This lesson was designed my students studying OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation Myth and Religion. It’s fully dual coded to reduce cognitive load, enhance engagement and aid knowledge retention - we’ve found our students really like this style and they find it helps them access the content more readily. The lesson starts with a video reminding them why Hercules is famous, before launching into the story of Hercules and his fight with Achelous over princess Deianira of Aitolia. Primary source work is included throughout as students are presented with passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and are prompted with challenging questions associated with them. They can answer these verbally or in their books depending on the type of class you have and students you teach. The lesson will fit quite neatly into 1 hour and it finishes with a video where students are encouraged to listen to the original text from Ovid being read aloud, and use this to add more detail to their answers, followed finally by some peer assessment. There are coloured overlays on all the slides to help any students with Irlen’s / Dyslexia but these can easily be deleted if you don’t need them. Thanks so much for taking a look :-)

The lesson starts with an embedded TEDed video recounting the 12 Labours of Hercules so the students are reminded of why he was so famous in the ancient world. This is followed by discussion on why Hercules ‘ended up’ as part of Roman religion (Hercules’ journey through Italy and Aeneas’ subsequent discovery of the cult after escaping from Troy is given as the backdrop for this). Students are then introduced to the reasons why the Temple of Hercules Victor is located where it is in Rome, and passages from Virgil and Livy are included (as hidden slides for printing to be handed out) where students are encouraged to pick out various aspects of the Cult of Hercules and describe its key features for themselves. The lesson ends by looking at how the Cult of Hercules established itself over time in Ancient Rome and students discuss what Rome’s obsession with Hercules says about themselves and their own identity. This lesson was designed for my students who are studying the OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation Myth and Religion Unit. All the knowledge pupils need for their exam is contained within the lesson, which itself is fully dual-coded which we have found really helps to reduce cognitive load, allowing students to focus on what they need to, aiding knowledge retention. There is also a coloured overlay on each slide to help students with Dyslexia / Irlen’s (which can easily be deleted if you don’t need it). Thanks for taking a look :)

This lesson was designed for my students who are studying OCR’s GCSE Classical Civilisation Myth and Religion Unit. It’s fully dual coded, which my students are big fans of as we’ve found it reduces cognitive load and aids knowledge retention - it eliminates excess ‘noise’ on the screen / board so that pupils know what they need to focus on. The lesson starts by going into the background of why Hercules is called Hercules and not Heracles by the Romans, followed by the reason why Hercules was important to the Romans, how he found himself in Italy during his 12 Labours etc. A handout is then provided with passages from Virgil’s Aeneid on it from which pupils create an 8 part story board to cement their knowledge of the chronology of the story. The handout and storyboard template are both included as hidden slides for easy printing. A series of questions designed to stretch students’ thinking are then posed - these can be answered verbally as a class, or can be answered individually by students and peer-assessed. Finally, pupils are encouraged to link the Hercules and Cacus legend with the Romans’ own identity and how they viewed themselves. There is a coloured overlay on each slide for pupils struggling with Dyslexia/ Irlen’s - but this can easily be deleted if it isn’t needed. Thanks for taking a look :)

I used this lesson with my students for their OCR Classical Civilisation 9-1 GCSE unit ‘Myth and Religion’. It covers what they need to know about Heracles apart from his twelve labours (which are covered in this lesson: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12658219 ) The lesson begins with a look at what Olympia was and why it was important to the Greeks. There is a video embedded and pupils are asked to describe what they can see in the reconstruction of Olympia on screen. Heracles’ link to Olympia is then emphasised through a quick recap of his fifth labour, the Augean Stables, and the concept of metopes is introduced and where they are located on the Olympian Zeus temple. Pupils are then presented with a discussion of the three aims of the sculptor in representing each of Heracles’ labours and are invited to make a reasoned judgement as to what they believe the sculptor’s primary aim was and explain why. There is then a brief digression into the ‘other’ story of how the Olympic games were founded (Pelops, Hippodamia and Oinomaos) and pupils are shown where and how these events were depicted on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The final task in this lesson that is designed to fit into an hour is one where pupils conclude which story of the origin of the Olympic Games is more likely to their mind, based on the literary and archaeological evidence. Short exam practice questions are used as a plenary so that you as the teacher can assess what knowledge they’ve retained from the lesson. The whole lesson is dual coded - something my students really enjoy as it facilitates a reduction in cognitive load and allows them to focus on exactly what needs to be focused on, by eliminating excess ‘noise’ from what is being presented. This in turn we have found aids knowledge retention and allows them to link back to prior learning more readily, meaning they are making bigger learning gains from lesson to lesson. A coloured overaly is included on each slide which can be easily deleted if you do not want or need it, but we have found these help our pupils with dyslexia / Irlen’s to engage more easily. Thanks for taking a look :)

