In this lesson students tackle the question ‘what were the causes of the February revolution in 1917?’ and complete an assessed piece of work. The lesson begins with a starter activity (short movie clip with comprehension questions to introduce the question). The class then explore some background notes and a range of long and short term reasons on the PPT provided. From this the class digest this information into their own protest boards and these are then compiled by the teacher and either printed or shared digitally so the class can create their own personalised storyboard. After this students are given as assessment rubric (beginning, developing, expected, and mastery is the graduated criteria) in order to help them write a piece of extended written work to the question. The lesson concludes with a quick odd one out plenary. Please let me know if you have any questions about this lesson, which is pitched towards high achieving secondary students.

In this lesson students read through precise and carefully selected knowledge in the background notes before attempting a colour-coordinated hexagonal card sort. This helps them break reasons for the Key Question down into factors and also offers them the opportunity to make and explain links between the evidence they choose. My students really enjoy this lesson and I hope yours get just as much out of it as mine do.

In this lesson your students will read through background knowledge before using this to complete a chronological card sort activity. I hope your students get as much out of it as I know mine do. Leads in ever so nicely to my follow up lessons on failures of the 1930s and allows for students to give more textured and two-sided responses.

Students read through the background notes before using this knowledge to help them create a physical timeline in the form of a road map. Click the link to watch just how powerful a teaching strategy this can be for raising chronological awareness as well as boosting subject knowledge significantly. I hope your students enjoy the lesson as much as mine do!

In this lesson students read very detailed information in the background notes before creating a factor-led mind map. Please watch the accompanying short video to see some of my students in action in this lesson. Its a great way for them to acquire super strong subject knowledge and to visually map out Deng’s domestic rule.

This is a powerful lesson which really gives students pause for thought. The class start with a what’s behind the squares activity which reveals a female Soviet sniper and which is designed to stimulate discussion about the nature of war. The class then read through an incredibly detailed set of notes before beginning a design-a-memorial task for which they are expected to include precise historical detail. The lesson concludes with a powerful piece of source analysis which invites further informed comment on the nature of fighting on the Eastern Front. I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine do.

This is one of my most important lessons because not only is the content very precise but it refines student’s ability to consider significance as an historical concept. The lesson begins with a starter activity which invites students to consider the basest aspects of Nazism and then leads into a detailed set of notes. The class then complete a ‘clever cross’ activity where they measure who gained the most and in which they complete a numerical exercise. The lesson concludes with a powerful plenary in which students are introduced to Anthony Partington’s criteria for measuring historical significance and this is linked directly back to the Key Question. I hope your students gain as much from this skills and content based lesson as mine do.

In this lesson students explore how Hitler consolidate power between 1933-34. The class begin with a mix and match starter to test subject knowledge before working their way through the notes. They then complete a playdoh storyboard to consolidate their learning (this can be done as a simply drawn storyboard if the teacher prefers). The lesson finishes with a back to back plenary in which students are awarded points for guessing their partners key words (there are given words they are not allowed to use). In this lesson students explore a high level of content in an engaging and active manner designed to embed subject knowledge in long-term memory.

In this lesson students work through a comprehensive set of notes before attempting a Tarsia card sort activity to consolidate knowledge acquired. The lesson concludes with a game of Nazism Guess Who whereby students ask only questions which require a yes/no response (they can use the internet to help respond). Please note prior to purchase this game works best if you already have a board upon which you can stick the pictures! I hope your students find this lesson on Widerstand as useful as mine always do.

My students always find Dingbats a really engaging starter and one which sets a nice tone for the lesson. The class then work through a set of detailed notes which are high on precision before consolidating their learning by selecting two reasons for and two reasons against the policy and using this information to complete the newspaper template. I hope your students enjoy this lesson as much as mine do.

