Who were the Achaemenid (Persian) Kings?

And how well did each one rule the Persian Empire?

This lesson has been designed as an ‘opening’ or ‘overview’ lesson for OCR Ancient History GCSE students, embarking on their study of the Persian Empire/ Achaemenid kings (Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes).

It has also been used however as a stand alone lesson, for example as a lesson in a thematic unit on different empires throughout history.

The starter introduces students to the geography of the Persian Empire in relation to Europe and the rest of the world - giving students some context.

The main bulk of the lesson is based around an activity involving four A5 cards. Each A5 card has details about each king. Students identify positives and negatives of each king from the cards and then evaluate the relative success of each one in relation to the others. The information cars are included as slides within the PowerPoint, ready to be printed.

Students are then advised how to apply the knowledge they have gained to the June 2019 summer exam essay question through the use of visuals, followed by an effective plenary involving students judging their own progress (with your support) using ‘post-it’ notes.

This lesson is designed to last an hour, unless you elect for students to attempt the exam question, in which case it will run to nearer two.

The resources are very accessible are designed with the research behind ‘dual-coding’ in mind. The resources do not shy away from some ambitious vocabulary though and teachers may find spending some lesson time unpicking some of this vocabulary useful.