In this very detailed lesson students have the opportunity to tackle on the of the greatest history mystery activities around! The lesson begins with a Power Point activity designed to captivate the class from the go and they view a short video outlining differences people have on this question. The class then work through a detailed set of background notes to enrich their knowledge before attempting a 26 piece evidence sort. The class work in pairs or individually to place each piece of evidence into a column - they are colour co-ordinated to differentiate where required - some evidence suggests the landings were real and others suggest they were a hoax. Once complete the class use this as a scaffold to write an answer to the question ‘did man really walk on the moon in 1969?’ before voting online in their plenary activity. It really is a lesson (for high school students) which engineers original thought and allows students to discriminate between evidence to arrive at a well thought out conclusion. My students always find this a fascinating lesson and a great part of any Cold War unit or stand-alone activity. I hope yours enjoy it as much as mine do. You can find alternatives on this site which address this question and which cost a tiny bit less but I don’t think they have the level of detail and precision as you will find here :-)

Simple but incredibly effective. This one-slide Power Point template is easily editable so you can tailor it to your school/department. I print it for my classroom and ensure students have a copy in the insert of their exercise books so they know exactly what part of their learning journey they are on and where they are going to. My classes can look back and forward to see skills progression and to make links between units.

In this lesson students explore the long term causes of the 1905 revolution in Russia. The starter activity invites them to discuss the concepts of revolution from above and below. They are then provided with a bespoke set of notes which break down the knowledge into socio-economic, political, and military reasons for unhappiness amongst the population. Students then follow this with the main consolidation activity which is a card sort (broken down into reasons why military, peasants, urban dwellers and opposition groups might be unhappy) and use this information to write speeches to the Tsar seeking reform. The lesson concludes with a plenary activity in which students tie together their answer to the lesson question. Please let me know if you have any questions about this lesson pack, which has been designed for students of secondary age. I have also included a colour coded version of the card sort for purposes of differentiation.

This is a one-page Power point slide (editable) which can be set as a project-based assessment on interpretation of whether Emily Davison died deliberately. Students are given clear criteria (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery) and a set task with a list of key words which can help them. The slide also has a section to show students how long they have to work on this assessed piece of work. Please note: this assessment task can very easily be edited for any assessed piece of work focusing on the second order concept of interpretation and works especially well with my lesson resource on Emily Davison which can be found here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/suffragette-emily-davison-10-page-lesson-pack-11920338 Thanks for your interest in this and I hope it helps you ! Best wishes, Daniel

This is a one-page Power point slide (editable) which can be set as a project-based assessment on the causes of slavery. Students are given clear criteria (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery) and a set task with a list of key words which can help them. The slide also has a section to show students how long they have to work on this assessed piece of work. Please note: this assessment task can very easily be edited for any assessed piece of work focusing on the second order concept of causation and works especially well with my lesson resource on the causes of slavery which can be found here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/the-causes-of-slavery-7-page-full-lesson-notes-hexagonal-card-sort-11920311 Thanks for your interest in this and I hope it helps you ! Best wishes, Daniel

This is one of my favourite lessons. It take a little bit of preparation by the teacher beforehand though, although there is a short cut you can take too. In this lesson you will find six codes to crack and six missions all of which help answer the question ‘how did Rasputin die?’. As the class figure out the codes and complete the missions they fill in the worksheets provided. By the end they will have six different responses which help them understand the Felix Youssopov-inspired version of events but which also leave them questioning this version of events. This lesson works best with a few props (beard, bottle, crucifix etc as well as six boxes and six padlocks) but you can if you prefer simply print off the codes and print them back to back instead. Any questions please email me. This lesson has been pitched towards high achieving secondary aged students and please do be aware there is one image of a dead Rasputin in this lesson. Please include/leave out at your discretion.

This lesson begins with a fun starter activity where students view images of Putin and are introduced to the idea that Russians like a tough muzhik style leader (Geoffrey Hosking). They then read through a detailed 4-page pack of notes before completing a card sort where they divide information onto two ‘roads’ - one that suggests Russia was legitimately on the road to reform and democracy, and one that suggests it was on the road to revolution because of a Tsar who refused to give up any power. Students are then expected to write a short response to the overall question before the plenary which shows them two different Historians’ views on this question (Pipes and Morison). The class are asked to vote by standing either on the left or right of the room. I hope you enjoy this lesson as much as I do when I deliver it and please do ask me if you have any questions. The lesson is pitched at high achieving secondary school students.

