Outstanding History Lessons at GCSE

Vietnam War – Why did Johnson really escalate the war in Vietnam?

If Johnson claimed that he wanted peace when he became president, why did he escalate the war in Vietnam and drop more bombs there than were dropped in the whole of World War Two? Following a brief introduction focusing on troop numbers and the Gulf of...

New evidence of Anglo-Saxon mutilations as punishment

Ninth-century England was a bad place to be a criminal, new findings suggest. The skull of an Anglo-Saxon teenager discovered in Hampshire shows that she had her nose and upper lip cut off and may have been scalped too.Written evidence of the 10th and 11th centuries...

Teaching Germany 1919-45

Hodder produce some of the best GCSE books on Germany whether for the Modern World and for the SHP Depth Module. They have now added an innovative digital dimension with great web links and activities. Resource on Hitler Youth. This is part of Hodder...

Terror of the Tramp: Why did vagrancy become such an important issue in Elizabethan England?

GCSE lesson in which students work through a range of differentiated clues to work out 8 reasons which help answer the lessons’ enquiry question before evaluating how well a recent textbook explains it. So often I have seen this lesson taught directly from textbooks and handouts....

Richard I: Lionheart or loser should we keep his statue – SMART TASK

This short task puts pupils in the role of spin doctors who have to ‘big up’ the reputation of Richard the Lionheart. There is a lobby of people who feel that his statue outside the Houses of Parliament should be replaced with a more suitable...

Medieval Britain: The Crusades

Great lesson on the reasons for the First Crusade which uses a Zone of Relevance activity to show students how to answer the question set, not the one they want to answer. This is followed by a critique of a KS3 diagram. Students have to...

Rotten apple or …. How should we portray Dyer’s motivation in the Amritsar massacre?

This enquiry asks students to look critically at the depiction of the massacre in the film Gandhi as a way into trying to determine the motivation of Dyer. Students are provided with an initial set of influence cards which they have to group and classify...

How should Germany be treated at the Paris peace conference? KS3 or KS4 task

This short but engaging task precedes any detailed analysis of the terms of the treaty itself. It has four distinct elements: prediction; analysis of a rarely seen German poster; attaching significance; and refining ideas based on most recent scholarship.

Step 1

Firstly, students have to...

Which cartoon best explains the paradox of the Nazi Soviet pact?

The Unholy Alliance: why on earth did Hitler and Stalin sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact when they clearly hated each other?

Starting with the historical puzzle of why Stalin and Hitler signed the Non-Aggression pact on August 1939 which so shocked the world, students then work collaboratively...

Great new KS4 resource on migration : Why were the Jews expelled from England in 1290?

Really helpful resources provided for KS4 teachers of GCSE Migration topic written by University of Oxford academics. This is just the sort of collaboration we need to see. Allows teachers to go beyond the textbook without expecting them to spend hours reading monographs on...

Bringing GCSE Crime and Punishment right up-to-date

Latest statistics prove invaluable when making comparisons across time. Today, fewer than 5% of street robberies and burglaries are being solved across England and Wales. Unsolved crimes have risen by 20% in the last 3 years There has been an 83% rise in unsolved violent crimes in London. Only...

Teaching the Bloody Code at GCSE

Thought you might like to see Mel Jones' lesson on Bloody Code using original archival material from the Old Bailey. You can read the full lesson description here ...

Reagan’s ‘tear down this wall’ end of Cold War speech

On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood just 100 yards away from the concrete barrier dividing East and West Berlin and uttered some of the most unforgettable words of his presidency: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” But how important was this...

Fun anachronism-spotting activity set in 1796, for GCSE History of Medicine

Most anachronism activities used in schools are the rather naff ones put before Y7 pupils in an introduction to What is History. You know the sort of thing: Roman soldiers wearing wrist watches. This activity is different. Whilst based on a single image, it is set...

Transportation; what questions can we raise and answer from the statistics?

Transported for defacing this bridge in the 1820s

This is the first of two lessons on transportation and owes its genesis to an idea from Richard McFahn when an Advanced Skills Teacher for history in Hampshire. It starts by revealing clues connected with the topic, one by one, to arouse students' curiosity. They...

SMART TASK: A history puzzle – Opening up of the Western frontier by the railroads. A history mystery

This history puzzle focuses on a well-known painting, Across the Continent, but one which is actually more puzzling than might at first appear. The task starts simply and then becomes complex. Initially, all students have to do is to annotate a copy of the 1868 painting of...

SMART TASK: Why were mining towns such lawless places?

