Christopher Columbus KS3 History Lesson – Legacy and Debate

This fully resourced KS3 History lesson explores the legacy of Christopher Columbus, encouraging students to analyse sources, debate perspectives, and develop extended writing skills. It can be taught as part of an explorers unit or as a standalone enquiry into Columbus’ impact.

The lesson includes:

Mind map development task (starter and plenary)

Video links with comprehension and stretch questions

Five Columbus sources with an analysis grid

Debate preparation activity with debate rules included

PEEKA paragraph writing task, complete with scaffold, model paragraph, and analysis of the model paragraph

Timed writing task (with Pac-Man timer)

Extension tasks and further reading suggestions

Literacy support task

This lesson develops historical interpretation skills, critical thinking, and literacy, while engaging students with the contested legacy of one of history’s most famous explorers.

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