I have been teaching history since 2002 and I have been head of History at a school for 10 years which sees many of my students opt for GCSE, A level and beyond. I am passionate about History being taught well, and believe that this largely stems from good resources (as well of course effective delivery). My lessons and various teaching resources are therefore produced with the intention of inspiring students to think for themselves, to be challenged yet engaged.
I have been teaching history since 2002 and I have been head of History at a school for 10 years which sees many of my students opt for GCSE, A level and beyond. I am passionate about History being taught well, and believe that this largely stems from good resources (as well of course effective delivery). My lessons and various teaching resources are therefore produced with the intention of inspiring students to think for themselves, to be challenged yet engaged.
An easy cover lesson to set having studied the medieval realms. It uses the Horrible Histories compilation and there are a number of questions to answer.
There is then a blank word search so that students can create their own with written clues.
This is a series of tasks serving as an overview for the War and Society unit for the OCR Modern world A unit - Medieval to 1500, designed to help with the massive amount of content required for this course.
These revision sheets cover the threat of the Vikings and Saxon’s responses, the Norman conquest and it’s impact, the break down of the Feudal system, the Anarchy and King John and the Barons, the Age of Chivalry, and the Hundred years’ war. The intention being to give a decent overview from which to start effective revision. Students can always use their class notes to add extra details to these tasks. Some of the tasks included involve completing charts, categorising and adding evidence.
The sheets are broken down into the time period, type of warfare, attitude and responses and the impact on the British people. There are extra aspects to some - such as why was the Norman Conquest successful as this is covered in the exam spec.
There are also some opportunities for students to answer an 8 and a 14 mark questions.
This is part of a lesson examining the beginning process of how a historian work. It doesn’t deal with second order concepts - it is just an introduction for Yr 7 students.
There is ppt with a printable worksheet that explains the basics of how a historian works.
There are video links examining primary and secondary sources which students can make notes on and is a hinge question at the end.
This is just one lesson exploring the role and responsibilities of British people in the slave trade. It introduces the idea that whilst some were heavily involved in the slave trade there were many ordinary British people invested in the slave trade. This is great for discussions on diversity, acceptance, societal ‘norms’ and a great introduction into abolition.
The lesson involves 2 clips from BBC teach. There is a work sheet to go with the two clips. The first part of the worksheet has a space to make notes under Britain’s forgotten slave owners and the second clip which covers abolition and why it was opposed has a number of questions.
The PPt is only six slides in length but has a hinge question to check knowledge and understanding.
Attached is two lessons work for KS3 yr 7 or 8 on migration. There are cross curricular links with Geography and Citizenship.
The lessons explore the history of migration from the Romans to present day.
There are three pages of worksheets / activities and a timeline for support
Lesson 1 Who are the British? PPT 1 = 12 sides
Lesson 2 Who has moved to Britain and why? PPt 2 22 slides plus reading resource with an SEND highlighted version.
Kenilworth project (Non Visit Covid 19 friendly)
As we were unable to take our GCSE students to Kenilworth this year, I designed a tour of the history of Kenilworth castle with its key owners and their various changes identified.
This unit of work includes specialist youtube clips that talks through the history along side the ppts plus a written overview to support students to work independently. The youtube video links are at the start of the each of the overview ppts for each period they correspond with.
There is also project booklet - done as a ppt, which has 5 tasks connected to it that help guide students through the history of the castle whilst encouraging them to eventually apply their knowledge to sources. The tasks range from creating a timeline - with various owners and changes, a commentary on the seige of 1266, plus a detailed overview where students are identifying key changes and are encouraged to make decisions about the function of the castle throughout key 4 times. There is a check list at the end to encourage students to plan their time effectively.
This unit is primarily focused on the requirements for OCR explaining the modern world - study of a historic environment (paper 3) - but will be more than suitable for other exam boards/ courses studying Kenilworth.
Attached is a series of lessons covering the Personal Rule of Charles I to the start of the English Civil war.
The lessons cover the beliefs of Charles and his royal prerogatives as well as Parliamentary privileges.
The lessons show the development and growth of the political nation and shows how their beliefs and values were being challenged through the personal Rule of Charles.
There are a number of activities including fill the gaps, quizzes, independent research, worksheets - all aimed at the OCR History specification.
There is also a homework on the Grand Remonstrance which requires students to use sources to show how Parliament was divided the Grand Remonstrance.
All lessons can be purchased individually.
Whilst most of the lesson resources are on the ppt, a few activities require the use of the OCR War and Society text book.
This activity is an excellent revision, covering all the aspects of the A2 AQA American dream unit from 1945- 1980. Students are asked to categorise the key events from social, economic, political, international and religious and then identify key changes and examples of continuity.
The timeline alone is a useful resource for revision and can be printed out and used to check basic knowledge.
