This is one of my most detailed IB lessons. Students are introduced to the topic with a hard hitting starter (please use with discretion) to introduce them to the idea of chemical weapons and to make links over time. They then read through the extremely detailed information pack before completing a range of source activities designed to help them with IB Paper 1 source handling skills. Students then test subject knowledge with the charade cards provided and conclude with a plenary PPT. I hope your students get as much from this lesson as mine always do.
This is one of my students’ absolute favourite lessons. They are given the starter activity ‘sellotape challenge’ and are asked to design a castle defence on their desks. Following this students then proceed to work through an incredibly detailed set of notes which outline the key features and changes as well as reasons for this. The cloze / scaffolded activity then tests and measures comprehension. I really hope your students gain as much from these activities as I know mine always do. These activities are fantastic for setting up a ‘build a castle competition’ - the kind of showcase event that brings great kudos and energy to a History Department!
This bundle includes 5 mini units entitled:
What were the main causes of slavery?
What were conditions like on board the Middle Passage?
What was life like for enslaved people in the New World?
How did enslaved people fight back?
Why was slavery abolished?
Each lesson includes detailed notes and a range of activities such as word searches, card sorts, rollercoaster activities and much more.
You won’t find more detailed resources on this topic online and I hope your students enjoy these lessons as much as mine do.
Last year I achieved ninety-four% A*-A in my I G C S E exam results. The year before it was eighty-eight%, making the History Department consistently high achieving and one which students want to sign up for. One of the main reasons for this is the detailed and focused set of revision menus I give to my students to help them prepare for exam success. Now you can have them too.
Of all of my resources these revision menus are my must-haves!
I hope they can be of much use to your students as they are to mine. If you enjoyed this resource please leaf through my collection of other revision menus and resources.
This pack focuses on the League of Nations, includes space for student notes, and includes revision content for the following topics:
How successful was the League?
How far did weaknesses in the League make failure inevitable?
How far did the Depression make the work of the League more difficult?
How successful was the League?
Last year I achieved ninety-four% A*-A in my I G C S E exam results. The year before it was eighty-eight%, making the History Department consistently high achieving and one which students want to sign up for. One of the main reasons for this is the detailed and focused set of revision menus I give to my students to help them prepare for exam success. Now you can have them too.
Of all of my resources these revision menus are my must-haves!
I hope they can be of much use to your students as they are to mine. If you enjoyed this resource please leaf through my collection of other revision menus and resources.
This pack focuses on the Peace Settlements, includes space for student notes, and includes revision content for the following topics:
What were the motives and aims of the Big Three at Versailles?
Why did all the victors not get everything they wanted?
What was the impact of the peace treaty on Germany?
Could the treaties be justified at the time?
My students love this activity. 160+ questions based on the following categories:
USA & her allies
Soviet leaders
The People
Wars
Words & Phrases
Statistics
It takes a little while to cut out the cards and the board and works best once laminated but your students will love this revision activity. The questions are designed to boost subject knowledge and focus on precise historical detail which in turn helps student examination performance.
I hope your classes enjoy this activity as much as my IGCSE and IB classes always do! You can watch a game in action with this URL here - https://youtu.be/i8TtkQZs3cU
These two sided front sheets look great when attached to student work. Moreover, they save teacher time and increase the level of precise feedback received by students.
They have been designed specifically for the IB History course.
I hope your students find them as useful as mine do.
This lesson is crucial to an understanding of the USA in the 1920s. Students begin by exploring how First World War propaganda impacted on marketing techniques with a detailed PPT before progressing to a very detailed set of notes. From this students complete a worksheet designed to explore the significance of various 1920s inventions. The lesson concludes with a Dingbats-style plenary to test comprehension. My class always make exceptional progress in this lesson and I hope yours find it just as useful.
My students always feel exam-ready thanks to this lesson. The class begin with a source analysis starter in which they have to reconstruct a source from a jigsaw. This allows for great discussion about what is in the foreground/background etc. The class then work through a set of very detailed notes on the First and Second New Deals before creating an emoji storyboard to explain it in order to show comprehension. Finally a bingo plenary allows for testing of comprehension. I hope your students enjoy this as much as mine do.
This is one of my favourite lessons. Students read through a very detailed set of notes focusing on the roles of Gorbachev, Reagan, economics, Solidarity and people power. Students then test their understanding of their newly acquired knowledge through a game of Jenga (attach the cards to a block - students place them into factors using the colour coordinated bricks. This activity can also be done as a more traditional card sort). Students then complete the lesson with a word search to promote key terms and literacy.
I really hope your students enjoy this as much as mine do. It is pitched at very able 16-18 year old students.
