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I am a passionate UK trained teacher of History, Religion and Citizenship. I am heavily influenced by the International Baccalaureate Programme as well as the notion of Social Constructivism. I tend to create resources that require the use of IT. I am to create resources that are enjoyable for the students and require critical thinking skills.

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I am a passionate UK trained teacher of History, Religion and Citizenship. I am heavily influenced by the International Baccalaureate Programme as well as the notion of Social Constructivism. I tend to create resources that require the use of IT. I am to create resources that are enjoyable for the students and require critical thinking skills.
The Ancien Régime Challenge
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The Ancien Régime Challenge

(1)
A great task for starting a unit on the French Revolution. Every member of the class is given 10 Divine Right Points and must complete a set of Scenarios as King Louis XVI. The goal of the task is to stay in power and prevent a revolution by keeping as many Divine Right Points as possible. This activity focuses on the decisions of King Louis XVI throughout the French Revolution. This is a unit starter task to introduce the French Revolution. It is best suited for a GCSE class, MYP 4-5 Class or a Key Stage 3 class. This is a decision making task that can take up to 30 minutes. Students should also be encouraged to justify their decisions. As an extension task, a class discussion on the nature of the French Revolution; how much of the revolution was actually preventable from Louis XVI's perspective is recommended. There are two files in this set, one is a powerpoint to be used in the lesson and the other is a set of instructions.
Lesson 14: Why did the Roman Empire Collapse?
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Lesson 14: Why did the Roman Empire Collapse?

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This is the 14th lesson in the Roman Unit In this lesson, students work through a list of factors that explain the collapse of the Roman Empire. They complete two sorting tasks, one into the categories of factors and the second into a hierarchy on which factors are the most important. As a lesson plenary, students have to recall the factors for a chance to win some starburst.
Theory of Knowledge: Introduction task
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Theory of Knowledge: Introduction task

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This is a manipulative Introduction task for a Theory of Knowledge History lesson or as a lesson starter in a Diploma History class. The task involves manipulating the class by giving them sources and asking them to identify the individuals by the source. The class often get shocked at the end when trying the guess the source that best describes Adolf Hitler.
Introduction to the 20th Century
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Introduction to the 20th Century

(1)
This is an introduction lesson to introduce the twentieth century. It is based on Eric Hobsbawms description of the 20th Century being 'The Short Twentieth Century' and/or the Age of Extremes. This lesson is ideal for the beginning of a GCSE course on 20th Century History, or an MYP 5/ IB Diploma lesson to introduce the twentieth century. The lesson has 4 tasks. Starter: With photos of scenes from across the 20th Century students must decide what the 20th century will be most remembered for. Task 2: Students follow a powerpoint and complete a cheat sheet - note taking template. Task 3: A research task where the students will research and colour in a map that highlights a theme of the twentieth century. Plenary: To discuss again what the twentieth century will be most famous for - Some guiding questions that focus on the learning objectives. Learning objective: Note present in the powerpoint. All must be able: To understand the global processes of the 20th Century. Most should be able: To think about why the 20th Century was so bloody. Some Could be able: To apply the historiography of the twentieth century, how it followed Hegel's view of dialectical movement of time.
Lesson 4: Roman Religions
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Lesson 4: Roman Religions

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This is the fourth lesson on the Roman Unit Students use the music of George Handel's The Planets to describe the personalities of the Roman gods mentioned in the suite. The second part of the Lesson focuses on the change that Christianity brought to the Roman Empire. There is a lesson plan attached.
Summary Notes of the Communist Manifesto
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Summary Notes of the Communist Manifesto

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This is a set of detailed commentary notes on the Communist Manifesto. Ideall for A Level students or IB Diploma students studying the Communist ideology for Paper 2, Single Party and Authoritarian states. The resource has an evaluation of the limitations of Marxism. This is a challenging resource for an able class. I often give this to students as an independant reading after I have taught them the concept of Marxism.
Humanities Challenge Wall: Extension Task
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Humanities Challenge Wall: Extension Task

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Often in my classroom I have a Humanities challenge wall for students who have completed all tasks in class. I often put together puzzles or tasks for students to work on for 'House Points' or merits. Usually the more able students end up working on the challenge wall but it gives them a good oppertunity to be competitive and to get a little more stretch when they have gone through all of the activities and extension tasks. This resource has at least 24 different challenges around History, Geography and Religion. They can be printed out and put on a wall in one section of the classroom, as soon as you have students who have completed all work, send them to the challenge wall. Some of the challenges are quite difficult as they are aimed for the Gifted and Talented students. But generally speaking my students like to get onto the Challenge Wall. All challenges come with the answers, except for some which require students to find as many varients of a particular answer as possible.
Introduction to the Balkins Conflict of the 1990s: The Historical Context.
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Introduction to the Balkins Conflict of the 1990s: The Historical Context.