The lesson begins with a game of Bingo to see how much they already know (there are 30 different cards and a list of 61 key questions to read out with answers such as Article 231, Woodrow Wilson, 100,000 etc). The winner is the first to get a line crossed off and to shout out Bingo. A second starter activity then leads to students address the views of Harold Nicolson who said the treaty was “neither just nor wise” with historian Alan Clark who argues that this view “needs to be abandoned.” Lesson aims and objectives are introduced and these are graduated (all will/most will/some will). Students then proceed to work through a very detailed set of slides (teacher talk) which is broken into for and against arguments. Arguments that it was justified include the Kaiser’s September programme, the harshness with which Germany had treated Russia at Brest-Litovsk, and the need to crush German militarism after the invasions of France in 1870 and 1914. Arguments given that the Treaty was not justified include how it created the stab in the back theory, German expectations based on Wilsonianism and the 14 Points, the argument that Germany might not be solely responsible for the First World War, and of course the economic and political instability it caused in Germany. Students then complete a 14-piece card sort activity (there is a colour-coordinated version for purposes of differentiation if required) and they then fill in and glue on the explanation cards. The lesson concludes with a Blockbusters game plenary. Students choose an acronym and the teacher reads out the clue. If they get it right they continue. The winner is the person who makes a continuous line from top to bottom or from left to right. The final plenary asks students to revisit the debate between Nicolson and Clark and to vote with their feet.

In this lesson students begin by identifying what’s behind the squares in the starter activity which leads to source analysis which is designed to introduce the Key Question - What were the motives of the Big Three at Versailles? The class then explore a detailed set of notes before being issued a character card. The class then hotseat in role using the masks provided before concluding with a ‘Have I got News for You?’ style plenary in which they have to fill in the gaps to show comprehension. I hope your students gain as much from this lesson as mine do.

In this powerful lesson students begin with a what’s behind the squares activity designed to get them questioning why an Olympic polo player might have been bloodied. They then work through a very detailed set of notes before completing a 48 piece hexagonal card sort which is colour coded into causes, events, and consequences. This activity is designed to ensure students can identify links and causation as well as encouraging them to select the most compelling piece of evidence. This then leads to a piece of extended written work. Students complete this lesson with a source matrix on a famous Vicky Weisz cartoon from the Daily Mirror to draw out their findings. I hope your students enjoy it as much as mine.

In this very detailed lesson students have the opportunity to tackle on the of the greatest history mystery activities around! The lesson begins with a Power Point activity designed to captivate the class from the go and they view a short video outlining differences people have on this question. The class then work through a detailed set of background notes to enrich their knowledge before attempting a 26 piece evidence sort. The class work in pairs or individually to place each piece of evidence into a column - they are colour co-ordinated to differentiate where required - some evidence suggests the landings were real and others suggest they were a hoax. Once complete the class use this as a scaffold to write an answer to the question ‘did man really walk on the moon in 1969?’ before voting online in their plenary activity. It really is a lesson (for high school students) which engineers original thought and allows students to discriminate between evidence to arrive at a well thought out conclusion. My students always find this a fascinating lesson and a great part of any Cold War unit or stand-alone activity. I hope yours enjoy it as much as mine do. You can find alternatives on this site which address this question and which cost a tiny bit less but I don’t think they have the level of detail and precision as you will find here :-)

This is a History mystery lesson in which students explore the Essential Question ‘what happened to Princess Anastasia?’ This is always a popular lesson because of the 1997 Disney movie (!) but more importantly one that really challenges student second order thinking and gets them working on their reasoning skills. The lesson begins with a starter activity where students watch two short video clips about Anastasia’s death and answer a few quick questions on this. The clips are deliberately very different and from this the class are encouraged to create their own lesson title (which will be very similar to the title given here). Students then work through graduated learning objectives (all of you will / most of you will / some of you will) before working through some detailed background information. The class then work through a card sort activity detailing evidence which suggests a) that Anastasia did die at the Ipatiev House and b) evidence which suggests she may have survived (the Anna Anderson story). A colour coded differentiated version is supplied also. Students then use this information from the card sort activity to complete a template to help them write an Okhrana police report which answers the Essential Question. The lesson concludes with a voting plenary. This lesson is pitched towards high achieving secondary students and is always one they really do well in. Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day fellow teachers and if you enjoy this lesson please leave me a review.

