Teaching the feudal system is not the most exciting lesson, so I have turned this one on its head. Students spend the lesson preparing to teach the feudal system to their parents/guardians at home, using the facts they can gain from the lesson. They know this at the outset, have the feudal system explained to them and have 20 minutes to prepare their 'mini lesson' during their history lesson. I have several slides explaining the feudal system with cartoon pictures in colour to liven things up, then you have a class discussion about the homework. Ask them about their favourite lessons and what kind of activities the teachers had them doing. I've put loads of suggestions for this on the PowerPoint and the best thing about this lesson is that there is absolutely no marking! Parents fill in a feedback sheet for the homework and all you need to do is smile and say well done - the parents have marked them for you! Learning Objectives covered here: ALL: Will be able to describe the feudal system MOST: Will be able to explain the relationships between each level SOME: Will be able to explain how this would help William to keep control over his new country. Bonus material - a colouring in sheet of the feudal system. Not bad cover if you got them to colour and then annotate it.

This resource is essentially just a link to an external website. I have uploaded it because it forms the fourth lesson of my scheme of work, but is not my creation so of course it needs to be a free upload. My Hastings lesson is also free if you want to try out a more substantial resource of mine and if you like this style of teaching, please have a look at the full scheme of work in my shop. All I will say about this is you will read it through and be daunted, no doubt your year 7 class are new to you and new to the school, and possibly just a little crazy. But take a risk and give it a go! The more you make this a pantomime, the more fun it is and the more memorable it is for students.

This is an active lesson which borrows heavily from thinkinghistory.com and their re-enactment instructions http://thinkinghistory.co.uk/ActivityBase/BattleofHastings.html I have provided the resources I use before and after the re-enactment; weighing up the advantages of each side, a quick paragraph on who is most likely to win, the re-enactment itself and then the news report with NC level success criteria. Lovely lovely lesson, works well as part of my Hastings Scheme of Work that you can find in my shop.

This lesson follows from my 'xfactor contenders' lesson, but so long as students have been introduced already to William, Harold and Harald, they will have easy access to this lesson. Target Skill - Cause and Continuity Learning Objectives: ALL: will be able to describe who the armies fought for at Stamford Bridge and begin to say who should win MOST: Will be able to make predictions based on evidence SOME: Will be able to use connectives to explain how one advantage or disadvantage would lead to the victor winning. This lesson features a brief teacher talk (with numeracy element), then a sorting task and a writing task with self-assessment.

This resource really got my year 7 classes engaged and involved with the 'who should be king?' conundrum because they really liked taking on the personas of the judges from the X factor. The PowerPoint is a pretty straightforward mini play that students read out to the class in the persona you have allocated to them. It worked really well as a whole class activity, but it could also work in groups. As they go, students fill out their voting sheet, giving points out of ten for how well each contestant performs in each question. Your role as teacher is simply to ham it up, express suspicions about William's intentions, play the devil's advocate with students as they chose their King. Finally, the class vote and a King is chosen. This lesson works best if students haven't yet found out who wins the battle of Hastings, it tends to put them firmly on Harold Godwinson's side!

Too often do year 7 arrive in my classroom having learned the basics of the 1664 plague at primary school and so thinking they already know about the 1348 plague as the symptoms were the same. This creative writing task and role play revitalises what can for some students be a surprisingly well trodden topic. NB: Primary school teachers - this task is equally appropriate for KS2 when covering the 1664 plague, although I imagine you will want to add more structure to the writing task. Melton Task: Students will write a short story detailing the events in the fictional village of Melton when the Plague arrives. The story will be in three distinct stages that are already prestructured for students: What happens when the Black Death reaches Melton, how the villagers respond and what happens to the survivors. Melton Background - this is the beginning of the story, or the prelude. You can get students to read this, read it too them or do a 'knock and read' to keep students following along. (This is where you begin to read and circle the room, knock on the table of a student you want to read next, then keep walking and knocking so as many as possible get to read. the uncertainty of knowing who is next makes all students keep up with the reading in front of them.) Melton Role Play - the second part of the play asks students to detail a discussion the villagers might have had in the village church when they knew what they were up against. This task allows students to role play in groups, you will want to prompt them to be finding solutions - what 'cures' were on offer? What did people believe caused the Black Death? Finally students will write up their story, most likely they will do this for homework. There is great potential for you to use your own success criteria to generate a relatively painless level for this work. Thanks to Paul Durnall who gave me these.

The main bulk of this is the newspaper task, designed to meet the following LOs * ALL: Will be able to describe aspects of what happened at Dunkirk * MOST: Will be able to support an opinion as to whether Dunkirk was a defeat or a victory * SOME: Will be able to use the origin of the source to comment on whether the source is reliable. * ONE or TWO... Might be able to use their analysis of source reliability to explain why they trust some sources over others and how this has affected their own overall judgement. There is a presentation about Dunkirk with pictures and statistics, you may choose to deliver this yourself, or stick it up around the room for students to find and examine themselves. They may then read the interpretations/opinions sheet in which various sources give their verdict on Dunkirk, and the Dunkirk survivors sheet which does the same. Finally I have included an electronic template for the newspaper front page that the students will write, this could be set for homework over a VLE, or printed and handed out for students to fill in. If they are making handwritten copies, I would recommend having a stash of plain paper ready as most students prefer to establish the layout themselves. Thanks to Paul Durnall who gave me parts of this.

