I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
I am a History Teacher with a love for producing high quality and easily accessible history lessons, which I have accumulated and adapted for over 20 years of my teaching career. I appreciate just how time consuming teaching now is and the difficulty of constantly producing resources for an ever changing curriculum.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
The aim of this lesson is to judge whether the Munich Beer Hall Putsch was a success or a disaster for the Nazis
The start of the lesson focuses on what Hitler wanted and students have to decide why he instigated a Putsch in the first place in Bavaria.
With reference to text, source analysis and video clips, students then have to prioritise the short term consequences for Hitler and his followers and the main reasons why it failed.
The final part of the lesson focuses on what we now see as his success. Students again have to give reasons why he came out of this episode unscathed and to some extent even bolstered his reputation in the long term.
In the plenary, students have to relay what they have learnt in a summarising pyramid.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Superpower Relations and the Cold War, 1941-91
The lesson aims to explore the significance of the formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact
Students are given the context of why each organisation was formed and then have to analyse each flag and explain the important of each symbol using prompts to guide them.
Furthermore students will need to discover how far Stalin is telling the truth about the Warsaw Pact in a true or false quiz.
There is a GCSE practice question on importance to complete with help if required and a model answer given.
Finally, students complete a checkpoint retrieval activity and challenge tasks to finish and reinforce the learning of the lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout this and subsequent lessons to show the progress of learning.
The lessons in this bundle are therefore linked together to build up a picture of how diplomacy, propaganda and spying led two Superpowers with opposing political ideologies to create tensions, rivalries and distrust as well as subsequently forming mutual understanding and cooperation over the time period in question.
The resource includes retrieval practice, suggested teaching strategies, differentiated material and GCSE question practice.
It comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
American Civil Rights
This lesson questions how far the African American community in America has come since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The lesson starts with focusing on the inspirational actions of two American athletes during the Mexico Olympics of 1968.
The students are questioned on the symbolic nature of their protest and how their message had far reaching implications.
Seven case studies are investigated by the students from the achievements of Michael Johnson and Barak Obama to the tragic incidents surrounding Rodney King, James Byrd and George Floyd.
There is much accompanying video footage as well as differentiated tasks to enable students to make a judgement at the end.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The English Civil War
This lesson aims to question the character and personality of Oliver Cromwell.
Students will decide if he set out to kill the King from the start and make himself a despot or did circumstances dictate that this was his only option?
Moreover, with his puritanical ideas, did he make England and the Commonwealth a better place for it, or was it exclusive only to the minority?
This will ultimately be down to students’ own judgement as they plot his actions on a grid and justify their own conclusions.
Analysis of video evidence also helps to track his ideas and personality and gives the students ideas for writing his obituary and question why his burial place in Westminster Abbey bears the inscription 1658-1661.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This lesson explores how the Nazis suppressed opposition in Germany through terror, propaganda and coordination.
Most student answers on the police state tend to focus on terror and violence, so hopefully this lesson which re-evaluate their thinking to take into account the ideas of indoctrination and persuasion.
Students analyse the types of propaganda used as well as control in all spheres of life before having to explain there was little opposition as asked at the beginning of the lesson.
They will also judge how effective the different forms of control are such as concentration camps, the Gestapo, the law courts as well as the use of block wardens.
By the end of the lesson, the students are given a GCSE practice question to analyse and mark, with guidance on how to achieve the higher marks with a model answer.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c1000 to present
The aim of the lesson is for students to understand how Public Health reached a crisis point and why the Government was finally persuaded to make Public Health its priority from its previous laissez-faire stance…
Students will learn about 5 key figures (Chadwick, Snow, Bazalgette, Booth and Rowntree) and their attempts to change the health of the nation, from tackling cholera, miasmas and sewage, to the passing of Public Health Acts.
Moreover, students will evaluate why attitudes changed and how the Government realised a healthier workforce was needed to compete with challenges to the Empire from abroad.
Each of the five individuals are analysed and their work scrutinised to judge how effective their recommendations or improvements were, culminating in a decision as to who made the most significant contribution to Public Health.
The lesson includes worksheets for all the individuals, GCSE practice questions on factors and source analysis, quizzes and video links throughout.
There are also plenaries for each individual to check understanding and recap on their contribution to Public Health.
This lesson is fully resourced and can be delivered over two-three lessons.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate the threat the Puritans posed to Elizabeth…
The lesson begins with a definition and how the Puritans were becoming a problem for Elizabeth.
Four areas of Puritanism are analysed (from Parliament, local reform movements, the Church from within and separatism) from which the students are able to tackle an exam question, with help and prompts given if required, including a detailed markscheme.
The plenary requires the students to discuss and rate how much the threat of Puritanism declined under Elizabeth and the possible reasons for this.
There is an enquiry question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning throughout the lesson and subsequent unit of work.
The lesson comes in PowerPoint format and can be changed and adapted to suit.
The lesson is differentiated and includes suggested teaching strategies.
These nine lessons are designed to cover Britain’s transatlantic slave trade: its effects and its eventual abolition.
