Rise of Dictators The aim of this lesson is to decide if Franco should be loved or loathed. This lesson focuses on the policies of Franco in his time in office and opinions today over his legacy. The lesson does however steer clear of the political machinations of Spanish politics of the time and the events of the Spanish Civil War. Students learn about Franco’s early life and have to chronologically order key words in his rise to power. They also have to evaluate the controversy of moving his burial site from the Valley of the Fallen and the significance of doing this. The main task is to analyse key policies in his reign and decide whether he should be loved or loathed. This can the be written up an an extended writing task. The final task requires student to decide which phrases and images associated with Franco are the best fit; students also need to explain why this is the case. 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.

World War I The aim of this lesson is to question the integrity of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, one of the most controversial figures of the war. Does Field Marshal Douglas Haig deserve the nickname of ‘The Butcher of the Somme’? Students are given the context of the ‘Lions led by Donkeys’ argument and are then led through a journey of audio, video, and source evidence from which they have to make a judgement at the end if he deserves his nickname. They will also recognise and analyse how views about Haig have hardened and then softened over time. The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout the lesson and this unit of study to show the progress of learning. The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

The 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.

Suffragettes Why were so many people in the Nineteenth Century prepared to die for universal suffrage? How had the Industrial Revolution created so many divisions and changes in society where towns such as Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham had no MP’s and thus went unrepresented in Parliament? Could Parliament see the injustice of denying the vote to working class men and industrialists who were making Britain the workshop of the world? Thus the story starts with why having a vote is so important today and who had the vote in the Nineteenth Century. Students are given a slip at the beginning of the lesson only to realise many of them don’t have a vote much to their annoyance. The final part of the lesson is to analyse the events of the Peterloo Massacre (named after the battle of Waterloo) and why the magistrates of Manchester were so scared at giving people the vote. However the battlelines were drawn and so setting the seeds for the Suffragette movement at the turn of the century. 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.

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

The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel This lesson aims to introduce students to the course and some of the key ideas which will affect America in the 19th Century ranging from Manifest Destiny to survival, colonisation, migration and civilise. Students are introduced to the Great Plains and its weather extremes as well as the Plains Indians and their communities. Using an enquiry based learning question, students are required to annotate around a lightbulb. This is central to this unit of study and students will map this out over the course of each lesson to show progression. Questions are also asked throughout to challenge assumptions, culminating in a balloon debate as to who can move America forward into becoming a great nation. A road map task at the end tests their new knowledge and is ideal for setting as a homework. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. It comes in PowerPoint formats if there is a wish to adapt and change.

The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel This lesson aims to explain how the Plains Indians believed that everything in nature had a spirit. Students analyse how humans and nature work together and complete a thinking quilt linking key ideas and key words together. They are also challenged as to what significance certain objects have as well as ascertaining why some tribes went to war . They will evaluate why land was so important to the Plains Indians and why they had difficulty when the US Government tried to allocate them certain areas of the Great Plains. This evaluation is put to the test with some GCSE exam question practice using the 8 mark ‘consequences’ question. The final learning task is writing a recipe and mixing up key ingredients of the lesson which will reinforce the learning during the lesson. The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice is also included. It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.

AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c.1000 to present If Islamic medicine was so good, why did many of its ideas fail to spread to Christian Europe and Britain? What skills did Islamic surgeons have to make them specialists in particular areas How did Islam promote medicine to become so advanced in the first place? These questions are analysed and answered through the lesson as students decide which Islamic doctor deserves which podium finish for being the most effective. Furthermore students tackle a GCSE practice question on similarities with Christian medicine in Britain with a student friendly markscheme to help peer or self assess their work. 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 decide how much of an impact the Renaissance had on medicine with the new medical ideas and thinking of Vesalius, Pare and Harvey. The first part of the lesson focuses on the King’s evil and how an average of 3000 people flocked to King Charles II hoping to be cured by his touch. The second part analyses the treatments the King’s doctors gave a dying King Charles II, sadly having a detrimental effect rather than a positive one on his health. Students complete this as a quiz as they decide which treatments he received, before checking their answers with a student friendly markscheme. As well as looking at a brief summary of Nicolas Culpeper’s ‘The Complete herbal’, students ultimately decide and evaluate from a continuum line if indeed the Renaissance had had a breakthrough on medical understanding and improved techniques to heal patients. 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.

Conflict and Tension 1918-1939 This lesson analyses the other treaties which were placed upon Germany’s Allies, notably Trianon, St Germain, Neuilly, Sevres and Lausanne. Students recap quickly on the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and are introduced to the other treaties, which they recognise follow a similar punitive pattern. As they unpick each of the treaties bestowed upon Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, they have to question why the Allies reversed their original peace treaty of Sevres and evaluate the impact this had on the international community. This lesson comes with worksheets, differentiated questioning and a plenary which challenges their learning for 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, some retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship This lesson is a study of the impact war had on peoples’ lives in Germany between 1914-1918. Students have to evaluate the main changes in Germany during the war and if they were positive or negative changes For example, the Kaiser being forced to share his power could be seen as a positive thing to many, but there was also a terrible shortage of food as the allied naval blockade really began to bite. Worksheets are supplied to use for evidence, as the students box up their findings ready to tackle a timed question for GCSE question practice. 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 includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship The focus of the lesson is to analyse the problems Hitler faced in January 1933 on becoming Chancellor. Students need to know and understand the background to Hitler becoming Chancellor in January 1933, which can be quite challenging given the complex political machinations involving the President, Papen and Von Schleicher. Students are given the context of Hitler’s rise to power, before using a revision thinking quilt to match key questions to specific key words and terms. There are also some excellent video links to bbc bitesize Students are thus prepared to tackle the GCSE exam practice question at the end. The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning. The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the problems the German people faced at home during World War II. Students are given lots of contextual knowledge with challenging and exciting tasks aimed at answering the typical GCSE questions set in the exam. They will judge how and why the war was a good thing for Germans at the beginning and why it became so bad as the war drew to a close. There is some excellent information taken from the BBC Bitesize website which the students have to recall and analyse in a thinking quilt and summarising pyramid. At the end of the lesson, the students will be ready to complete some GCSE questions with a simplified markscheme to help them. The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning. The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship This lesson focuses on why the new Government was so unpopular and why there were so many political uprisings against it. Students have to question whether these putsches were merely political in nature or whether there were economic forces at play as well. Students also have to analyse the Spartacist rising and the Kapp Putsch and understand their causes and why they ultimately failed. There are some excellent links to video footage as well as a colour coding literacy thinking quilt. The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning. The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.

Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship This lesson is an introduction to Kaiser Wilhelm II. It focuses on the background of Kaiser Wilhelm II, his family and relations, his paranoia and disability, but with a focus on the problems he encountered as a leader of a new Germany. Included in the lesson is a thinking quilt, a map of Germany, links to informative videos and a summarising pyramid at the end. This lesson comes complete with a tracking sheet and the noted exam skills required for the students to stick in their books. 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.

Conflict and Tension 1918-1939 This lesson aims to explain and evaluate the Allied response to Hitler’s reoccupation of the Rhineland. Students learn why this event was significant in the road to war and how Hitler’s gamble paid off. They analyse video footage of the time, complete a caption competition, a true or false quiz and a text mapping exercise before they answer a 12 mark GCSE practice question (with some guidance and help if required). 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.