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This is an introduction lesson designed for Paper 3, HL IBDP History. "Balkan conflicts in the 1990s: reasons for, and consequences of, the conflicts; role and policies of Milosevic" as part of the unit, 'Post War Central and Eastern Europe' The lesson requires students to read the long term causes of the conflict going as far back as the Slavic settlement of the 7th Century. The conflict requires students to answer a series of 6 short questions on the information using the IB History Key Concepts. Finally students have to colour in a map of the Six Republics and Yugoslavia and research on the numerous ethnic groups inside of Yugoslavia.
Introduction lesson on the Northern Ireland Troubles.
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Introduction lesson on the Northern Ireland Troubles.

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This is the first lesson in an expanding series on the Northern Ireland troubles, it is suited to 15-16 year old class. I am an IB teacher and therefore tailor these lessons for an MYP audience, I teach the Northern Ireland conflict as a model for conflict resolution in other civil conflicts. However some of the series may well be useful for GCSE students. This introduction lesson is tailored for students who are not from Northern Ireland and therefore in this lesson, symbols, language and flags used to identify the two communities are taught in this lesson. Students will research numerous symbols used in Northern Ireland, as well as the key words used in the Northern Ireland conflict. The students will also research the complex issue of flags and must identify the communities that identify with the flags in Northern Ireland. The Plenary of the lesson is a short 5 minute video that explores Belfast murals.
Romanian Revolution and Post Communist Romania (1989 - 2000)
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Romanian Revolution and Post Communist Romania (1989 - 2000)

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This is a two part lesson for IBDP History Paper 3 HL: Post War Central and Eastern Europe (1945 - 2000) I use Romania as my case study for Political, Social and Economic changes to one Post Communist Country in Central or Eastern Europe. Part 1 of the lesson: - Features a timeline of the Romanian Revolution and students have to answer questions regarding the 11 days of the Romanian revolution. - On the powerpoint students watch two videos of Ceausescu's last speech in Bucharest as well as Ceausescu's execution on the 25th December 1989. - The students finish by considering historian's views on the revolution and they must write a small narrative of the revolution to support one of the historical viewpoints. (rubric for the task is not included) Part 2: -Students complete a note taking template while the teacher goes over a powerpoint that comprehensively outlines the political, economic and social changes to Romania. - The second task is to get the students to put their notes in to an essay. Learning objectives: 1. To understand the Romanian Revolution and its events. 2. To be able to discuss the Political, Economic Social changes that took place in Post War Romania. 3. To be able to evaluate the successes and failures of Illlescu.
Lesson 12: Who Killed Caesar? Investigation.
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Lesson 12: Who Killed Caesar? Investigation.

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This is the 12th Lesson on the Romans unit. This lesson is for an MYP Unit on Ancient Civilisations or a British Curriulum Unit on the Romans. The learning objectives are (Not stated in the powerpoint) 1. To understand the events surrounding the death of Julius Caesar. 2. To be able to analyse a list of sources to determine a historical narritive. 3. To be able to support a viewpoint with evidence. This activity involves a scenario where the students are Prefect Investigators who have to determine who was responsible for the murder of Julius Caesar. It also introduces students to source work as they must go through a list of Police Exhibits to determine the events around the death of Caesar.
Lesson 15: Roman Unit Summative Assessment
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Lesson 15: Roman Unit Summative Assessment

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This is the 15th and final lesson within the Roman's unit. This material is for a Roman's summative assessment in which students must critically identify aspects of Roman influence in the modern world today. This assessment requires research which will be presented in the form of a research booklet/paper. The assessment criteria is set up for the IB MYP Individuals and Societies criteria, but the rubric can be used in other school systems as this assessment contains three criteria, A, C, D which each have a maximum mark of 8 marks. In this set, the following is included. An assessment cover sheet in the MYP format, that has a teacher and student reflection box. An assessment brief with an assessment frame and an assessment rubric. A sample assessment (Which achieved 4, 4, 3 out of 8 on the assessment criteria)
Crowd Psychology: Freud and Le Bon
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Crowd Psychology: Freud and Le Bon

