Intended to give a very quick overview of Tudor England for students in KS4, this lesson gives students the key information they need to begin to study the crimes and punishments of Tudor times. Learning Objectives: ALL Students will be able to recall key facts about life in Tudor Times MOST Students will be able to consider how these facts impacted on the monarch of the time SOME Students will be able to predict what kind of laws the monarchs would have brought in to deal with threats to their rule.

Designed for GCSE students either studying the OCR course, or the Edexcel course, you will need a textbook for this (OCR, SHP and Edexcel are all appropriate for this) and prior learning on law enforcement in medieval times. Students will compare tudor law enforcement with law enforcement from medieval times: ALL Will be able to describe one difference and one similarity MOST Will be able to describe several differences and several similarities using detail SOME Will be able to analyse the extent of change

Intended for GCSE students either studying the OCR or Edxecel spec for Crime and Punishment, appropriate for both the new GCSE and the old, this stand alone lesson is designed to be used with a textbook. The SHP, OCR and Edexcel textbooks will all be fine for this lesson. Lesson Objectives: ALL Will be able to describe some of the reasons capital punishment ended MOST Will be able to support their points with detailed evidence SOME explain how these factors led to capital punishment ending This lesson includes a clip about Derek Bentley, a table to be completed using the textbook, a triangle of importance and then an essay question that asks students to compare factors.

This is an active lesson that meets the following objectives: ALL will be able to detail events of the scare MOST will be able to explain why Americans were threatened by Communism SOME will be able to predict its ramifications on the political system. I taught this to my year 12 class two weeks ago and it was easily the best lesson I have taught so far this year, they loved it and they refer back to it still to inform their understanding of the fear of communism in the US. There is no writing involved in this lesson, it is purely talking and listening, questioning and thinking. It allows students to move around the room, investigating like in a murder mystery, and ad libbing for their own characters. Overview of the lesson: Set up the classroom like a 1920's speak easy, or at least create a big space in the middle with some chairs around the edge. Students get a character card, these include steelworkers, anarchists etc. They are allowed to tell the truth about their character, but they aren't obliged to - they can lie as much as they like. They have to find out who the communists are in the room and they do this by making conversation. One student is a journalist and this student moves events along by informing other students. You give them each event as it happens (eg bombs in the post) and they have to stir up a fuss with other students. All other instructions are included in the downloads including the character cards, events, and questions for you to use to consolidate learning and pull out the themes necessary to help students achieve the objectives. I will admit I used chocolates to get students going, but motivation really wasn't a problem - they got fully into their characters and the whole witch hunt. enjoy!

This lesson is an introduction to the historical skill of significance and explaining significance. It gets students to discuss why someone might be significant in history eg. They changed peoples lives at the time, or they made a lot of money, or they achieved something extraordinary. Students put these in order of the most effective way of measuring historical significance to the least. I designed this for year 7, but have found myself using this lesson over and over again with all secondary year groups as it helps to reset the basics for understanding significance. The second part of the lesson is the balloon game, I would get students to play this in groups rather than as a class.

This lesson is great for a brand new year 7 class and requires minimum preparation. You will need a suitcase of your possessions though as the lesson requires students to handle objects and make inferences as to what kind of person might own that stuff. I have done this lesson several times and I take things such as: a travel guide the case to Resident Evil V for Xbox 360 a picture of my goddaughter an old pipe a jar of marmite a caribena a copy of George Orwell's 1984 The better the objects, the better this lesson will go. I once encountered a teacher who used the contents of her handbag and the lesson flopped. You want to create some intrigue and use this lesson as the basis for building a relationship with your students and allowing them to get to know you. The homework task allows students to select their own objects as evidence of who THEY are, all the while making inferences before they even get it drummed into them that that is a skill. Speaking of skills, here are the learning outcomes: ALL students will know what evidence is and how we use it to build a picture MOST Students will be able to make inferences from the evidence and link evidence SOME Students will be able to explain how evidence can lead to misunderstandings

It was the end of term, my lovely year 7 asked me for a drama lesson, so I wrote this play. We rehearsed and performed it within just one lesson, minimum props needed. The play is several very short chunks that allows up to 32 students to have a named part. Each scene is written for between 2 and 5 students and there are 10 'scenes' so lots of people get to be Henry and lots more get to be various wives. I provided yellow cardboard crowns and some cardboard swords and we used our imagination for the rest. After each group had had 15 minutes to rehearse, to plan their entrances and props and actions etc, I gathered them all into an arena shape with a half circle of chairs in front, several tables behind so all could sit and all could see. The groups performed the scenes in order as I called them, it was a beautiful farce that was lots of fun, and lots of clapping. The most memorable part was when a group of boys enacted Jane Seymour giving birth.. lots of ad libbing! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did, I will definitely be using this again. NB I wrote it with a mixed ability class in mind so the reading isn't too challenging. To beef it up you could have a selection of keywords, or historical terms on the board and give points for groups that include them.

