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.
This 40 page revision guide is tailored to the Edexcel Weimar and Nazi Germany 1918-1939 specification for GCSE 9-1.
It is broken down into 4 main sections: The Weimar Republic, Hitler’s rise to power, Nazi control and dictatorship and life in Nazi Germany.
This revision guide includes 21 GCSE practice exam questions throughout on the 6 main questions and gives examples on how to answer each using model answers.
This will enable all learners to achieve the higher grades required by the exam board, including the skills of explanation, inference and interpretation as well as source utility.
The information is also broken down into an easy to use format to aid the students in their revision programme. I have also included some useful mnemonics for specific areas of study which have really helped in the past to remember subject content.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and come in PDF format. It can be used for revision, interleaving, homelearning as well as class teaching.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated. Please email me for a free copy of my Edexcel Weimar and Nazi Germany revision summary guide if you do.
Cold War
The aim of this lesson is to analyse the causes and consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis, its significance and its effect on future relations between the USA and USSR during the Cold War.
In an anger management task, students link various emotions to emojis as they learn why tensions (and therefore anger) between the USA and Cuba escalated following the coming to power of Fidel Castro and his subsequent alliance to the USSR.
In a text mapping exercise they analyse how Castro defied the West by organising the placement of nuclear missiles on Cuba and how Kennedy reacted to this report and the stark choices he faced, urged on by the Hawkes and Doves in his assembled special committee, Excomm.
Furthermore students undertake an interactive quiz which is designed to be engaging and challenging as they have to make 13 decisions in the 13 days of the crisis.
The plenary is an interactive blockbusters and there are links to video evidence as well a recall, retention and retrieval task.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons is to ask why did civilians fear for their lives during the Cold War? Students will map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around the key question) and build up a picture of how these and different countries in the world responded and acted in this new nuclear age.
The resource comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
The British Empire
This lesson focuses on the upheaval of the lives of the indigenous peoples of Australia with the coming of the Europeans.
The lesson starts by looking at their customs and traditions and how these were quickly attacked through the attitudes and settlements of the colonists. A ‘Horrible Histories’ version of events is also scrutinised and questioned on its accuracy.
I have included some comprehension questions and source scholarship using an extract from the brilliant ‘Empireland’ by Sathnam Sanghera which explains the atrocities committed in Tasmania by the colonists.
Paintings from Governor Davey of Van Diemen’s Land can also analysed so the students are able to prioritise the most significant changes the colonists made to Australia and the legacy of the British Empire.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching and learning strategies, differentiated materials 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.
Elizabethan England 1568-1603
This Revision Guide is aimed to help students prepare fully for their GCSE exam in this unit of study
Within this 45 page Revision Guide, there are 18 GCSE exam questions and guidance of how to answer them throughout.
At the start of the Guide, there are tips on how the students can access the four main questions and advice on how to put this into practice with model answers given from the exam board.
There are also eight new pages in the Guide dedicated to the 2024 Environmental Study, Americas and Drake's Circumnaviation with a focus on knowledge and understanding and second order concepts.
Six possible exam questions have been included which AQA could ask focusing on the main themes from the AQA guidance given.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed, easy to follow and allows the students to access the higher grades in the examination.
It comes in PDF and Word format and can be adapted and changed to suit.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated.
World War I
This lesson aims to analyse how the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the spark for World War 1 to start.
Students will question how frightening the assassination was and the speed of European countries to mobilise for war.
As video evidence is used to explain the events that led to the shooting in Sarajevo, an analogy is made to a bar brawl as students try to ascertain the causes of it and link these to the events which unfolded after 28th June, 1914.
Students also have to complete a chronological exercise of the events as well as deciding the personalities of the main countries involved.
The plenary is a catchphrase check (complete with music) on key words used in 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.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Britain: Health and the People, c1000 to present
The aim of this lesson is to assess the contributions made by Pasteur and Koch to the improvements in medicine in the late 19th Century.
By the late 1800’s, the focus had moved away from antiseptic to aseptic surgery.
Students will learn how Pasteur made his monumental breakthrough in 1861 with his Germ Theory, aided through the factors of chance, government and scientific experimentation.
