and control in the second half of her reign.
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.
Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, 1060-87
This resource sets out the whole course in two sides of A4.
This is ideal for the student who wants a quick recap and summary before the exam or an internal assessment, as it sets out and gives all the main knowledge required.
It is also great for quickly printing and giving out for revision lessons, especially when the students claim they cannot remember anything you have taught!
It covers the main events, issues and people connected to the topic, with a focus on the exam requirements at the beginning.
I have included both PDF and word documents in case 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 analyse the appeal of Communism to German voters.
The lesson begins with students evaluating the significance and inferences of a 1919 communist propaganda poster.
Students will engage in differentiated questioning linked to statements about the tactics of the Communist KPD Party. The lesson will compare the support for Communism with the rapid rise of the Nazi Party, examining the reasons behind the disparity in their electoral success.
Students will also assess and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Communism, providing reasons for their evaluations.
The plenary activity will be a hangman game using key terms from the lesson to reinforce learning.
To conclude, students can complete some exam question practice, with structured support provided to help them effectively answer the question.
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.
The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to assess how much of a threat Catholicism posed to Elizabeth during her reign.
The lesson begins with an analysis of the Northern Rebellion. Was it a direct consequence of the Religious Settlement or simply a Catholic uprising against Elizabeth?
Further analysis focuses on the role played by seminary and Jesuits priests who came to England to spread the word of Catholicism and reconvert the masses; students have to decide if they had little influence or posed a direct threat to Elizabeth.
Furthermore students judge how significant the measures put in place to tackle these threats were.
Some exam practice is included with help given if required.
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 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 decide how much of a threat the Lovell and Stafford rebellions were.
Students are given the information about the two rebellions and then have to categorise them into causes, consequences and events.
There is an odd one out activity included to check understanding where students have to justify the correct and incorrect answers.
The plenary requires the challenge and thinking of but, because and so.
Students have to opportunity to plan and write an essay on how much of a threat to Henry the rebellions were. A planning sheet, markscheme and help is given if required.
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.
These lessons are designed to meet the needs of the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum and cover the development of the Church, state and society in Medieval Britain 1066-1509; the Norman Conquest.
This bundle addresses key historical skills from the outset using historical enquiry and evidence:
Why was England a good place to invade in 1066 after the fall of the Roman Empire? What was the significance of Alfred the Great? What were the causes and consequences of Edward the Confessor dying? What were the similarities and differences in the claims of contenders to the throne? What was significant about the Battle of Stamford Bridge and how was William the Conqueror able to win the battle of Hastings?
Who was William the Conqueror and how did he establish and maintain his rule in England? What were the causes and consequences of Castle building throughout the British Isles? What were the similarities and differences between the role of the Church, monks and nuns and Doom Paintings? What was significant about the Black Death and its effect on the population of Britain and Europe and how dangerous and unhygienic were Medieval towns?
These skills are addressed in each of the lessons and allow students to be able to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends and be able to create their own structured accounts and written narratives.
The lessons are broken down into the following
L1 Baseline Assessment Test
L2 What is History
L3 Historical Sources
L4 Roman Britain
L5 Alfred the Great
L6 The Anglo-Saxons
L7 Contenders to the throne
L8 The Anglo-Saxon and Norman armies
L9 The Battle of Stamford Bridge (free to download)
L10 The Battle of Hastings
L11 Why did William win the Battle of Hastings
L12 William the Conqueror
L13 Castles
L14 The Domesday Book
L15 The Feudal system
L16 The Church (free to download)
L17 Doom Paintings
L18 The Medieval Church (free to download)
L19 The Bayeux Tapestry
L20 Medieval Towns
L21 The Black Death
L22 Crime and Punishment
L23 The Crusades
Due to restrictions placed on bundle resource, please download The Battle of Stanford Bridge and Monks and Nuns in the MIddle Ages separately (which are free resources.)
These lessons are designed to be fun, challenging, interactive and engaging. The resources come in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
All the lessons are enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start and revisited at the end to show the progression in learning.
They are differentiated and come with suggested teaching and learning strategies and link to the latest interpretations of the conquest from the BBC and other sources.
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.
Conflict and Tension 1918-1939
This series of eight lessons introduce the third part of the AQA Conflict and Tension course 1918-39 and focus on the origins and outbreak of World War II. Lessons come complete with suggested teaching strategies and differentiated learning tasks.
I have included many of the typical GCSE questions AQA have so far supplied, from source analysis, write an account to the longer 16+4 mark questions. The last lesson also gives some GCSE practice questions and examples of how to answer them.
The lessons are broken down into the following:
L1: Hitler’s Aims
L2: Reactions to Hitler’s Foreign Policy
L3: The road to war and German rearmament
L4: Reoccupation of the Rhineland (free resource)
L5: The Anschluss
L6: The Sudeten Crisis
L7: The Nazi-Soviet Pact
L8: Why did World War II break out?
Lessons also include some retrieval practice activities and come in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Any reviews would be gratefully received.
AQA GCE A Level Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-45
The Collapse of Democracy 1928-1933
I have produced this bundle of resources on the collapse of democracy in Germany 1928-1933 to help A Level students gain a deeper understanding of Germany’s past and the collapse of democracy.
The enquiry question throughout these lessons will be to evaluate how unstable Germany was, politically, socially and economically.