This is a four-part lesson in which students tackle the essential question ‘why did Russia do so badly in the First World War?’. The lesson begins with a starter activity in which students pick the odd one out. This is designed to get them thinking about the nature of fighting on the Eastern Front, something they might be less familiar. They are then given a set of detailed notes before attempting a card sort activity which is broken into three categories: socio-economic, military, and political reasons for Russia’s lack of success. The class can glue these into their books and then write up their own summary before attempting the plenary, which is a ‘Find Someone Who Can’ activity where they walk around the class asking peers to help fill in their sheets and in so doing test their own and the class’ subject knowledge. I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine do and please don’t hesitate if you have any questions. This lesson is pitched towards high-ability secondary aged students.

This is a simple one-slide editable PowerPoint template. Just amend for your own inquiry units/lessons and ask students to glue it into their exercise books. It acts like a contents page for their own learning and ensures the students know exactly where they are in their own learning journey. I hope you find this useful!

This is a fully resourced lesson focusing on the second order concept of interpretation. Students watch two video clips (Disney and Alan Rickmann’s interpretations of Rasputin) and complete a VENN diagram as their starter activity to introduce the idea that there are very different views of Rasputin. They then work through a detailed set of notes before rifling through a 50+ piece card sort to identify arguments in favour of him being a Mad Monk or indeed a Holy Man. Students use this information to complete a written task (report for the Okhrana) using the criteria-driven assessment template provided. In the plenary students look through five different images of Rasputin and are invited to shout out their thoughts as the squares are taken away to reveal the picture. Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope your students get as much out of this fully-resourced lesson as much as mine do.

In this lesson’s starter activity students are introduced to some of the weird ideas that existed before Marco Polo’s travels (such as headless men and women with single giant feet) and there are graduated learning outcomes provided (all of you will/some of you will/most of you will). Students are then provided with background information about Marco Polo’s voyage and are given a list of key events on slide 14. The main activity is that students are asked to use this information to create an Instagram style storyboard to narrow this down to the ten key events of his life (examples are given). The lesson concludes with a Dingbats plenary designed to get students to shout out some key words relating to Marco Polo’s voyage. I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine and thanks for your interest. Please be aware this lesson is pitched at high ability secondary aged students (11+). I hope your students enjoy it as much as mine do (I teach in China so this is always an extremely popular lesson with my students!) and please let me know if you have any questions.

In this lesson students begin with a starter activity which reveals Marco Polo believed in some odd things, including men with dogs’ heads! From here they work through some background information including the views of historian Dr. Frances Woods who believes Marco Polo never really made it to China after all. In the main activity students sort evidence from a card sort into two columns, things that suggest he did go to China (the accuracy of his descriptions of things like currency for example) and evidence that suggests he did not actually visit China (his book was ghost written and he makes no mention of things like chopsticks or the Great Wall etc.) The lesson concludes with a plenary where students vote on their beliefs. It is a great lesson designed to get students thinking and can be taught as part of an Ancient China/Mongol Empire unit or as a stand-alone lesson. Please note this lesson has been pitched towards high achieving secondary aged students. Please do ask if you have any questions and I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine always do.

In this lesson students begin with a quick starter activity to see how many Rolls-Royce owning celebrities they can identify - they’re usually rather surprised to see that Lenin is one of these! The lesson has learning objectives which are graduated (all of you/most of you/some of you) and the class then work through a very detailed set of background information/notes focused on Lenin’s big promises of peace, land, and bread. The main activity is then for students to collate information on how well he achieved his aims in these three areas by creating a ‘school report card’ on him. A completed example is also included. The lesson then concludes with a simple voting plenary which asks students to answer the lesson’s question and to support it with evidence (ie did he achieve his promises of peace, land and bread). This lesson is aimed at high achieving secondary students. Please do ask if you have any questions and thanks for popping by. I hope your students get as much out of this activity as mine do.