However as he was only a chemist it was the German doctor Robert Koch who applied Pasteur’s theory to human disease to convince doubters that microscopic germs could kill something as advanced as a human.
Students will rate their progress in these discoveries and make substantiated judgements on their effectiveness and performance in the development of vaccines.
There are also links to Bastion and Tyndall and their similar rivalry in Britain.
The lesson includes GCSE practice questions on factors and significance with source analysis and video links throughout.
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
This lesson poses the question ‘How much of a threat did Mary, Queen of Scots pose to Elizabeth I?’
Students are taken through Mary’s life from becoming Queen of Scotland to the controversy of her husbands and her eventual house arrest in England.
Through sources, visual and video evidence, students have conclude how much of a threat Mary posed to Elizabeth, after pleading their case through the eyes of Mary herself.
There is some help to write an extended answer using key words which help mention cause and effect, to sequence events and to emphasise judgements.
There is also analysis of the Babington Plot and a deciphering exercise to work out on how Mary was implicated.
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 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 first lesson is an introduction to the reign of Queen Elizabeth and starts by finding out what the students know already using a true or false quiz, source material, video evidence and portraits of Elizabeth.
The emphasis is also on the precarious nature of her early life which has a major impact on how she rules when she becomes Queen.
The second part of the lesson uses differentiated resources and requires the students to plot, explain and prioritise her early problems on a tree (using the trunk, branches and leaves).
The third part focuses on a typical GCSE question on the usefulness of a source giving tips and notes on how to answer this question.
The lesson also gives a brief introduction to the course and includes a tracking sheet which the students stick in their books detailing the assessment objectives of the course and the four main question types.
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 English Civil War
This lesson aims to analyse the personality of King Charles and questions how and why this might have implications for his reign.
Following in his father’s footsteps, his vanity and obsession with the Divine Right of Kings are major causes of concern for those in Parliament.
Students learn about his fragility in his younger life to eventual arrogance as he became King and will link a number of reasons together as to why this was to lead to Civil War.
Video footage and sourcework are used to gather the evidence and the students will have to think outside the box to understand his motives and actions and link ideas together.
The plenary is a literacy challenge to help evaluate his personality using key words from 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 suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
American Civil RIghts
This lesson analyses and evaluates the part Rosa Parks played in the Civil Rights Movement.
Modest to the end, her one action inspired a generation and she is still talked about with reverence in American society today. (NB - Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globe speech on 7th January, 2018.)
Students learn about Rosa Park’s background and events leading up to her refusal to move seats on a bus, brilliantly shown through some video footage as well as documentary evidence.
The learning tasks and the accompanying resources are differentiated to suit all abilities as students reflect and evaluate her most important significance to American society today.
Students also have the opportunity to use a bus to show in the windows the problems she faced (at the front and in the doorway) and what she achieved (in the back windows).
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.
Cold War
The aim of this lesson is to understand the causes behind the building of the Berlin Wall and the consequences for Berliners.
Students analyse the differences between life on the East and West sides of Berlin to understand why thousands of Germans continued to cross the border to make a better life in West Berlin.
The second part of the lesson focuses on the building of the wall, using statistics, graffiti art and the personal account of Conrad Shuman in a thinking quilt to develop further understanding and evaluate its significance in the context of the Cold War.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons is to ask why did civilians fear for their lives? Students will map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around the key question) and build up a picture of how these and different countries in the world responded and acted in this new nuclear age.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
The Cold War
The aim of this lesson is to explore the winds of change within the USSR as Perestroika and Glasnost are introduced with the appointment of Gorbachev as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
But despite all the achievements he made, was it all in vain and just how successful was he with the Soviet Union in his short six years in office?
Students are required to emoji rate the problems facing Gorbachev in 1985 and then justify the most serious one using a pressure gauge.
Furthermore they have to evaluate how successful his policies were and how they were received in the west as compared to back home.
A thinking quilt at the end challenges their thinking as they have to group all they have learnt into categories and then explain the significance of each fact.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons is to ask why did civilians fear for their lives during the Cold War? Students will map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around the key question) and build up a picture of how these and different countries in the world responded and acted in this new nuclear age.