This lesson will really get your students to engage with evidence handling and to think like Historians. I am confident that the level of detail and precision in my resources is much stronger than you will find elsewhere (because of the amount of pride I take in my own historical research). During this series of activities students are introduced to John through singing along to the lyrics of a Disney song in the PPT. They then read through background information before siphoning through 31 detailed factor led and differentiated evidence cards about King John’s life ranging from his military defeats in France through to his love of bad wine and fondness for chewing his nails. Students place these two columns, positive and negative qualities and choose which cards are most significant and which to discard. The lesson concludes with a PPT asking students to vote on a report that John was the ‘worst Briton’ ever. I hope you enjoy this lesson as much as my students do! It is an excellent lesson in helping students comb through evidence to form historical interpretations.
A comprehensive fully resourced lesson. Students begin with a ‘what’s behind the squares?’ starter PPT which gets them to think about the brutality of the regime prior to the May 4th Movement. The class then work through a detailed set of notes before taking on the challenge of creating a rap-style confrontation between Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao (to help with this there are modelled responses and a crib sheet of key information on both). If students prefer they can of course also replace the rap with letter writing. The lesson concludes with a formative assessment PPT which tests students subject knowledge acquired in the lesson in which they decide if a piece of information relates to the GMD or the CCP. I love this lesson because it makes tracking student progress very clear. I hope you enjoy it.
This is a great lesson which encourages students to hone their historical skill of interpretation. Students begin by suggesting which of the historical characters are the ‘odd one out’ and this leads to a discussion about why so many of them were assassinated. From here we explore a detailed set of notes about those who opposed the New Deal and students complete the structured journalist activity to consolidate their learning. Students complete the lesson by reviewing some historiography and placing their argument within this. My students always make excellent progress in this lesson and I hope your students enjoy it just as much.
I am very proud of the precision and amount of detail in this lesson and its designed to be engaging and to ensure students make measurable progress.
The class begin by exploring an odd one out exercise for the starter activity and this draws their attention to early Chinese views of westerners. This then leads into an extremely detailed set of notes (which I created when teaching in China) before students attempt a 30 piece hexagonal card sort which is colour-coded into factors. The class then make links and explain the Key Question before finishing with a fun ‘Just-a-Minute’ plenary in order to test their understanding and knowledge gained.
I hope you enjoy this lesson as much as my students do.
This lesson will really get your students actively engaged. They begin by figuring out the anagrams of key terms and phrases from the course before working through a detailed set of notes on how China changed after the 1911 Revolution. From here students proceed to complete a 15 piece card sort, arranging them into social, political and economic impacts of Warlordism. Students then complete the lesson with a fun activity (Dingbats) designed to test how well they have understood the key vocabulary and events from the lesson.
This lesson was one I created and planned while teaching in China so I really invest as much precision in the historical detail as possible. I hope your students enjoy it as much as mine.
My students love this activity. 180+ questions based on the following categories:
The Qing Dynasty
Warlords
Mao’s rise to power
The Great Leap Forward
The Cultural Revolution
Daily Life
It takes a little while to cut out the cards and the board and works best once laminated but your students will love this revision activity. The questions are designed to boost subject knowledge and focus on precise historical detail which in turn helps student examination performance.
I hope your classes enjoy this activity as much as my IGCSE and IB classes always do.
My students love this activity. 125+ questions based on the following categories:
Early problems 1919-23
Golden years 1923-29
Rise of the Nazis 1929-33
Terror 1933-45
Propaganda 1919-45
Life in Nazi Germany 1933-45
It takes a little while to cut out the cards and the board and works best once laminated but your students will love this revision activity. The questions are designed to boost subject knowledge and focus on precise historical detail which in turn helps student examination performance.
I hope your classes enjoy this activity as much as my IGCSE and IB classes always do! The questions are based around the notes from my lessons so should stretch most students but if you require a differentiated version you can allow students a fixed time to research responses on the internet as they play.
I really enjoy teaching this lesson but it makes a content-heavy subject very easily understood. Students begin by breaking down a source using the OPVL method (origin, purpose, value, limitations) before proceeding to work through an extremely detailed set of notes. The class then use this information to create their own cults of personality before attempting a mix and match memory card game to test their comprehension. The lesson concludes with an exit ticket plenary.
I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine do.
My students love this lesson. They begin with an odd one out activity designed to get them thinking about Stalin as the ‘man of steel’ before working their way through detailed notes. They then proceed to take part in a tale of the tape activity where they identify Stalin’s strengths and Trotsky’s mistakes/weaknesses. Following this students complete a piece of structured piece of writing before completing a plenary exercise in which they create a pentagonal plan of reasons which address the Key Question.
I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine do.
A 22-page pack of over 100 great ideas for the History teacher looking to improve his or her pedagogy. I use this within my team to shake up our teaching and revitalize old schemes of work. All of the activities are easy to implement and very transferable across topics.
The pack can also be used as a great CPD tool for staff training.
I’ve compiled these ideas over a 20 year teaching career and am very proud to share them with other education professionals.
Daniel Guiney