Students will learn how the impact of the Wall Street Crash and the Depression a profound effect on the stability of the Weimar Republic and the significance of the rise of extremism as a direct consequence.
They will also learn about the appeal of Communism as well as Nazism and how electoral support for them changed throughout the early 1930s.
Students will evaluate backstairs intrigue as a succession of Chancellors failed to gain the support needed to effectively rule the country and how Hitler manipulated those around him to be appointed Chancellor in 1933.
Finally students will analyse Hitler’s first Cabinet, the significance of the Reichstag Fire and how democracy ceased to exit as Nazis began to create a one party state.
The resources provided include detailed lesson plans, case studies, source documents for analysis, chronological tasks and exam practice questions with comprehensive mark schemes.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 The Wall Street Crash and Great Depression
L2 The Collapse of the Grand Coalition
L3 The appeal of Nazis
L4 The appeal of Communism
L5 Papen’s Cabinet of Barons
L6 General Schleicher and backstairs intrigue
L7 Hitler’s first cabinet (free resource)
L8 The use of terror in 1933
The lessons include the two types of exam question used, with examples of how to tackle them, using model answers, helpful hints and tips, structuring and scaffolding as well as markschemes. However, please refer to the AQA website for further assessment materials as they are subject to copyright.
The lessons are also differentiated and fully resourced and allow students to reach the very top marks.
Democracy and Nazi Germany Part 3 resources can be found here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/democracy-and-nazi-germany-a-level-bundl-part-3-13059603
If you have any questions about the lessons, please email me via my TES shop, or any other information about the course.
I would also welcome any reviews, which would be gratefully appreciated.
This lesson aims to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of Rochester Castle and understand why it was built in such a strategic position.
It also explores the reasons why the Castle was seized by some disaffected knights in 1215 and why King John was so keen to recapture it.
Students have to evaluate the most effective ways of attacking and defending a Castle and learn how difficult medieval siege warfare was.
The second aim of the lesson is to examine how and why it was captured in the first place, as students continue to analyse the power struggle between the barons and the King.
There is a brilliant video link to the siege under Rory’s McGrath’s Bloody Britain series which the students follow and answer questions on.
Finally they plot the power struggle between the king, the church, the barons and the people in a sequence of lessons.
This lesson includes:
Fun, engaging and challenging tasks
Links to video footage
Printable worksheets
Suggested teaching strategies
PowerPoint format, which can be changed to suit
The Norman Conquest
This lesson explores the role of monks and nuns in Medieval society and questions their importance.
Students learn how people joined the monastic community and how they helped the local community.
Students also analyse their dress code and the reasons behind it, before engaging in literacy tasks such as linking their daily life to particularly headings and writing a narrative account.
There are accompanying worksheets and video links to reinforce the learning.
The plenary of ‘find and fix’ challenges the students to rewrite and correct a number of statements made.
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.
Norman Conquest
The aim of this lesson is to challenge and question the role of the Church in Medieval Society.
On face value, the power it had over people was enormous and with power came great wealth, often at the expense and help of the population.
But was it all corrupt and how much did people willingly give over their goods in return for salvation? These questions are explored through statistics, facts and video evidence.
Students are ultimately required to justify if the Church was corrupt by colour coding and rating batteries (linked to a final post it note challenge) and evidencing their choices.
There are also introduced to a number of key words which they are required to recall in the plenary.
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 Tudors
This is the second in a series of lessons I have created on the Tudors, which is an introduction.
The key skill of chronology is introduced from the start as students decide which Tudor came first to which came last.
Key questions floating past the screen as well as the wall of mystery give clues and answers to some interesting and gruesome facts on the Tudor family.
Students have the chance to create their own timelines, factual displays, key question and answer quizzes or an A-Z of Tudor facts.
The lesson finishes which two plenaries to choose from which both test their new found knowledge.
The resource comes in Powerpoint formats if there is a wish to adapt and change. I have also included suggested teaching strategies and differentiated resources to deliver 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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
The overarching aim of this and the subsequent bundle of lessons is to question and explore how Elizabeth tried to assert and establish her authority in the early years of her reign.
The lessons are therefore linked together to build up a picture of her difficulties in trying to overcome this.
I devised this lesson not long into teaching my Year 11 groups about Elizabeth, as they soon became confused with all the advisors, favourites and ‘Roberts’ in her life.
This lesson attempts to clarify and simplify the role of these men and why she needed them.
This is an independent research task as the students find out key information and record it on a grid. The ‘significance’ question in the exam is also addressed as they evaluate their importance to Elizabeth.
The plenaries at the end of the lesson include canalysing a video clip as well as testing their knowledge and challenging their thinking skills.
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 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
The overarching aim of this and the subsequent bundle of eleven lessons is to question and explore how Elizabeth tried to assert and establish her authority in the early years of her reign.
The eleven lessons are therefore linked together to build up a picture of her difficulties in trying to overcome this.
This lesson aims to explain how Elizabeth approached the sensitive subject of religion in a calm and pragmatic fashion.
The first part of the lesson concentrates on the differences between Protestants and Catholics and why Elizabeth should take a different perspective on religion compared to her predecessors.
The second part of the lesson describes and explains the Elizabethan Settlement using a text mapping activity before students answer a GCSE question on the significance of the Settlement in the context of her reign. The lesson is also linked to video footage from the film Elizabeth.
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.
Any reviews will be greatly appreciated