The resource comes in PowerPoint formats if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
The Holocaust
The aims of this lesson are to explain who was put on trial at Nuremberg, the crimes they were charged with and their category of criminality ranging from major offenders to followers.
Students begin by learning about Denazification and how this was implemented immediately after the war, before Cold War tensions took over. They also learn why Nuremberg was chosen as the place for the trials.
The main task requires them to analyse up to 8 individuals and how they ‘conducted’ themselves during World War II. Students then have to decide which of the four war crimes they committed and which category of prisoner they would come under.
They also have to judge whether their sentences would be death by shooting, hanging or a prison sentence. The verdicts are given later in the Powerpoint so students can check and compare their answers.
There is an accompanying video task which looks at Nuremberg 75 years on, with some brilliant footage of holocaust survivors and the son of Hans Frank, the Butcher of Poland.
The central enquiry of this and the other lessons in the bundle is to ask who was to blame for the holocaust?
Students map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around a lightbulb) and build up a picture of how difficult it is to blame a single individual or event for this catastrophe.
The resource comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England, 1485–1603
I have produced this bundle of resources on Henry VIII to help A level history students access the course and make some of the ideas, themes and concepts of the Tudors more accessible.
Henry VIII was a larger than life character who has left a long lasting legacy on our history
Therefore the enquiry question throughout this bundle of resources will be to question how strong and successful Henry was during his reign.
Students will learn how effectively Henry ruled England and how government evolved and the use of Parliament changed during his reign.
They will assess his character and personality and question and evaluate his decision making.
They will judge the significance of individuals in his reign such as Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell as well as economic development.
Students will look at his aims in foreign policy and question how successful he was in his pursuit of military glory under Wolsey and beyond or whether he just played third fiddle in Europe.
Finally they will learn about the political, social, economic and religious upheaval caused by his divorce and the break with Rome.
The lessons are as follows:
L1 Introduction
L2 Aims of Henry VIII
L3 Henry VIII and Government
L4 Catherine of Aragon
L5 Rise of Wolsey
L6 Interpretations of Wolsey
L7 Downfall of Wolsey
L8 King’s Great Matter
L9 Break with Rome
L10 Henry VIII & Humanism
L11 Rise of Cromwell
L12 Pilgrimage of Grace
L13 Dissolution of the Monasteries
L14 How Protestant was England by 1547?
L15 Foreign Policy under Wolsey
L16 Henry VIII Foreign Policy 1529-1547
L17 Henry VIII and Society
L18 Henry VIII and the Economy
The lessons include the two types of exam question used, with examples of how to tackle them, using model answers, helpful hints and tips, structuring and scaffolding as well as markschemes. However, please refer to the AQA website for further assessment materials as they are subject to copyright.
The lessons are also differentiated and fully resourced and allow students to reach the very top marks.
This is the second of four bundles I have created for the Tudors A Level history course.
If you have any questions about the lessons, please email me via my TES shop, or any other information about the course. I would also welcome any reviews, which would be gratefully appreciated.
World War II
The aim of this lesson is to question Britain’s policy of appeasement in the 1930’s, but also defend the decision Chamberlain took.
Students have to make up their own minds through a variety of learning tasks which include gathering evidence from video footage of the time, completing a card sort activity, creating causational chains and analysing sources from the time.
Some higher order questions at the end are aimed at getting them to think and challenge the perceptions they have made about appeasement.
This lesson is ideal as preparation for GCSE if you are embedding source skills or teaching the interwar years or WWII at Key stage 4.
It 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 includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.
The British Empire
The aims of the lesson are to decide who were the main beneficiaries of British rule in India.
The opening slides introduce the views of modern historians to those at the time such as Cecil Rhodes, with a video link setting the scene for British rule in India and a thinking quilt to challenge students.
Throughout, students are encouraged to gather and analyse the evidence to make their own judgements and conclusions.
There are some beneficial aspects to British rule shown such as the building of railways, the provision of education and the introduction of law and order in the country. A focus on Mumbai’s railway station facade and its network cites the legacy of Empire as well.