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This is the second topic in an MYP 4 unit on 'Why do people riot?' This is a double lesson which compares the crowd theory of Sigmund Freud and Gustave Le Bon, Both lessons offer an explanation of why people riot from the perspective of both psychologists and in both cases, the students have to apply the theories into real life situations. The sources are very comprehensive and students should be able to work through them on their own but the weaker students may need assistance from the teacher.
Year 7/ MYP 1 mini unit: What is History
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Year 7/ MYP 1 mini unit: What is History

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This is a short introductionary Unit that is taught over two lessons for the Year 7/MYP 1 class. The unit requires students to explore the difference between a Primary and Secondary source as well as to arrange a series of events in the correct chronological order. The second part of the lesson requires the class to write articles that could go into a time capsule. As an interesting project over several years, I get the class to archive their articles onto a google site and let each year compare their articles to see if any major changes have happened in fashion or music. This mini lesson includes a Task brief that has a short stage by stage guide to completion as well as a Lesson plan and assessment rubric (In the MYP format)
Lesson 13: The Third Servile War
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Lesson 13: The Third Servile War

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This is the 13th lesson in the Roman Unit In this lesson, students take on the role of Journalists and take notes in a 'hot off the press' style scenario as journalists. In the second part of this lesson students will type up a Newspaper article the reports the events of the Third Servile War. The lesson begins by eliciting from the students their knowledge of Spartacus. The plenary follows up on this by asking the students to discuss verbally their knowledge of Spartacus now that the lesson has taken place.
Congress of Vienna / Concert of Europe Reenactment
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Congress of Vienna / Concert of Europe Reenactment

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This is a lesson that takes a full double period to complete. The purpose of the lesson is to provide students with an oppertunity to reenact the Congress of Vienna. I find this to be a more interesting way of learning of the objectives of each country rather than explaining it. The objective of the lesson is to understand the goals of the main countries represented at the Congress of Vienna, it requires students to debate scenarios based on the goals of their assigned countries. The lesson starts with a short VOKI avatar, the link is provided on the lesson plan sheet, VOKI is a free website, I am not the owner, but I am providing the link to a Metternich Avatar that I have made for this lesson. I play the Avatar to introduce the lesson. In five groups, the class are assigned a country and given an information sheet from that country. They prepare an opening speech highlighting the objectives of their countries. Secondly using the powerpoint, a series of scenarios are played out and the class will offer solutions from the perspective of their countries. The outcome becomes that the class get to develop an understanding of the objectives of the Congress based on the responses of their peers. Some of the scenarios however come from the Concert of Europe period and not exclusively from the Congress of Vienna. As an extension I usually ask the class for homework to write a paragraph about each country present at the congress to discuss what their objectives are. The plenary of this lesson is a link to a website summarising the outcomes of the real congress of Vienna. Students usually find it interesting to see how their reenactment matches up with the real congress.
Lesson 1: Introduction to the Romans
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Lesson 1: Introduction to the Romans

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This is the first lesson of the Roman's Unit. In this lesson students will find out about the story of Romulus and Remus. Using a YouTube video, the students will cut out and stick in the Romulus and Remus story into their books. There is a critical thinking task afterwards where students should incorporate why Cicero's account of the founding of Rome has the symbols such as a wolf, a shepherd, a brother killing his twin etc. A lesson plan is attached.
Lesson 10: Roman Emperors
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Lesson 10: Roman Emperors

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This is the 10th lesson in the Roman Unit. In this lesson students must use a series of sources on each Roman Emperor to determine if they were good or bad emperors. The students must then quantify their data by giving a score to each emperor and present their information onto a graph using Microsoft Excel. The lesson ends with a game of Jeopardy that revises previous lessons on the Romans. A lesson plan is attached.
Lesson 11: Join the Roman Army
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Lesson 11: Join the Roman Army

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This is the 11th lesson in the Roman Unit In this lesson, students work through a handout that examines the organisation and equipment of the typical Roman legion, the lesson also includes discussion of the benefits of joining the Roman Army. There is a short IB influenced exercise where students must compare and contrast the benefits of being a Roman Legionary with two advertisements for the UK and US forces. As a lesson plenary, students create recruitment posters for the Roman Army.