Why did England and Spain go to war in 1585?

This lesson is aimed at a 50 mins to a 1 hour lesson. It introduces the common reasons why war between Spain and England occurred in 1585. This lesson is aimed at the middle, with an element allowing the lower learner gain a reason and stretch the higher learners to engage in difficult material. All students will be able to provide three reasons why the war occurred, and with team work can gain a different insight/explanation as to why the believe it happened. In essence, by completing all the tasks they are answering a 12 mark GCSE edexcel question of ‘Why did England and Spain go to war, 1585?’ I would follow on this lesson with homework of revising for an assessment on answering this question in the next lesson, though if you have more time, you could build that into this lesson.

*Top tip: Organise the groups before the lesson into the powerpoint, differentiating accordingly. Number the students in each group, eg 1-philip, 2, religion… so they all know what their ‘master topic’ is. Cuts down on time needed to explain the task.
*Top tip: Use the colour code carding to create formative questioning throughout all your lessons. Simply print out a sheet with the four colours, cut, laminate and attach together with a treasury tag.

Many thanks, and reviews welcome!