This lesson goes into detail about each of Heracles’ 12 Labours; what happened during them and after each one. The lesson is dual coded where possible to ensure students can easily access the key information they need in what can be an otherwise information heavy lesson. This lesson resource guides pupils to learn about Heracles’ Twelve Labours in first an independent way,and then in a collaborative way to mixup T&L strategies to ensure engagement throughout from all students. Handouts with info on each Labour is included with quotes from primary sources (but not too much - to ensure accessibility) and a commentary for each one too. I have also included the information on each Labour on separate slides in case you’d rather go through them one by one as a class on the whiteboard. Pupils use this information to fill in an A3 sheet (included as a hidden slide to be printed off) and then have their learning cemented by the inclusion of a variety of video clips that summarise the Labours in 4 different parts. Throughout there are study questions and stretch and challenge activities to ensure the most able students are catered for. The summative assessment task at the end is an exam question, but there is also a newspaper task activity with a template included (again as a hidden slide for printing) which worked well with my students as a homework task. I did this lesson with my students in 2 x 1 hour lessons and the feedback I got from it was really good - they certainly retained the knowledge they needed for their Classical Civilisation GCSE exam. There is also a transparent cover on each slide to help pupils with dyslexia/Irlen’s which can be easily deleted or the colour can be changed to suit your pupils. Thanks for taking a look :)

I created this lesson for my OCR GCSE 9-1 Classical Civilisation class. It’s dual coded throughout to reduce excess ‘noise’ to ensure students know what to focus on and when, in order to aid high quality knowledge retention. The lesson is meant to complement the counterpart ‘Journeying to the Underworld’ GCSE lesson for the ancient Greeks: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/homeric-hymn-to-demeter-journeying-to-the-underworld-in-ancient-greece-12655537 The lesson starts by introducing Ovid and Roman beliefs about the Underworld. Background is then given to students on who Orpheus is and why he is so famous in classical myth. Students are encouraged to summarise his importance themselves before moving on to a reading task. The exam-specified version of Metamorphoses by Ovid is included as a hidden slide to be printed out for pupils, who will go through it as a class and pick out words they might struggle with to aid literacy-building and to ensure the text is accessible to all. Students are then instructed to read through it again themselves and pick out key parts and summarise each part themselves (can be verbal, written or drawn). before attempting some exam questions so you can gain some clarity on where they are in terms of how much they have retained from the lesson. The lesson finishes with a really good 5 minute video that summarises the story for pupils. A final storyboard task is included should you want to extend the lesson beyond the one hour mark, or to be set as an engaging homework that helps make their learning stick. Each slide has a pale yellow overlay to aid students with dyslexia / Irlen’s but this can be removed easily by deleting it, or its colour can be easily changed to suit your pupils’ needs. Thanks for looking :)

This lesson was designed with the 9-1 OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation spec in mind. It covers everything pupils need to know about the events portrayed in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, and aims to solidify both their knowledge of the events of the poem, and to draw out quality analysis through the inclusion of study questions, handouts (included as hidden slides for printing) and a video. The resource is fully dual coded to reduce excess ‘noise’ - something my students are really keen on as it is clear at every point in the lessons, what the key information is that they should be focusing on. The use of dual coding also aids knowledge retention and allows pupils of all abilities to access this otherwise difficult poem. When I taught this it fit quite neatly into 2 x 1 hour lessons, with the first lesson focusing on knowing the story of Hades’ abduction of Persephone and the roles various other characters play (i.e. Hermes, Hades, Demeter, Helios, Hecate et al.) through to the poem’s resolution. A copy of the poem is included if you wish to use it with pupils, however key quotes with analysis are picked out on a separate handout (included as a hidden slide for printing) to aid the story-telling task in that forms the focus of the rest of the first lesson. The second hour focuses more on analysis of the characters and their relationships with one-another - including the complex relationships and power (im)balance between humans and the gods. Study questions are included along with an exam question at the end in order that you as the teacher can assess the extent of their learning. Thanks for taking a look :)