This bundle addresses key historical skills: How did slavery show change and continuity throughout its history? What were the causes and consequences of the triangle trade on slavery? What were the similarities and differences in the actions of the slave owners? What was significant about the work of William Wilberforce or the help given by Harriet Tubman to the underground railway?
These skills are addressed in each of the lessons and allow students to be able to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends and be able to create their own structured accounts and written narratives.
All the lessons come with retrieval practice activities and suggested teaching and learning strategies, They come in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change
The lessons are also differentiated and link to the latest interpretations of slavery from the BBC and other sources.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 The origins of Slavery
L2 The triangular trade
L3 The Middle Passage
L4 The Slave Auction
L5 The Slave Plantations
L6 Punishments and Resistance
L7 William Wilberforce and the Abolition of Slavery
L8 Underground Railroad
L9 Black people in the American Civil War
If you like this resource, please review it and choose any of my resources worth up to £3 for free.
Britain: Health and the People c1000 to present
This 29 page Revision Guide sets out the four main types of questions to be asked from the start and gives ideas and easy ways of how to answer them.
The course starts with the Greek ideas of the four humours and Galen’s contribution before tackling medieval medicine through to the present day.
Each topic is set out in a clear and easy format for students to learn, remember and help them in their revision programme.
The Revision Guide gives 18 typical exam questions asked on each topic (from significance, to how useful, similarities and the factors) and how to put this into practice with model answers.
Furthermore it shows how the highest marks can be achieved, which can be different from other Revision Guides which focus more on content than skills for this course.
This Revision Guide can be used for revision, interleaving, within the classroom as well for homework purposes.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and can be adapted and changed to suit using PDF and Word formats.
Any reviews would be gratefully received. Please feel free to follow me on X (twitter) @pilgrim17.
This bundle is the third and final part in a series of lessons I have created for AQA GCSE 9-1 Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship.
As well as focusing on GCSE exam practice questions, the lessons apply the skills necessary to enable the students to achieve the highest grades.
The lessons will allow students to demonstrate (AO1) knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the period studied from Youth Groups to life in Germany during the war.
They will study (AO2) second-order concepts such as change and continuity in the role of women and how their lives were transformed and the causes and consequences of the Final Solution.
The analysis and evaluation of sources (AO3) are used in for example the Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht lesson whilst substantiated judgements are made (AO4) on how far the Nazis controlled the Churches in Germany.
The lessons are enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lessons and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resources includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 The Nazis and the economy
L2 The Hitler Youth
L3 The role of women in Nazi Germany
L4 The Nazis and the Churches
L5 Hitler’s hate list
L6 The Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht
L7 The Final Solution
L8 Opposition in Nazi Germany
L9 The German Home Front 1939-45 (free resource)
Please note that setting a full mock examination in class after completing this unit is strongly recommended.
All the examination resources and markschemes are subject to copyright but can easily be found on the AQA website.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to question if it was really necessary for the Allies to bomb Dresden in World War II.
Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris stands today as a controversial figure and therefore the lesson revolves around his reputation; did he bring an the end of the war with the bombing raids and save thousands of lives or the reverse?
The lesson builds up a picture of why the bombing raids on Germany were stepped up, how the Government used propaganda posters to justify these and why Dresden was a ‘legitimate’ target.
Differentiated tasks analyse the consequences of the bombing on Dresden and a mini plenary checks understanding.
The ultimate task is for the students to decide if he was a war hero or a criminal, with prompts and help if required.
The plenary challenges the students to link the key words to controversial themes developed throughout the lesson.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
World War I
The aim of this lesson is to evaluate just how efficient and effective the new weapons of the Twentieth Century were.
Students have two objectives; to rate the effectiveness and killing power of the weapons used during the war and to explain how well equipped the soldiers were in the trenches, particularly the British Tommy.
The lesson begins with discussing the type of weapons used and for students to recognise the continuity and change of many of these pre, post and during World War 1.
The historian Dan Snow is quoted as saying the British soldier went into World War I ‘as the best prepared soldier on the planet.’
The lesson subsequently unfolds to explain and evaluate the new weapons used and the advantages (or not) they gave each side.
The plenary requires students to link the effectiveness of the weapons to images and to explain how and why this is the case.
This lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout the lesson and this unit of study to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
American Civil Rights
What were the Jim Crow Laws in America? Who was Jim Crow? Why did this fictional character significantly impact on American society, especially in the south in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? What happened if you did not adhere to these laws?
These questions and more will be answered in this lesson.
Students analyse how black people in America were treated and why discrimination was inherent in some parts of American society and backed up by statute.
They also have to recognise how these laws affected education, family life, social time and employment and prioritise the severest of these laws in their judgement.
The lesson ends with some challenging questions using de bono’s 6 thinking hats.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Tudors
The aim of this lesson is to assess how ready Elizabeth was to become Queen
What was the young Elizabeth like and how did her background and upbringing prepare her to be a Queen?
