This is my absolute favourite lesson to teach to year 8 - I hope you enjoy it! It is quite a long one though, so either keep the pace up, use fewer sources, or break it into two lessons. Lesson objectives: LO: To know the story of the Gunpowder plot LO: To use evidence to find out more about the Gunpowder Plot LO: To use evidence to question whether the story as we know it is true. LO: To decide whether Guy Fawkes was innocent or guilty and use the evidence to prove it This lesson works best if you have students working in groups of 4, but I have done this in pairs and it works fine as well. You will need a focus on good group work, praise for groups that are working well together and rewards for groups who are really discussing and getting into the evidence. One year, I did have to set this lesson as cover so I have also included that as a resource in case you need a quick cover, or need work for a student in inclusion. Enjoy! Ruth

Learning Objectives: * To know the pivotal events in 1968 * To have an overview of the background to these events * To be able to make links between these crises to explore the tensions in US society. I created this lesson for my year 12, but it can be differentiated down for younger age groups so long as you have an appropriate textbook or a class that are able to listen effectively to teacher talk. This lesson was designed to work with 'Access to History: Politics, Presidency and Society in the USA, 1968-2001' by Vivienne Sanders, but can easily paired with another textbook from this year, or if you as the teacher have a good knowledge of some of the following events you can fill in the background information. Another option is to provide access to the internet so students can research the background themselves. Events covered are: The death of Martin Luther King The Tet Offensive The assassination of Bobby Kennedy Feminist protests at the Miss America Pageant Protests at the Democratic Convention in Chicago The election of President Nixon. Students will be using information on these events to say what tensions existed in US society, for example the death of MLK shows that there was huge political tension. This lesson works really well as an introduction to the time period and includes a music based homework so students can immerse themselves in the popular culture of the time. It includes a matching task, a researching task and either pair or class discussion of significance. All feedback welcome, Ruth appropriate search terms for this resource: America, USA, 1960's, 1968, Martin Luther King, Kennedy, Nixon, popular culture, music, Tet Offensive, Vietnam War, feminism

This resource is designed for a KS3 class and covers the following lesson objectives: LO: To find out information from primary sources LO: To describe the underground rail road using detail LO: To make inferences from combining sources LO: To explain significance using PEE It may be used as a standalone resource, or in combination with other resources on freedom fighters such as Toussaint L'Ouverture, Nanny of the Maroons, Sam Sharpe or Bussa. It contains a variety of tasks such as source analysis, and links to literacy objectives of using metaphors, clarifying the meaning of words using a partner, and refining a PEE paragraph. US teachers - this resources is designed for UK students who have little existing knowledge of the underground railroad and haven't heard of Harriet Tubman. As such, it provides an overview rather than an in depth examination of Tubman which you might want to go to if your classes have a higher level of pre-existing knowledge. NB I have made a map for students on which I have roughly drawn borders and rivers freehand. In case this isn't precise enough, I included a hyperlink to an online map with more precise borders - I didn't use this in the first instance because my whiteboard isn't too great and I don't think many students will be able to see the borders. All feedback gratefully received! Ruth

This resource may be used as a stand alone lesson, or to follow on from other lessons on Toussaint L'Ouverture and Haitan independence (resources for this available in my shop). All activities and resources necessary are on the PowerPoint, although you will want to print some slides to allow students to complete the active listening task and perhaps so they can have the questions/ sources in front of them. Aimed at KS3, (students aged 11-14) the lesson objectives are: * To be able to describe what happened in the slave rebellion in Barbados in 1816 * To be able to find similarities between sources * To be able to evaluate why a source may have one point of view * To demonstrate how newspapers can give one sided information on history This resource includes a variety of tasks including a 'Bussa Bingo' task for active listening while students watch a video clip. A set of questions on the content of the clip, two sources and questions asking students to compare these and use the origin of the sources to explain the differences. Feedback gratefully received, Ruth

This highly versatile resource can be used as part of a scheme of work (following on from my Toussaint L'Ouverture resource) or as a stand alone lesson. It is aimed at KS3 but contains sufficient challenge for KS4 and can be adapted down for LA KS3 (students aged 11-16). It has been designed to enable students to meet these objectives: LO: To be able to describe the actions of these freedom fighters LO: To make a comparison of their strengths and weaknesses LO: To evaluate their significance in ending slavery in Jamaica There are a range of activities contained, these include: - a very brief overview of Jamaican history up to colonisation - individual reading task that can be adapted to move students around the room - paired peer to peer teaching task - a worksheet that encourages additional detail to be used in answers (old NC level 5) - opportunity for students to set their own criteria to assess significance - opportunity for debate - ideas for homework task and plenary This lesson is ready to go once downloaded for the majority of learners, just minor tweaks needed if you want to differentiate down, or refer back to the prior learning of your class. Teacher notes included with slides. Feedback gratefully received, Ruth

