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.
This bundle follows the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum - challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world, 1901 to the present day with a focus on the rise of Dictators
The aims of this bundle are to know and assess the characters and personalities of a number of Dictators of the Twentieth Century and understand how they have shaped our history today.
I have also created and used these lessons to challenge and engage students and to show how much fun learning about this part of history really is.
Students will learn and understand key historical skills throughout such as change and continuity in Dictatorships of the Twentieth Century, the causes and consequences of Castro’s Cuban Revolution and the similarities and differences of Dictators such as Hitler and Stalin.
They will also learn about the significance of the abdication of Tsar Nicholas and his subsequent murder, the execution of Saddam Hussein as well as interpretations as to how much love their was for Chairman Mao in China.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 Tsar Nicholas
L2 Adolf Hitler
L3 Josef Stalin
L4 Benito Mussolini
L5 Chairman Mao
L6 Fidel Castro
L7 Saddam Hussein
L8 Idi Amin
L9 Robert Mugabe
L10 Francisco Franco
This bundle includes some retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials.
All lessons come in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Norman Conquest
This is a great game to be used after having studied attacking and defending a Medieval Castle.
Students take on the role of the defenders of a Medieval Castle (in this case loosely based on the siege of Rochester Castle by King John in 1215).
They have failed to pay their taxes and King John and his knights are marching on the Castle.
Their job is to defend the Castle at all costs by making wise choices and thus collecting points as they go.
When they have completed the tasks, they are given a student friendly markscheme which will by the end give them great status as geniuses of siege warfare or not as the case may be!
Students can write out the choices they make or just the numbers and corresponding letters. They can only make one choice per question.
Cold War
The aim of this lesson is to explore the moon landings and the subsequent conspiracy theories which suggest it was faked and not real at all.
Students have to decide why it was so important for the USA to be the first to put a man on the moon and prioritise their reasoning using their knowledge of the Cold War.
They analyse footage from the time and are introduced to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to emphasise this audacious achievement in 1969.
However they also analyse sources from the time and different interpretations making their own sustained judgements as to whether the moon landings were fake or fiction.
They finish with writing an extended piece on the evidence they have selected and are given some argument words to help if required.
The plenary required them to judge if further facts are fake or authentic news.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons is to ask why did civilians fear for their lives during the Cold War? 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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c1000 to present
The aim of the lesson is to understand why and how the NHS was introduced to Britain in 1948 and despite initial sets backs and opposition, why it is still an amazing institution and still the envy of the world.
Students analyse the reasons how the NHS was introduced by the Labour government and have to explain why.
Key people are discussed such as Nye Bevan and Sir William Beveridge and using source analysis and GCSE exam question practice, students evaluate how some doctors were opposed to Bevan and the NHS from the start.
Video footage at the time shows how the Government tried to calm some fears and how its message on health has changed through the centuries.
There is some text analysis with colour coding and evaluation throughout as well as a focus on literacy 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 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.
Edexcel GCSE 9-1 Medicine Through Time c.1250 to present.
This 42 page revision guide is broken down into 5 main sections: Medieval Medicine, Renaissance Medicine, Medicine in 18th and 19th Century, Modern Medicine and the Historic Environment, British sector of the Western Front .
This revision guide includes 29 GCSE practice exam questions throughout on the main questions and gives examples on how to answer each using model answers.
This will enable all learners to achieve the higher grades required by the exam board, including the skills of description, explanation, interpretation, change and continuity, source utility and cause and consequence.
The information is also broken down into an easy to use format to aid the students in their revision programme.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and comes in Word and PDF format if there is a wish to change.
It can be used for revision, interleaving, home learning as well as class teaching.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated.
Please email me for a free copy of any of my resources worth up to £3.50 if you do.
Norman Conquest
The aim of the lesson is to understand how WIlliam asserted his control over the population using the feudal system.
Students get to know how the feudal system works by interacting with each other in a Norman style ‘party’.
They each have a card to read which tells them their status and their oath to William. However they will have to decide and justify if they are happy with their status or not.
This lesson is designed to be fun, with students required to interact with each other and show their status by using the tables and chairs in the room.