But at the same time a lack of sympathy for traditional customs and religious beliefs, an inadequacy of Indian officials in Government and the promotion of British wealth and power above all else will give students a lot of conflictory evidence.
In the plenary, students will rate how beneficial an Empress Queen Victoria actually was for bringing India under direct British control.
The lesson comes with retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching and learning strategies, differentiated materials 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 lessons are fully adaptable in PowerPoint format and can be changed to suit.
AQA A Level 1C The Tudors: England 1485-1603
The aim of this lesson is to introduce the A Level course to students.
Students are given an overview of the course content, as well as the requirements for the exam questions.
The lesson recaps on previous knowledge of the Tudors before introducing Henry VII and questioning which will be his main priorities on becoming King in 1485.
Students are also introduced to the Tudor timeline and begin to conceptualise how the Tudors and Henry VII came to power and how legitimate and secure his hold on the crown was.
There is also an introduction to Tudor society to set the scene for the course and students learn how society, agriculture, industry, the Church were organised.
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.
Cold War
The aims of this lesson are to explain what the Cold War was in post war Europe and how it developed between the two existing Superpowers in 1945.
The USA and the USSR had different ideologies and students will learn the differences between Capitalism and Communism.
Furthermore, despite cordial relations at the three meetings held before the end of the war at Tehran, Yalta and Potsdam, suspicions were soon aroused.
Students will analyse the preceding decisions made about the divisions of Germany and Berlin and make informed judgements as to why these suspicions developed.
The central enquiry of this and subsequent lessons is to ask why did civilians fear for their lives? Students will map out their ideas each lesson (which can be plotted in different colours or dates to show the progress of their learning and centred around a lightbulb) and build up a picture of how these and different countries in the world responded and acted in this new nuclear age.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change and is differentiated.
I have also included suggested teaching strategies to deliver the lesson.
AQA GCSE 9-1 Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
This 33 page Revision Guide is broken down into 3 main sections: Germany 1890-1918, the Weimar Republic 1918-1933, Nazi Dictatorship 1933-1945
This Revision Guide includes practice exam questions and gives examples and tips on how to answer each.
It will enable all learners to achieve the higher grades with clear guidance on how to achieve them. The questions target the main questions in the exam from interpretations and source analysis, cause and consequence, change and continuity, significance and evaluation.
The Guide also gives the students some useful mnemonics to remember some of the key details such as the Treaty of Versailles, problems in the Weimar, recover under Stresemann and Hitler’s consolidation of power for example.
The information is also broken down into an easy to use format to aid the students. The Guide can be used for revision, interleaving, home learning as well as class teaching. For home learning, each student taking GCSE History in my school has a copy assigned to them on the google drive and it is used frequently when using google classroom assignments, such as homework and revision for assessments.
This Guide has been designed to be engaging, detailed and easy to follow and can be edited and changed to suit, It comes in both Word and PDF format.
Any reviews on this resource would be much appreciated. Please email me for a free copy of any of my resources worth £3.00 if you do.
I have also made similar revision resources for AQA GCSE 9-1 include Britain: Health and the People c.1000 to the present day, Elizabethan England c,1568-1603, Conflict and Tension and Power and the People.
The American West 1835-1895, GCSE 9-1 Edexcel
This lesson aims to examine the role of the two leaders of the Mormons; Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and the story of the Mormon migration West to Salt Lake City.
Students learn the teachings of the Mormons and how isolationist the movement became in the face of so much hostility and persecution.
Students have a choice of tasks using key questions or a story board to plot the life of Young and then annotate some text to analyse the leadership qualities of Brigham Young.
They also complete a prioritisation activity as well as a planning thinking quilt of Brigham Young to ascertain his successful migration west.
There is some GCSE exam question practice on the ‘importance’ question, with help if required and a noughts and crosses quiz at the end to reinforce the learning of the lesson.
The resource is differentiated and gives suggested teaching strategies. Some retrieval practice is also included.
The resource comes in PowerPoint format is there is a wish to adapt or change.