These assorted resources are designed to support your own teaching and provide a basis of knowledge for students to build on. They are not 'download and go' material, but do provide straightforward activities, an assessment and a research based homework task that are great if you are feeling a little frazzled. I'll talk you through what is included: * 'Evacuation Research Homework' gives students a URL and a series of questions to answer based on what they read on the webpage. * 'Evacuation Question and Answer matching task is extremely straight forward, you could use it as a starter or with an LA group it might be fun to cut out the questions and answers and ask the student to find their match. * 'Evacuation Experiences Living Graph' and 'Evacuation Experiences Events' are a worksheet and a PP that give students 5 events in the journey of the evacuee and they flip a coin to decide if they get the positive experience or the negative experience. They plot these experiences on a living graph. * 'Evacuation Accounts' is a real gem here, 11 primary source accounts of evacuation of a decent length to challenge your HA. Accounts range from recollections of evacuees to government leaflets. There is no accompanying task for this resource, but it is highly adaptable and extremely useful as a base of study. You would probably need about 2 mins to set questions from this resource and you would want to use only 3 or 4 of the sources at a time. Many Thanks to Paul Durnall who gave me these

Here are a bundle of worksheets, three of them are self guided and contain both sources or points of information and a task for students to do. Perfect for a homework or a cover lesson, or as part of a larger lesson plan. The topics on these sheets are: * the long term effects of the bomb * the short term effects of the bomb * reasons for dropping the bomb There is also another worksheet that will require them to have done the first three in order to complete, it is 'why did the USA drop the bomb and what were the consequences of it' and consolidates their learning. Finally I have included both an assessment and an assessment mark scheme that uses the old NC levels. Many thanks to Paul Durnall who gave me this.

This game is great for consolidation of a 20th C unit, or as part of a series of lessons on change and continuity, looking at the differences between the world in 1900 and the world in 2000. You will need a dice and a coin, students move along the board encountering either multiple choice questions on 20th c trivia such as 'which house hold appliance was invented in the 1910s?' (toaster). There are also events squares where students flip a coin to decide which event will take place and how many squares they will move as a result. eg 'If you throw a heads you land in the middle of the war between Russia and Japan in 1905 – miss a go. If you throw tails you witness the signing of the entente-cordiale between France and Britain in 1904 – have another go.' Many thanks to Paul Durnall who gave me this.

This game gives students the chance to be a boy in the Hitler youth following the Nazi policies. Board spaces are either events such as reading aloud from Mein Kampf, or questions from the sheet provided to test students knowledge, allowing them either to move forwards or remain. Great consolidation game for KS3 and KS4, especially when revision pressure starts! Thanks to Paul Durnall who gave me this.

This is a great game for introducing numeracy into a history topic. Students work their way around a Roman Empire trading map and at each port they are offered opportunities to trade goods that the Romans would have traded, for denarii. Once they get to the next port, they flip a coin or roll a dice to find out what price they receive for their goods, then they have options to buy more goods of a different time and move on to the next port to find out what their luck brings. The accountancy sheet helps them to keep track of their money, they will need counters to indicate their position on the map and coins and a dice to help them work out what happens with their products. As mentioned, this game is great for numeracy, but also in giving students an idea of the scope of the Roman Empire and how trade opportunities were increased by the stability offered by the Empire. Perfect for KS3, but not too tough for the top end of KS2. Many thanks to Paul Durnall who gave me this.

Standard board game that requires a dice and counters to represent the students playing. Students complete activity sheet as they play, using the knowledge they gained from the game. Each square details something that might happen to a peasant to either cause them good fortune or bad and instructs students to move ahead or drop back a few spaces accordingly. As students play the game they have a range of activities to complete based on the information they find out in the game. They could do these as they play, or to consolidate what they have learned after. Activities cover: * the feudal system * jobs of the peasant in each season * factors affecting the peasant's life such as the weather * matching pictures to the jobs of the peasant * the roles of other people in the village such as the steward This game is active learning that is student centred. Other than behaviour management, it is hands off for the teacher and enjoyable for students. This is appropriate to KS3. Many thanks to Paul Durnall who gave this to me :-)

Fairly straightforward game for consolidating knowledge at the end of a unit, or for revising for a test. Board game is already assembled, students need a dice and a counter to represent them. Depending on what they land on, the game either gives a fact about factory conditions and instructs them to move further or back, or it prompts them to ask a question in order to advance one space. I have provided a question sheet, but you may want to supplement it with your own specific revision/ consolidation questions or get students to make up their own. A huge thanks to Paul Durnall who gave this to me :-)