The lesson uses video footage and music to engage and connect the learning.
Further learning tasks include creating a feudal system diagram using differentiated prompts, as well as explaining how it worked and analysing how pleasant it was to be a peasant under this system.
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.
World War I
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate just how efficient and effective the new weapons of the Twentieth Century were.
Students have two objectives; to rate the effectiveness and killing power of the weapons used during the war and to explain how well equipped the soldiers were in the trenches, particularly the British Tommy.
The lesson begins with discussing the type of weapons used and for students to recognise the continuity and change of many of these pre, post and during World War 1.
The historian Dan Snow is quoted as saying the British soldier went into World War I ‘as the best prepared soldier on the planet.’
The lesson subsequently unfolds to explain and evaluate the new weapons used and the advantages (or not) they gave each side.
The plenary requires students to link the effectiveness of the weapons to images and to explain how and why this is the case.
This 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 French Revolution
The aim of this lesson is to analyse the events of the Storming of the Bastille and the subsequent significance of the Flight to Varennes
Students learn through key questioning and some text analysis how and why the Bastille was attacked. There are some brilliant video links to accompany this.
They will then be required, using a storyboard, to decipher what happened next and explain how these events led to a new France.
They will also learn how Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempted to escape to the border and using a cauldron of significance, evaluate which key ingredients ultimately led to their recapture and eventual execution.
The Octagon plenary allows the students to summarise what they have learnt in the lesson, from sights and sounds to numbers and actions for example.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, differentiated materials, suggested teaching and learning strategies 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.
The Suffragettes
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate how far women in Britain have gained equal rights.
From the Representation of the People’s Act in 1918, to the 1928 Act giving all women the right to vote at 21, has this meant women are now on an equal footing to men?
Unfortunately as the given adverts (both on tv and posters) suggest, there is still a long way to go.
Laws have been introduced since the war to give women more freedoms and rights; students have to decide if these changes have affected their home life, their personal life or their work life or do they interlink all together?
However, whilst some brilliant BBC footage show the changes women have undergone, students analyse recent figures which show the gender pay gap and the differences between part and full time work to prove the gap is still clearly significant and falls short of equality.
Their final task is to therefore answer the main aim of the lesson and decide how far women have gained equal rights in Britain, with a focus on the extent of change.
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.
Edexcel GCSE 9-1, Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941-91
This 22 page Revision Guide is tailored to the above Edexcel specification for GCSE 9-1.
It is broken down into 4 main sections: Origins of the Cold War, Increasing tensions, Détente and the end of the Cold War.
I have been inspired to write this Revision Guide on account of the students I teach struggling with the course content of this unit and applying the skills in how to answer the GCSE questions.
This Revision Guide therefore includes 21 GCSE practice exam questions and gives examples on how to answer each, using model answers.
This guide will enable all learners to achieve the higher grades with clear guidance on how to achieve them.
The questions target consequence, significance and analytical narrative with a focus on analysing events and finding connections that explain the way in which the events unfolded.
The information is also broken down into an easy to use format to aid the students.
The guide can be used for revision, interleaving, home learning as well as class teaching. For home learning, each student taking GCSE History has a copy assigned to them on a google drive and it is used frequently when using google classroom assignments such as revision for assessments.
This Revision Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and can be edited and changed to suit in Microsoft Word and PDF format.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated. Please email me for a free copy of any of my resources worth up to £3.50 if you do.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
I have produced this bundle of resources on Edward VI and Mary I to help A level history students access the course and make some of the ideas, themes and concepts of the Tudors more comprehensible.
Edward VI: Most of the historiography of Edward places him at the periphery of the reign. However this bundle of lessons challenges this view and sets out to reappraise his monarchy.
Therefore the enquiry question throughout this bundle of resources will be to question how fit was Edward to rule during his reign.
Students will learn how cold and callous Edward could be from his chronicle and how much of a leading role and contribution he played in the English Reformation.
They will judge the significance of the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland and how they tackled the problems of finance, the economy, law and order, religion and foreign policy.
Students will also compare the two Dukes and decide whose rule could be judged a success and why ultimately they both fell from grace.