UK Teachers: This resource is intended to support the learning of AS and A Level students, but can be adapted to support learners in KS4. It is designed to cover 2 lessons and lead towards students writing an essay on the topic for homework, alternatively the essay could be completed in class and form a third lesson. Essay resources and structure included in the PowerPoint. US Teachers: This resource is aimed at students who would be aged 17 and 18 in the UK, although it can be adapted for younger or less able learners. It is an in depth investigation of the success of the civil rights movement using facts and statistics, leading learners to write an essay on the topic. Learning time should be 2 hours in class, plus time to write the essay. NB the term 'black Americans' is used throughout, you may want to change this to African Americans. Lesson Objectives for this resource: LO: To be able to make a judgement on how much change took place by 1968 LO: To be able to support this judgement with detailed pieces of evidence LO: To be able to organise our analysis into factors or themes that can be used in an essay LO: To show how our overall judgement has been arrived at from our analysis of these factors Activities include a starter based on school experiences, a card sort into factors, a living graph activity that can be done in pairs, or groups, and an essay based on the above question. Resources needed: scissors, glue, coloured pens, sugar paper or large piece of white paper (A3 should do) Please let me know what you think of this resource in the reviews - particularly if you have any suggestions on how to improve it.

I attended a lecture with my year 12 and took these notes which I then typed up into a resource for them to use. There were lots of facts that weren't covered in any of the textbooks so this is a useful resource to read over before planning a lesson on this topic. Please review if this was useful.

This quiz was designed for my year 12 class, so students will be asked for specific details about a range of civil rights events and their accompanying Supreme Court cases. It is quite challenging, so if this covers topics you haven't spent as much time on, you may decide to allow a time limited textbook grab (60 seconds for students to locate information would be reasonable, and would improve index using skills) There are three rounds, one for civil rights movements, one for supreme court cases and one picture round. I usually get my class to split into teams and name their teams, its a great activity for a class who are stressing about an exam on this topic and need some lighter revision. You should also get a prize! My classes usually take about 35 minutes to complete this.

This resource provides a one lesson overview of the slave revolt on St Dominique (later Haiti) and asks students to make a judgement as to how far it was the actions of Toussaint L'Ouverture that gave Haiti its independence, and how far it was events in and ideas coming from France. Tasks include: source based starter living graph identifying information to make an argument with speaking to persuade in pairs writing a structured paragraph that has been differentiated for learners between L3-L6 and may easily be adapted for SEN, or be part of an extended essay for the most able to achieve L7. If you download this, please review! I'd love so WWW/EBI so I know what works well.

Created with a focus on speaking and listening skills, this lesson gives students the chance to research a character who would have been present at a slave auction in the US which they then have to 'hot seat' in a group of 4. characters: A slave who has just arrived from Africa A slave who was born in America and so speaks English and has a family with them A slave trader who has completed the middle passage with a fresh cargo A slave owner who is looking for a new slave at a bargain price Students have two clips and a large variety of primary sources to research from. Ideally these sources will be stuck up around the room so students can get out of their seats and wander around - ideal for your kinaesthetic learners. Sources range from HA materials of descriptions of exchanges that have taken place between slaves and prospective buyers down to lots and lots of LA pictures and posters.

A complete lesson - ready to go if you’re in a hurry, or full of tasks to pick and choose from if you have time to personalise this for your class. All resources included on the Power Point to make it easy to access and print the necessary parts. Aims to cover these objectives: * To understand how segregation came about * To give detailed descriptions of segregation * To explain the attitudes towards race that made segregation so pervasive * To predict the challenges faced by civil rights campaigners Includes a variety of tasks, classroom discussion with additional information for the teacher to support questioning, group work task with opportunity for students to move and a 7 minute clip of a primary source for students to evaluate. Includes ideas for differentiation for each task and so is suitable as a stand alone resource for KS 3 and KS 4, a great intro to the topic for KS 5 but would need to be accompanied by a textbook on the topic to support the research task. Originally designed to support teaching of Edexcel AS Level D5 Civil Rights module.