This is a great project-based lesson designed to introduce students to the topic of Ancient China and to the second-order concept of significance and includes graduated learning outcomes (all of you will/most of you will/some of you will). The lesson begins with a quick starter activity where students have to guess which of four sports was not invented in China. They’re often a bit surprised by the answer (table tennis) and this leads on to a second activity in which they have to see how many inventions which originated in China they can identify (the rocket, paper, wheelbarrows - 21 are given in total). From this the class are then introduced to the idea of how historians decide what makes an event or discovery significant and they explore the acronym GREAT: G = ground-breaking, R = remembered, E = extent of importance to people at the time, A = affected the future, and T = turning point. For the main task students are given a card with three different inventions on. They need to choose one of their inventions and explain in presentation form why they felt it was so significant. The lesson concludes with a class vote on which they felt was the most important invention and why. I’ve also thrown in an assessment rubric should you wish to turn the project into a formal assessment. Please note this lesson was designed for high achieving Year 7 students with the ability to do their own research (some websites are given) but it also works well as a great library-based lesson depending on the resources you have in yours. Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope your students get as much from this lesson as mine always do.

In this lesson students are given a quick odd one out activity as a starter to invite them to consider the positives and negatives of Capone, the notorious gangster. The PPT then offers them some background information and the learning objectives are broken down into all of you will/most of you will/and some of you will. The main activity is a 44-piece card sort and there is a slide explaining the answers to this also. The lesson concludes with a short voting plenary where students are asked to side with the views of different personalities when answering the question as to whether Capone was as “black as they say” to use his own words. This lesson has been designed for high achieving high school students and please do note I use English spellings (eg colour) throughout. If you have any questions please do not hestitate to contact me.

This lesson begins with an introduction to some perspectives about Gorbachev and then the class are invited to take part in a ‘what would you do?’ starter activity. They are given 12 scenarios (ranging from the war in Afghanistan through to economic stagnation through to Chernobyl and so on) and have to decide on one of three possible options. When they have completed all twelve issues/scenarios they are given a score for each answer which explains what kind of a leader they are. After this the class move on to the meat of the lesson which is a forty-eight piece card sort (including some images). The class need the information into those relating to foreign policy, perestroika (political and economic), glasnost, foreign policy, and nationalities issues. They glue these to a large piece of paper and label on successes/failures and causes/consequences. There are two versions of this card sort included so as to differentiate (one is colour coded already and has some key prompts emboldened). Once complete it leads to a good discussion of why Gorbachev acted the way he did and what the impact of his policies was. The lesson concludes by referring back to earlier perspectives and applying the knowledge acquired to see if the class agree or disagree with these before reviewing Gorbachev’s own conclusions on his rule. I have pitched this lesson towards high achieving post-16 students. Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope your students gain as much from this lesson as mine do.

This lesson begins with an ‘Odd One Out’ starter activity where students are asked to look at four people (Honecker, Emperor Qin, Emperor Hadrian, and Donald Trump) and to offer reasons for one of them being the odd one out. The answer we are looking for is that they all built walls bar Trump whose proposed southern wall was never built. That introduces the concept of walls and their purpose. The class then take part in an escape room activity. (Please note this takes a bit of setting up to be done properly, but can be done more simply if missions and codes are just printed back to back - just tell students they can’t turn over the page until you have verified they have got the code correct). Nevertheless, if you can it is a whole lot more enjoyable with boxes and padlocks! There are six missions - each with background information about key turning points in the Wall’s History (from the end of WWII and the split through to the Berlin Blockade through to the border being closed through to barbed wire Sunday through to the Next Gen Wall through to Escape attempts). Each mission is then completed on the worksheet. Please note I do not cover the collapse of Communism or the fall of the wall here (because I cover that in a separate lesson). The lesson concludes with a ‘play your cards right’ chronology activity in which the students use the knowledge they have gained to test their awareness of key events and dates. The lesson comes with an accompanying 11-page set of notes. I hope your students get as much out of this fun lesson as mine always do and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

This is a four-part lesson in which students tackle the essential question ‘why did Russia do so badly in the First World War?’. The lesson begins with a starter activity in which students pick the odd one out. This is designed to get them thinking about the nature of fighting on the Eastern Front, something they might be less familiar. They are then given a set of detailed notes before attempting a card sort activity which is broken into three categories: socio-economic, military, and political reasons for Russia’s lack of success. The class can glue these into their books and then write up their own summary before attempting the plenary, which is a ‘Find Someone Who Can’ activity where they walk around the class asking peers to help fill in their sheets and in so doing test their own and the class’ subject knowledge. I hope your students get as much out of this lesson as mine do and please don’t hesitate if you have any questions. This lesson is pitched towards high-ability secondary aged students.