Finally they will about the key reformers and the new Evangelicals during the reign of Edward VI such as Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop John Fisher and John Hooper and the impact they had on the Edwardian Reformation.
Mary I: Mary’s reign has traditionally been given a negative historiography. This bundle of lessons will challenge this interpretation and whilst justifying it in some cases, also argue that Mary was in many instances courageous, decisive, successful and determined.
Therefore the enquiry question throughout this bundle of resources will be to question if a woman was fit to rule England.
Students will learn the background to which Mary ascended the throne, assess her priorities as Queen and challenge the traditional view of Mary from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.
They will evaluate the significance of her Government and the role of Parliament as well as her marriage to Philip II of Spain and the consequences this brought as she was sucked into the Habsburg-Valois conflict, with the loss of Calais.
Furthermore they will compare and contrast the Counter Reformation with the religious changes introduced by Edward and the wider implications of Mary’s reforms with Marian martyrs.
Finally, students will judge the similarities of the economic situation she inherited from her half brother and the differences she made in laying many of the foundations for the success of subsequent monarchs.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 Introduction to Edward
L2 The rise of Somerset (free resource)
L3 Rule of Somerset
L4 Rise of Northumberland
L5 Rule of Northumberland
L6 The Edwardian Reformation
L7 Introduction to Mary I
L8 Aims of Mary I
L9 Mary I and her government
L10 Mary I marriage and Wyatt’s Rebellion
L11 The Counter Reformation
L12 Marian Martyrs
L13 Mary’s Foreign Policy
L14 Mary I and the economy
The lessons include the two types of exam question used, with examples of how to tackle them, using 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.
This is the third bundle of resources I have created for this unit and hope to complete the rest of the course very soon.
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.
These lessons have been written to deliver the unit for AQA GCSE 9-1 Conflict and Tension, 1918-39.
By the end of this unit, students will be able to understand the complex and diverse interests of different individuals and nation states in trying to preserve the peace and the setting up a League of Nations.
They will focus on the national self determination of states, the ideas of internationalism and the challenges of revising the Versailles Peace Settlement.
Students will also evaluate the causes of the Second World War, how it occurred and why it proved difficult to resolve the issues which led to its initiation.
They will also study the role of key individuals and groups in shaping change and how international relations were influenced and affected by them.
All the lessons come complete with suggested teaching strategies and differentiated learning tasks.
I have added many of the typical GCSE questions AQA have supplied, from source analysis, write an account, to the longer 16+4 mark questions. Markschemes and tips on how to answer the questions to achieve the higher level marks have also been included.
The lessons are as follows:
L1: Aims of the Peacemakers
L2: Compromise
L3: Terms of the Treaty of Versailles
L4: Satisfaction with the Treaty
L5: The Wider Peace Settlement (free resource)
L6: Introduction to the League of Nations
L7: The structure of the League of Nations
L8: The Commissions
L9: How successful was the League of Nations in the 1920’s?
L10: The decline of International Cooperation (free resource)
L11: The Manchurian Crisis
L12: The Abyssinian Crisis
L13: Was the League destined to fail?
L14: Hitler’s Aims
L15: Reactions to Hitler’s Foreign Policy
L16: The road to war and German rearmament
L17: Reoccupation of the Rhineland (free resource)
L18: The Anschluss
L19: The Sudeten Crisis
L20: The Nazi-Soviet Pact
L21: Why did World War II break out?
Lessons also include retrieval practice activities and come in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
As TES restrict Bundle sizes to 20, Lesson 17 (Reoccupation of the Rhineland free lesson) will have to be downloaded seperately.
Any reviews would be gratefully received.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c.1000 to present
This lesson aims to find out how significant Hippocrates and Galen were in the history of medicine.
With the GCSE significance question in mind, the focus is on how their ideas and treatments were developed and used in the short, medium and long terms.
Students find out, in depth, about the four humours for example and the use of opposites, with the acceptance of the Christian Church as well as how the emphasis on observation and professionalism still exists amongst doctors today.
There are links to video footage and learning tasks to suit all learning needs.
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.