This lesson requires students to have some existing knowledge of American politics as a large part of this lesson is understanding that the New Democrats were more right wing than the Old Democrats. Students will need to be able to discuss whether they think policies such as 'helping businesses' are traditionally Democrat or Republican territory. This lesson is also heavily based around Vivienne Sanders 'Access to History: Politics, Presidency and Society in the USA 1968-2001' available here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Access-History-Politics-Presidency-1968-2001/dp/0340965983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472498614&sr=8-1&keywords=vivienne+sanders+politics+presidency+society My favourite part of this lesson is the starter in which students read up on Clinton's background then have to write a speech to persuade Hillary to marry them. I make my students line up in two lines facing each other, then they get on their knees to propose. The student playing Hillary can't say yes until they have heard two good pieces of background information on Clinton

This resource is based around the textbook by Vivienne Sanders, 'Access to History: Politics, Presidency and Society in the USA 1968-2001' which can be bought here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Access-History-Politics-Presidency-1968-2001/dp/0340965983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472498614&sr=8-1&keywords=vivienne+sanders+politics+presidency+society The objectives that this lesson supports students to achieve are: KO: (knowledge objective)To know the impact the Religious Right had on Reagan’s campaigns SO: (skills objective) To examine the reasons Reagan won in 1984 through our Presidential themes

This KS5 lesson requires you to have a good textbook on Reagan's first term to support the resources provided and for students to complete their own research. I recommend Vivienne Sanders 'Access to History: Politics, Presidency and Society in the USA 1968-2001 available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Access-History-Politics-Presidency-1968-2001/dp/0340965983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472498614&sr=8-1&keywords=vivienne+sanders+politics+presidency+society This lesson includes a starter that requires students to already have some ideas of what Reagan had promised America on his election, if you are following on from my 'How did Reagan go from being a B list actor to President' lesson, this is covered. The bulk of the lesson provides an excerpt from Tip O'Neill's autobiography that helps explain how Reagan got congress to pass his budget. It provides a basis for debate on Reagan's first term and supports students to achieve the following objectives: ALL: Will be able to give a judgement on how successful Reagan’s first term was MOST: Will be able to support this with evidence SOME: Will be able to analyse Reagan’s success to give a balanced judgement on Reagan’s success.

This resource for KS5 looks at the challenges faced by Reagan in exerting his power as president, and looks at whether the Presidency was 'imperilled' and power disseminating to Congress. The resources in this pack support students to achieve the first two of these Learning Objectives, the third objective is a holistic objective that asks students to consider their previous learning on Nixon, Ford and Carter. If they haven't learned this, they will still have access to the first two objectives. ALL: Will be able to describe how it was difficult for Reagan to use his power MOST: Will be able to explain how the obstacles Reagan faced would impede his policies SOME: Will be able to make links between these obstacles and the failures of the previous presidents to explain how the Presidency had become ‘imperilled’

This resource contains a great game of 'Reagan bingo' where students listen to Reagan facing off against Carter and note off the issues as they arise. This is a good task to introduce students to Reagan, to understand his policies and note the absent topics. There is also a note making task using the Vivienne Sanders textbook (link at the bottom of this blurb) but any decent textbook on this topic will do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9qDRZ6pSRE&safe=active

To make use of this, you need Vivienne Sanders 'Access to History: Politics, Presidency and Society in the USA 1968-2001 available here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Access-History-Politics-Presidency-1968-2001/dp/0340965983/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1472425111&sr=8-1&keywords=access+to+history+politics+presidency If you don't have this book, please don't purchase this resource. This lesson guides students through aspects of Carter's Presidency to establish why he lost to Reagan in 1980. The focus of the lesson is a very much supported reading task that gives students working in pairs, strategies for active reading and forces them to do that. This is a really valuable skill at KS5 and is why I have decided to publish this resource even though its remit is narrow as it really is no good without the textbook unless you want to find the information elsewhere for them. The lesson also includes consolidation techniques of scripted peer reflection which sounds odd, but again I've found it to be really effective.