This is a useful resource that shows the timeline of events and the basic history historians were using to write their histories. It covers the basic historiography to enable GCSE students to be able to examine the events that surrounded the historians and their view points. This is brilliant for the GCSE course OCR A Explaining the modern world, but it certainly useful as a basic or starter guide to historiography for A level students and is something that has worked great this year.
See also the Appeasement Historical interpretations Timeline .
This is a timeline with the historical interpretations for appeasement and the view points of the historians linked the events that they use to argue their viewpoint.
It was created with my OCRA GCSE students in mind to help them with the process of understanding what events were surrounding the historians who were writing and what evidence they used to support their claims.
My Year 11 this year have found it incredibly useful for learning the interpretations but also to help them revise effectively.
I also believe that this would be very useful for A level students who are studying this period and need a brief historical interpretations overview.
See also my Cold War historical interpretations.
Attached is a knowledge organiser that covers briefly the reasons for USA’s involvement in Vietnam. The tactics of both the VC and the USA, a timeline, reasons for loss of support for the war in the USA and the impacts of the war on the USA.
The second page gives some suggested ideas on how to use the knowledge organiser within starters, plenaries or as homeworks.
A lesson that explores parliamentary democracy in the UK and brief comparisons to other nations and its importance when examining human rights.
The lesson contains some questions to accompanying clips, gap fill activities as well as plenty of discussion opportunities.
There is also a quiz to be used at the end of the session
The ppt is 64 slides in length including worksheets for students and various quizzes.
This is 3 pages of blank charts headed with key criteria for students to complete along side their own work/ notes to help them have all key policies, events and issues in one place. Please note, this does not have teachable content - it is for student’s to complete using their prior work , knowledge and is something they can then use to test themselves.
Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy in terms of their Domestic and Foreign policy and Civil rights agenda. In line with the AQA American Dream A level unit.
Revision activity for students to complete covering presidents Lydon B Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan in terms of their Domestic and Foreign Policy. In line with the A2 AQA American Dream unit.
This is just a lovely little starter activity that can be used for revision on the Mid Tudors Edward and Mary and religious settlement of Elizabeth I.
Cards need to be cut out and students then match up the answer with the question - they should then follow in a sequence if they've matched them up correctly.
This is a super revision activity that I have used with lots of success for many years.
Attached is 1 word document that has a brief outline of the AQA A level coursework and 2 charts one for primary source analysis and one for secondary sources, I usually blow these up to A3 to allow students plenty of opportunity to thoroughly investigate the sources.
For the secondary sources there is scope to push the students to thoroughly investigate the historiography fully.
Included are 9 revision tasks covering the Yr 12 unit for the AQA American Dream, Reality Vs illusion unit. The tasks encourage independence with own revision as they have choices, but also offers them guidance for support. These task will also be excellent useful revision for Yr 13. There are resources supplied for 6 our of the 9 different suggested revision tasks. The tasks range from planning essays, source work questions, quizzes, and card sort tasks. There are some red herrings - which should allow from some good discussion opportunities. The content covers, domestic including economic, political and social issues as well and foreign policy issues. I have used these in conjunction with my President chart overview - a separate document you can buy. Students complete the various activities such as - which policy which president? and Which Foreign policy, which president? which serves as helpful reminder, confidence boost, or a - "I really need to get stuck into some revision!" for students! A win win! This is tried and tested and worked brilliantly with my year 12 this year!
A lesson on Edward I. It covers the age of chivalry and the age of professional warfare. It examines 2 case studies as Edward I embarked upon his war in Wales and Scotland and then the hundred years war with France. Students are asked to complete worksheets and answer questions examining the impact of these conflicts on local, national, governement and psychological levels. The lesson draws together the key themes with a section on whether infact this period was an age of chivalry or an age of professional warfare. There are also some practise GCSE questions at the end.
Attached is a ppt which has the resources at the end which can be printed off and completed by the students.
A source from the Southern Manifesto document and an appropriate AQA AS style question that encourages students to evaluate the primary source in relation to the exam criteria of provenance, tone, content and argument. By encouraging students to break down and analyse the source in relation to these specifics, it encourages them to always formulate their answer with the exam criteria in the forefront of their mind.
This is only one source and it is therefore worth mentioning that for AS purposes they would need a futher source which they must then compare and decide which one offers more value. For A2 they would need a further 2 sources but they are not expected to compare the sources.
This document works well with the How to answer a Primary Source flow chart document - one of my other resources available.
A super lesson that encourages students to identify the various actions and events surrounding the end of the 1905 revolution.
The resources are within the ppt and can be printed off and used around the room for students to collect the information or used as part of a group task/ discussion. They are to discover the reasons why the Tsar survived and if he was strengthening or weakening the country. At the end students are asked to think about the short and long term impact of the Tsar's actions. This then leads onto a super assessment essay question - Did the Tsar's response to the 1905 revolution make Russia stronger or weaker.