The English Civil War
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the reign of Charles II who was determined to stamp his authority and bring back some sense of ‘normality’ to the country.
Students will be given the context of his return with a Head and Tails activity and an excellent video, in which they will have to justify his cautious return.
As well as reassessing how his brought back ‘partying’ to the country, some source scholarship requires students to summarise paragraphs and create images and headings to show and clarify understanding.
Students will also have to put themselves in the shoes of Charles to sort out some of his problems in the restoration.
A ‘talk like an expert’ activity for the plenary will show off their new found knowledge and skills from 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.
The French Revolution
The aim of this lesson to be judge how much Britain had to fear from Napoleon.
The first learning task for the students is to analyse a map of Europe in 1810, when Napoleon was considered at the height of his power, and work out which European countries were ruled over by France.
There is some source scholarship on Napoleon’s army to give some context on why it was so successful.
The main task is to decide how much Britain had to fear from Napoleon. Students have to emoji rate each part of Napoleon’s power, from battles, to his rule in France and his attempted invasion of Britain, before his defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar and subsequent imposition of his continental system.
Students can give their overall judgements in a written task, with key words and a writing frame to help if required.
As Napoleon’s power declined and therefore his fear factor, students are required to finalise his demise deciphering a dual coding task.
The plenary requires them to choose the correct answers, which focus on Napoleon’s health problems and ultimate reasons for his failure and final exile to St Helena.
The lesson comes with differentiated materials, suggested teaching and learning strategies 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.
It is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to decide if Winston Churchill deserves the title as the ‘Greatest Briton’?
When the BBC conducted a poll entitled ‘Who is the Greatest Briton?’ Winston Churchill came out on top, besting some strong competition.
This lesson therefore challenges this assumption and evaluates the four areas the BBC cites as his fortitude; for being the greatest British Gentleman, for inspiring the nation, for symbolising the spirit and strength of Britain and for his comforting speeches.
The evidence for this task is through radio broadcasts, video footage and source analysis (using a battery rating) from which students will conclude and either concur or not with the poll.
A splat the bubble plenary will test their new assumptions.
This lesson is ideal as preparation for GCSE if you are embedding source skills or teaching the interwar years or WWII at Key stage 4.
It 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 retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Why was the slave trade finally abolished in Britain and her Empire and why did it take so long to achieve?
Why were arguments in the eighteenth century challenged so rigorously and overturned in the nineteenth?
Which people inspired its abolition and who was against this?
Students decide which arguments were being put forward to the plantation owners, racists, people who were ignorant and law makers to end the slave trade.
They then prioritise the most important arguments in challenging these peoples’ staunch perceptions.
The second part of the lesson is a case study of William Wilberforce. Through video, audio and source work, students build up a history of the great man and decide how and why he is significant (this is a differentiated task dependent upon ability).
The final part of the lesson uses an interactive spinning wheel with key words used throughout the course, which the students have to define and explain their links to slavery.
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 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.
This first lesson is an introduction to the reign of Queen Elizabeth and starts by finding out what the students know already using a true or false quiz, source material, video evidence and portraits of Elizabeth.
The emphasis is also on the precarious nature of her early life which has a major impact on how she rules when she becomes Queen.
The second part of the lesson uses differentiated resources and requires the students to plot, explain and prioritise her early problems on a tree (using the trunk, branches and leaves).
The third part focuses on a typical GCSE question on the usefulness of a source giving tips and notes on how to answer this question.
The lesson also gives a brief introduction to the course and includes a tracking sheet which the students stick in their books detailing the assessment objectives of the course and the four main question types.
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.
Civil Rights in America
The aim of this lesson is to assess how far Jesse Owens inspired the Civil Rights Movement.
Students begin by analysing his early childhood and how his athletic talents was spotted at a young age.
Students will also assess how Jesse coped in the segregated south with the Jim Crow Laws and judge how far this impacted upon his athletics career.
There is a chronological exercise to complete, together with video footage of the Berlin Olympics and some differentiated questioning on his medals, achievements and legacy…
A true or false quiz at the end will attempt to question how Jesse Owens was received back in the USA after the Berlin Olympics and how far his life changed.
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.
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.