This lesson gives students the task of working together in a group to publish a short newspaper and it is designed for KS5 as independent research skills are central to this lesson. They have to chose whether they use a Pro Ford headline, or an Anti-Ford headline and need the resources available to research aspects of Ford's presidency. I strongly suggest that you make textbooks available such as 'Access to History, Politics, Presidency and Society' to support this piece of group work. Within this PP are prompts for the group to research on the economy, women's rights, racial equality and politics within the Republican Party. At the end, students have to decide whether to include a political cartoon about Ford being the 'the mender'.

Civil Rights, KS5, students need an existing knowledge of MLK's Southern Campaigns before they can access this lesson effectively. All resources included, no need for additional textbooks although they are always useful for extra material. The starter asks students to look at the Moynihan Report and decide why MLK turned his attention North. The main body of the lesson is a card sort on the Northern Campaign, students separate 'event' cards from 'analysis' cards, then use the event cards to put together a chronology. Students then colour code their cards to align with various reasons the Northern campaign was unsuccessful, then they either make three bullet point lists, or write three paragraphs to answer the question.

This lesson relies on you having resources to support this question. I use the Access to History: Civil Rights 1945-1968, but any decent KS5 textbook on Civil Rights will have a section on Truman. This PP is a straightforward set of instructions for a student led class debate, it asks students to read up and prepare arguments for an against the statement: 'President Harry S. Truman was significant in bringing about change for African Americans by 1948’ Please note, this lesson ONLY covers Truman in isolation and is designed for a KS5 class who have the basic skills of reading and forming an argument. Your role as teacher is to play devils advocate in the preparation stages to help with their analysis, then sit back and chair the debate, encouraging your reluctant speakers. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Access-History-Civil-Rights-1945-68/dp/0340965835/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472420981&sr=1-4&keywords=access+to+history+civil+rights

This lesson is an introduction to the basic issues that Martin Luther had with the Catholic church. It touches on the central role of the priest, indulgences and the financial profligacy of the church. There is one task that uses a page from the SHP Year 7 textbook, but most textbooks will have a page to help answer the question 'what were the main differences between Protestants and Catholics?' This is the question that students use the page to answer, so if you have a similar resource then this lesson is still good for you. Here are the lesson objectives this lesson is designed to satisfy: ALL: Will be able to identify differences between the Catholic and Protestant Churches MOST: Will be able to explain the differences based on what the Protestants protested about SOME: Will be able to make supported inferences about why some people were unhappy with the Catholic church

This is a pretty relaxed lesson that guides students towards the following objectives: ALL: Will be able to describe doom paintings and their message MOST: Will be able to make inferences from primary sources SOME: Will be able to analyse sources to make an inference as to how powerful the church was in the middle ages. This lesson features a 'see it, describe it, draw it' starter, some paired discussion and a written task to demonstrate understanding. NB. there is no text or clip detailing what a doom painting is, or where they were found. This lesson relies on you having subject knowledge to support students in their inferences.

This is a lesson for HA year 7 students. It gives them the opportunity to write an essay aiming to hit the old NC levels 5,6 and even 7. I have had a 7A essay handed in using this lesson and most were L6 so if you want to challenge your HA, give this a go. Be aware though that this resource covers three lessons and is mostly concerned with essay structure. I haven't indicated in the PP at which point the students write the essay, so here is how I did it: Lesson 1: students use a card sort to examine the consequences of the black death, they work in pairs and groups to find the most significant/substantial change and the least significant/substantial change. They then choose three pieces of evidence that show significant change, three that show medium change and three that show no change. These will make up their paragraphs. Lesson 2: Students look at a dummy essay on how much school rules changed life for students. I have labelled a paragraph with structural necessities such as 'point, evidence, explanation' and they use highlighters to spot where the author of the essay has done this. Students get started on the essay, aim to finish one paragraph in class, then set one for homework. Lesson 3: You can allow students to peer assess each other's essay so far (in the same way they highlighted the dummy essay), or you can just give them half an hour to finish the essay. They need to have completed their third paragraph before you show them how to write the conclusion. There is a conclusion to the dummy essay that students analyse the structure of before having a go themselves. Most likely, you will want to set this for homework as if your HA class are like mine, they are crazy perfectionists. Please note, this lesson is not differentiated. You would have to approach this essay in a completely different way for a class that is targetted L3-5 and a L4 student would need support to access it. But if you want to push your HA, this resource is really strong. Learning Objectives: ALL students will be able to Describe some of the ways in which life changed using some detailed evidence. Write a conclusion to say how much life changed. (L5) MOST students will be able to Explain how the black death changed the lives of peasants by thinking about the short term and the long term effects of the changes. Supporting all comments with detailed factual knowledge (L6) SOME students will be able to use a lot of detailed factual knowledge to analyse how much change has taken place. This means that you really pick the facts apart to show how much life changed. (L7)