Includes instructions for how to make a board game that includes elements of luck and elements of testing knowledge. This activity needs to follow at least one lesson on the home front so students can set their own questions. Essential Resources needed: Large pieces of paper, pens. dice Desirable Resources: coloured paper and card, scissors, coloured pens This is a fun lesson for the end of a unit, feel free to make your own board game as an example, or to model what other board games look like. I have attached a list of questions if your students are a little stuck on setting their own, the answers have a star next to them

All necessary resources included, this lesson includes a music based starter, questions on a British Pathe clip, a cart sort exercise, a structured literary task and a guided research homework task that asks them to assess the prediction they made in the plenary. The big question that students can answer following this lesson is 'Why did people migrate to Britain after the Second World War?' The lesson covers both push and pull factors and examines why Britain wanted immigrants to come in the first place. Lesson Objectives: ALL: Will be able to identify reasons why Britain wanted immigrants and why people in the West Indies wanted to emigrate MOST: Will be able to describe the push and pull factors and come to a conclusion as to why people migrated in the 1950’s SOME: Will be able to bring their ideas together to explain why so many people migrated in the 1950’s and predict what effect this might have on communities in the UK Suitable for all KS3, HA KS2 or LA KS4 All activities are differentiated and resourced, this lesson can be a standalone lesson or part of a series of lessons on either migration, race or post war recontstruction.

Designed for KS3, the HA resources are appropriate for KS4, with an additional research task this could be adapted for KS5. This lesson considers the ideologies separate from their historical contexts so it is a great introduction, but also provides space for debate that would be appropriate to a politics or citizenship lesson. Tasks: a vocab based starter, a main that encourages group work with speaking and listening the main method of learning, a class vote as to which ideology is best and a plenary that sneakily uses group work to consolidate learning. Learning Outcomes for this lesson: To be able to identify differences between ideologies To describe one ideology and give a way in which the other ideology is different To explain the differences between the ideologies and why they appeal to people To analyse the pros and cons of the ideologies to understand how they would work in practice Please note this is a self contained lesson with all necessary materials included (unless you want to adapt for KS5), no textbooks needed and no potentially problematic youtube clips to play. Whether you love it or you hate it, please review below so I can keep adjusting these resources to suit! Many thanks, Ruth

This PowerPoint includes all of the resources to run either a single, or a double lesson on Mansa Musa. It is aimed at Year 7 and provides support for students working between L3 and L6 on the old NC Levels. Lesson objectives: L3 - To identify facts about Medieval Mali and Mansa Musa L4 - To describe Medieval Mali and Mansa Musa L5 - To make inferences from sources about Medieval Mali and Mansa Musa L6 - To explain what Medieval Mali and Mansa Musa would seem like to a time traveller, drawing inferences from sources to support their points. Activities include: * A task where students work in pairs, one looks at an image and describes it to his/her partner. The partner draws the image. * Fact generation, teacher models how to get facts from the source, students compete. * Using written sources to gather information * Creating a Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval Mali

Looking for a pen free stand alone lesson with KS3? This one has flipped learning, a kinaesthetic task, group work and absolutely no pens! (Unless you want them to fill out a self assessment) If you want FREE access to these resources, drop me an email at ruth.messenger@yahoo.com and I will send them through to you in exchange for a review of what you thought of it below. No prior knowledge required, but it is essential that you set the homework in this PP in the previous lesson as students will be making their own paper boats to re-enact the events of the Spanish Armada. By the end of this lesson: ALL will be able to re-enact the story of what happened – L3/4 depending on detail MOST groups will be able to say why they think the Armada failed and include this in their re-enactment – L4/5 depending on whether they can explain their reason SOME groups will be able to keep referring to why the Armada failed throughout their re-enactment, making connections between their reason and what happened next. - L5 EXCEPTIONAL groups will be able to make links between the reasons, showing that they all had an impact, but that one reason stands out as the main reason the Armada failed. L6+ depending on depth of analysis NB. To make this lesson even more exciting, use masking tape to mark out a rough shape of the British isles on the floor before the lesson. Students can use this as their map for their re-enactment. Alternately, go and make friends with the geography department and ask if they have a big map students could use.

This resource is designed for use with the NEW History 8145 AQA specification Paper 1: Section A: Understanding the Modern World. This guidance is appropriate for: 1A America, 1840–1895: Expansion and consolidation 1B Germany, 1890–1945: Democracy and dictatorship 1C Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and communism 1D America, 1920–1973: Opportunity and inequality (all examples are from this paper) So what is this? Well for each question I have prepared a 'how to' guide. This includes: - Student friendly guidance to the marking levels - Examples of what an answer at each level would look like - a writing grid to help answer each question - Student friendly self assessment grid for Assessment for Learning - Suggestions for how to use these resources in your lessons and incorporate these skills into your SoW DISCLAIMER: I do not work for AQA and I haven't examined for them. However my experience working as an examiner for Edexcel combined with four years teaching KS4 makes me as confident as its probably possible to be with this new exam spec. This resource is not provided by AQA, but has been compiled following a thorough investigation of all resources online as well as speaking to the advice centre at AQA.