This is a one-page Power point slide (editable) which can be set as a project-based assessment on consequences of the Romans. Students are given clear criteria (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery) and a set task with a list of key words which can help them. The slide also has a section to show students how long they have to work on this assessed piece of work. Please note: this assessment task can very easily be edited for any assessed piece of work focusing on the second order concept of consequence and works especially well with my lesson resource on what the Romans gave to us which can be found here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/how-civilised-were-the-romans-23-page-full-lesson-notes-project-pack-11920978 Thanks for your interest in this and I hope it helps you ! Best wishes, Daniel Please note this assessment is designed for Secondary aged Students.

This is a one-page Power point slide (editable) which can be set as a project-based assessment for the second order concept of change and continuity (this one about castles). Students are given clear criteria (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery) and a set task with a list of key words which can help them. The slide also has a section to show students how long they have to work on this assessed piece of work. Please note: this assessment task can very easily be edited for any assessed piece of work focusing on the second order concept of change & continuity and works especially well with my lesson resource on how and why castle design changed across time which can be found here - https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/how-and-why-did-castles-change-6-page-full-lesson-notes-worksheet-project-12016455 Thanks for your interest in this and I hope it helps you ! Best wishes, Daniel

In this lesson students tackle the question ‘what were the causes of the February revolution in 1917?’ and complete an assessed piece of work. The lesson begins with a starter activity (short movie clip with comprehension questions to introduce the question). The class then explore some background notes and a range of long and short term reasons on the PPT provided. From this the class digest this information into their own protest boards and these are then compiled by the teacher and either printed or shared digitally so the class can create their own personalised storyboard. After this students are given as assessment rubric (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery is the graduated criteria) in order to help them write a piece of extended written work to the question. The lesson concludes with a quick odd one out plenary. Please let me know if you have any questions about this lesson, which is pitched towards high achieving secondary students.

Uploading all your Personal Reflections for the CIE IGCSE in Global Perspectives can be a very arduous task to say the least. That is why I created this simple one-page and easy to upload template where I can score students over all the assessment objectives in one place. Simply highlight the criteria hit for each section with a highlighter pen (or tick it) and then upload it with each candidate’s work. It really does save hours of writing on the paper and makes your grading nice and clear for the examiner. I hope you find this useful. Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. This is for the 0457 course run by CIE .

I give my students a learning journey sheet for each topic covered for Core Content B: International Relations since 1919 and also the B and C Depth Studies on Germany 1918-45 and Russia 1905-41. These come as PPT and are easily editable but ensure students constantly know where on there learning journey they are. Each separate journey includes inquiry questions, lesson headings, assessment information, and tips on how to challenge oneself further. I hope they are of use to you and please do email me if you have any questions about this resource.

Please note: To use this lesson you need to have a copy of the 1998 animated Disney movie Mulan. This is a great lesson in which students are given graduated learning objectives (some of you will / most of you will / and all of you will) in order to help them answer the essential question 'what can we learn about Ancient China from the Disney movie Mulan?". The lesson begins with a starter activity to engage your students in which they are invited to guess the odd one out from a group of Disney characters (the answer is Mulan - because she has killed whereas the others, Bambi’s mother et al, had been killed. This leads them into the lesson nicely and the idea that the ballad of Hua Mulan is no ordinary ‘Disney Princess.’ The class then work through 45 different evidence cards and arrange these into things they can learn from the movie (ie accurate things like the use of rickshaws and only the Emperor being allowed to wear yellow etc) as well as movie mistakes and things which are inaccurate (such as Mulan being allowed to hug the Emperor and the way she inserts her chopsticks vertically into her rice etc). There are two versions of this card sort, one for students who like a challenge and a differentiated version for students who need a more straightforward task. Students can also divide them using the labels given (info relating to women, family, rule and government, culture, society, military etc. Students then watch the movie and tick off those they spot (a nice end of term type activity - but not simply ‘watching a movie for the sake of it’!). From this the class then complete a movie review exercise using the template given before attempting a plenary in which they vote with their feet to establish how many stars (1-5) they would rate the movie for historical authenticity (ie they now answer the essential question). I have also included a final slide which is an assessment rubric should you wish to turn this series of lessons into a formal testing point. I teach this to high achieving high school students as part of a scheme of learning about Ancient China and I hope your students get as much out of it as mine always do. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask and thanks again for your interest in this lesson, which is in PPT form but which does need the buyer to have purchased a copy of the 1998 animated movie (not the 2020 version.)