Moreover how did the foundations of her life enable her as a woman to be strong in a man’s world?
This lesson attempts to examine her attributes growing up but also shows how luck and ruthlessness also played a later part in her life.
Students build up a picture of her early life through pictures, sources and video evidence before explaining her character and noting the problems she faced and how she overcame them from a young age.
Activities include a a chronology exercise, a true or false quiz, video and source analysis as well as using a tree to connect her early problems (branches) and character traits (leaves).
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603
The overarching aim of this and the subsequent bundle of lessons is to question and explore how Elizabeth tried to assert and establish her authority in the early years of her reign.
The lessons are therefore linked together to build up a picture of her difficulties in trying to overcome this.
This lesson focuses on the threat posed by the Puritans and how Elizabeth dealt with this threat, despite prominent members in her Government, such as Walsingham, being Puritans.
Students begin by understanding the nature of Puritanism and how they disagreed with the religious settlement.
They are given information about a number of controversies raised in Elizabeth’s reign and by colour coding decide how much of a threat they posed.
A threat’o’meter give an overall picture which they will have to justify where their judgement lies.
This lesson also focuses on two GCSE questions with a ‘write an account’ and a ‘How convincing is the Source?’ question given for GCSE exam practice.
Students can answer both or choose which one to tackle. The information is included in the lesson to assist in their answers.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The Industrial Revolution
The aim of this lesson is to question how far the Factory and Mine Acts went to reform working conditions.
Students have to decide how much credit the Government of the day should receive for reforming the conditions of workers in the factories and mines.
Furthermore they will evaluate how effective the laws were that were passed and were they adhered to.
Finally they will judge how much credit should be given to a number of dedicated and philanthropic individuals who were ahead of their time
This lesson explores these questions by examining the evidence of children and discovers how factory owners like Titus Salt in Bradford were determined to help their workers themselves to create a harmonious and thriving community.
Students have to think which Acts applied to whom using numbers as well as evaluating how much lives improved as a result of the Factory and Mines Acts.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson and there are differentiated materials included.
The Norman Conquest
This lesson is an introduction to the Bayeux Tapestry and follows the enquiry question of the previous lessons which seek to understand how much control William the Conqueror had over the population.
The lesson explains some key facts about the tapestry and its propaganda purposes for the Normans.
There is a crossword to fill in as well as some analysis of the tapestry itself.
A brilliant animated video of the tapestry brings it to life and students are questioned to how the Normans and Saxons are portrayed.
Students are also challenged in a Bayeux Tapestry thinking quilt, which requires them to link key words and definitions together and explain their overall significance.
The lesson is interactive and gets students moving around the classroom. It is also ideal for non-specialists.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end using a rate ‘o’ meter to show the progress of learning.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies and notes on the slides for further information.
It comes in PowerPoint format which can be amended and changed to suit.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to understand how the Allies won the Battle of the Atlantic, a phrase coined by Winston Churchill during the war.
Churchill himself felt this was one of the most serious threats facing the Allies and therefore during the lesson, students have to evaluate and explain how serious the threat was, before analysing the different ways the Allies subsequently reduced the threat of the U boats.
Students learn why the Atlantic was so vital to Britain and how the U boat wolf packs impacted on supplies and rationing in Britain. There is various video footage to use from the BBC, as well as the boasts of Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses.
A find and fix activity for the plenary checks student understanding of the lesson and allow them to discuss what they have learnt.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
Rise of Dictators
The aim of this lesson is to assess whether Mussolini’s legacy can be compared to Julius Caesar. Did he match up to his accomplishments such as the Julian calendar, being a successful military leader, a consul of Rome as well as an Imperator.
Students begin by explaining what they already know about Italy and its historical past.
They also analyse the rule of Julius Caesar and what he achieved in his lifetime.
They will then be given facts about Mussolini’s early life and use the information to make a judgement about him as a person, using key words and a writing framework if required.
The main task will then involve them plotting Mussolini’s life on a graph taking into account his successes and failures.
From this, they will then be able to evaluate if he indeed deserves to have a similar reputation and legacy to Caesar, whom he admired and attempted to emulate in his Fascist Dictatorship from 1922-43.
There is some excellent video footage to accompany the lesson, together with challenging tasks culminating in a ‘what is the question task’ and an ‘odd one out’ activity.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.
The resource includes some retrieval practice on Dictators, suggested teaching strategies, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The French Revolution
The aim of this lesson is introduce the types of Government that existed within Europe in 1780.
Students are given a map of Europe in 1780, from which they learn the various rulers and how they each individually ruled their countries, making links and connections between them as well as recognising their differences.
They will also study contemporary accounts of France and evaluate the reasons why the seeds were sown already in France for a revolution.
The plenary requires students to use their knowledge from the lesson to complete a multiple choice quiz.
The lesson comes with differentiated materials, suggested teaching and learning strategies and is linked to the latest historical interpretations, video clips and debate.
The lesson is enquiry based with a key question posed at the start of the lesson and revisited at the end to show the progress of learning.
The lesson is fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