This lesson was designed for my pupils studying OCR Classical Civilisation 9-1 GCSE. It provides an excellent in-depth look at the Roman Domus / Villa - the household and home of wealthy Romans / Roman Patricians. The lesson is dual coded and there is an emphasis in reducing excess ‘noise’ in the PowerPoint file - allowing pupils to easily access the content without distraction. There is also a yellow overlay on each slide to aid any pupils with irlens / dyslexia (this can easily be removed though by clicking on the overlay on each slide and pressing ‘delete’). The lesson begins with a look at a map of Pompeii to allow pupils to see the prevalence of the Domus in a Roman city and then pupils are given a handout (included as a slide to be printed off) of a typical domus floor plan with a key and pupils must colour code both. Once pupils thus have an understanding of the uses of the rooms in a typical domus and what they were called, there is a handout (again, included as a slide) to be printed off of extra info where pupils are encouraged to highlight key points and use to make extra notes to supplement their work up to this point. There is then a short 3 minute video embedded in the next slide which summarises what pupils should have learnt up to this point. Having established the key features of a typical domus, pupils are then presented with the floor plans of three important Roman villas in Herculaneum and Pompeii: The House of the Wooden Partition The House of Menander The House of Octavius Quartio Pupils are prompted to compare the floorplans and key features of these houses to their ‘typical’ domus floorplan and pick out similarities and differences. A group task then ensues where pupils fill in their fact file sheets on each house using more detailed information included in the proceeding slides (designed to be printed out - but you can go through the info on the board, or alternatively read the information for each house aloud and ask students to make notes as you read - I did it slightly differently with my two groups). Finally, the PowerPoint ends with OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation exam questions so pupils’ learning and understanding can be assessed. Thanks for taking a look :-)

This lesson is designed with OCR’s GCSE Classical Civilisation unit: Myth and Religion The lesson is comprehensive in its inclusion of everything the GCSE specification requires: How wealth and status affected burial in Ancient Rome Preparation of the body Funerary procession Burial of the body Festivals for the dead and ancestors Also, primary sources such as Pliny and Ovid are included and clearly signposted for students. Thinking questions (to be answered verbally or in written form are included) as are exam questions at the end, in addition to a short video where Mary Beard looks at Roman tombs lining the road into Rome. Everything my students needed to know is included and they seemed to really enjoy it and engage with it. It’s presented using the principles of dual coding to reduce cognitive load - ensuring that excess ‘noise’ on the PowerPoint does not prove a barrier to knowledge acquisition and retention. Thanks for taking a look :)

This lesson is designed to be delivered in an hour and includes a range of handouts and video clips (hence the larger file size) included as slides within the PowerPoint. Students are introduced to the key features a Greek Theatre and the role they played in Greek society and religion. It is clear and concise and throughout there are numerous comprehensions and other opportunities to engage the students and embed their learning. This lesson was ideal in our introduction to GCSE Classical Civilsation unit we did at the end of KS3 / beginning of KS4 as students are starting to discover the Classical World - it helps give them an excellent sense of period. Thanks for taking a look :-)

This lesson is designed to fit into an hour and guides students, in a very straightforward but detailed way, through the key features of a Roman insula (apartment building) that was the cornerstone of Roman City Life for the average city-dwelling Plebeian. Roman insulae were subject to collapse, fire damage and unscrupulous landlords and there is a handout included as a slide within the powerpoint file taking students through what different Roman authors had to say about these high-rise apartment blocks. The final task before the plenary is a more creative one encouraging students to write about insulae in the style of the satirist Juvenal, who famously moaned a lot about them! Ideal for anyone teaching Classical Civilisation GCSE, the powerpoint is graphically designed in a way that students experience as little cognitive load as possible which my students definitely appreciate - allowing them to more readily access the information they need to embed. Two video clips are included too (hence the large file size) ensuring students have access to learning about the topic through a a few different kinds of media. Thanks for taking a look :-)

This lesson was made for my GCSE History students studying the Cold War. It is made in a way that it will cover the content of the any GCSE History spec - it is a concise and clear account of the agreements at Yalta and foreshadows the disagreements that come later at Potsdam in it plenary. It is designed to last an hour - I made this because other resources on the Yalta conference out there seemed unwieldy and lacked focus. This is designed to be the opposite and will prove invaluable to students who sometimes aren’t so quick to embed learning when presented with new information. For that reason, my students like these types of lessons because they are completely dual coded and easy to follow - they reduce cognitive load meaning that students can access the learning far more easily than through other resources which are ‘all singing, all dancing’ (!) or unnecessarily complex. There is a worksheet included as a slide to be printed off A4 that students add their notes on to as the lesson progresses and there is a sound clip that students listen to as a starter and jot a few notes down, and a summary video clip is also included (hence the larger file size) which prompts a few lines of questioning that will prove useful when studying the Potsdam conference. Thanks for taking a look :-)

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct and reduces cognitive load. It tells the story of the how the consuls Valerius and Horatius attempted to bring an end to the bickering between the Patricians and Plebeians that had characterised the Conflict of the Orders for such a large part of Rome’s early Republican period. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - summative and formative depending on how you want to use them. There’s a10 and 15 mark exam question to finish off the lesson for those teaching the OCR Ancient History GCSE - including a passage from Livy. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the this time period in Rome’s history that exists at the moment - it’s why I made the lesson because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct and reduces cognitive load. It tells the story of the how the Plebeians and the Patricians argument with each other at the beginning of Rome’s new Republican era ended with the Plebs leaving the city for the second time - in addition to the role the Decemvirs played in all this. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - summative and formative depending on how you want to use them. There’s a 15 mark exam question to finish off the lesson for those teaching the OCR Ancient History GCSE - including a passage from Livy and sentence starters. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the Second Secession (Secessio Plebis) that exists at the moment - it’s why I made the lesson because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… There is also a summary video clip at the start to tell the story so far. Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct and reduces cognitive load. It tells the story of the how the Plebeians and the Patricians argument with each other at the beginning of Rome’s new Republican era was attempted to be solved - and how this attempt at being solved was hijacked by a few Patricians unwilling to cede any power to the Plebeians. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - summative and formative depending on how you want to use them. There’s a 6 mark exam question to finish off the lesson for those teaching the OCR Ancient History GCSE. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the challenges and details of the First and Second Decemvirates (and the 12 Tables that were the product of both) that exists at the moment - it’s why I made the lesson because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… There is also a summary video clip at the start to tell the story so far and a video clip included at the end so students can recap their learning. Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct and reduces cognitive load. It tells the story of the how the Plebeians and the Patricians came to argue with each other at the beginning of Rome’s new Republican era. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - summative and formative depending on how you want to use them. There’s a 6 mark exam question to finish off the lesson for those teaching the OCR Ancient History GCSE. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the challenges and details of the origins of the Conflict of the Orders in Rome that exists at the moment - it’s why I made it because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct and reduces cognitive load. It tells the story of the trials and tribulations Rome’s new Consuls Brutus and Collatinus went through in trying to establish the new Republic in Rome after the exile of Superbus. The story and Livy / Dionysius are also analysed throughout, and this lesson sets up the next one on the origins of the Conflict of the Orders nicely. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - summative and formative depending on how you want to use them. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the challenges and details of the establishment of Rome’s new Republic that exists at the moment - it’s why I made it because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct. It starts by recapping Gnaeus Genucius’ murder which gives Volero Publilius the platform he needs for his uprising and reforms - this story is then told and analysed throughout, allowing connections to be made to the broader Conflict of the Orders between Plebeians and Patricians that was going on during the early years of the Roman Republic. On each slide are pertinent questions posed to students that they can answer verbally or in writing and are great for AfL - there is also a 6 mark exam question at the end so that students can apply their knowledge in one of the more low stakes questions they will get on the paper. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the Volero Publilius Uprising and his legislation that exists at the moment - it’s why I made it because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… Thanks for taking a look!

This lesson is part of a scheme of lessons I created to try and fill a gap in the OCR Ancient History GCSE available resources. I felt like this is quite a complex era in Roman history and the resources that exist are complicated too - leading to cognitive overload for many of my students. This lesson is completely dual coded and my students loved it because it is clear and succinct. it starts with a couple of video clips recapping Sicinius’ reasons for calling for the First Plebeian Secession (Secessio Plebis) and it then tells the story of the Secession itself - followed by a debate surrounding whether it actually achieved anything meaningful. Throughout there are pertinent questions posed to students on screen that they can answer verbally or in written form and are great for AfL - there is also a 15 mark exam question at the end (based on a passage from Livy that is included) with sentence starters and a suggested plan, looking at how the relationship between the Patricians and Plebeians had changed between the exile of Superbus and the First Secession - analysing the second order concept of Change and Continuity which is one of the key second order concepts that 15 mark questions look to address in the exam. Even if you aren’t teaching the OCR AH GCSE, I’d argue this is probably the clearest and easiest to understand overview of the First Secession that exists at the moment - it’s why I made it because there was hardly anything accessible out there for me and my students… There are also embedded video clips (hence the large file size) outlining the patron-client relationship in Rome, the origins of the Conflict of the Orders and a summary of the Plebeian Secession. Thanks for taking a look!