This is a very straightforward, yet highly effective task which asks students to distinguish between the generic and the specific, to speculate about possible reasons from clues, to think creatively about historical myths and just as importantly to know how to get full marks on...

The likely impact of the Railroad: time for de Bono’s thinking hats and some creative products

Students are taken back to the year 1860 before there was a transcontinental railway. They are asked to speculate about the likely impact of the coming of the railroad. In order to do this, students are placed in groups. They are each allocated a role....

Was the life of a cowboy really so adventurous?

This lesson draws heavily on the ideas of Sarah Herrity, Advanced Skills Teacher, Wyvern Technology College, near Winchester. It moves students from their own initial perceptions of cowboys, through to the harsh realities of life. After an initial card sorting activity, students have to consider...

Who went west and why?

This lesson worked really well with lower attaining Y10 students who had already studied the Plains Indians and the contact between the early mountain men at the trading posts. This was their first lesson on movement West. They had never used artefacts before in their GCSE...

Teaching GCSE History: Changing Warfare (Edexcel)

This SHP option, offered by Edexcel only, builds on the success of the A2 paper for which colleges such as Frome Community College have created some excellent resources. For materials on the Crimean, Boer and First World War go to Read more

Teaching GCSE History: Media Through Time

Your best place to start is undoubtedly the AQA scheme of work which offers learning foci for each of the three strands. Unlike the schemes of work for the other options, however, there are no suggested activities so you...

SMART TASK: History of medicine Renaissance physicians; Is the artist taking the piss?

In this short activity students are shown two contrasting images of a physician inspecting a patient’s urine. Students have to guess the provenance and date. It transpires that they are 250 years apart. Does this mean then that no progress was made in the way...

SMART TASK: Medieval medicine. What can we work out from the picture?

A smart task based on an original idea from Lorna Hunter, of Swanmore Technology College. This deceptively simple example of a familiar technique takes students from the known to the unknown. They begin by annotating all they can see in the picture, available on the downloadable...

SMART TASK Revision: name your best squad

To help students remember who the key individuals were in the history of medicine, you might like to present them as members of two opposing football teams.... [private] Team A is clearly the best squad of 11, perhaps with a couple of substitutes. The ‘second team’ would be the next...

SMART TASK: Why was there so much opposition to Jenner’s ideas on vaccination in the 19th century?

This is a short, fun SMART task. All the instructions are on the PowerPoint presentation. Start with slide 2 which sets the puzzle, a paradox. If Jenner was so highly regarded and his ideas paved the way for the eventual eradication of smallpox, why then...

SMART TASK Key Stage 4: GCSE SHP Medicine: 18th century surgery

This quick activity asks students to explore the detail in Rowlandson’s cartoon called ‘Amputation’. They score one mark for each of the 10 labelled examples of relevant detail and 3 marks each for good inferences. If they can explain the purpose of the cartoon they...

SMART TASK: Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start? A glass half empty?

The lesson starts with a glass of water which you have filled to roughly half way. Students have to say whether they would describe the bottle as half full or half-empty. Use this to introduce the notion of historians who take the optimistic and pessimistic points...

SMART TASK: How successful was Nazi policy towards women and families?

Students place the cards along the continuum. Which pieces of evidence are most compelling?

This short task was designed to combat the tendency many students have to simply describe rather than evaluate the policy. To help them make judgments they are given up to 16 pieces of evidence to consider (resource sheet 1). They discuss each card and then...

Ideas for teaching GCSE history Britain 1890-1918 using ICT

For suggestions for 20 top ICT activities using a wide range of data and applications click here to download PDF file.

Resources

Myth of the Blitz: Professor Overy’s view: Writing in History Today, Richard Overy adds his own perspective on the...

SMART TASK: Now you see it, now you don’t. A fun starter showing how Lenin and Stalin used the ‘airbrush’

Fascinating starter in which students have to spot and then explain the differences between three pairs of photos of Soviet leaders Lenin and Stalin taken between 1920 and 1930. Excellent material to promote discussion of manipulation of leaders’ image and the cult of the personality. Read more

Smart Task: How popular was the Vietnam war? What can we learn from just two photographs?

This simple starter uses just two contrasting photographs, one showing the popularity of Johnson’s policy towards Vietnam, the other opposition to it. How can we explain the difference? Students generate questions to ask about each source before being given the answers on the PowerPoint presentation. ...

SMART TASKS: Why did the US get involved in the Vietnam War?

Three separate short activities help students produce a top grade answer to the question.

Task I - brainstorming early ideas

This first introductory task simply asks students to consider the various reasons why the US got involved in Vietnam, going over what has already been learned. Students...

SMART TASK: How significant was the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the history of Civil Rights?

Quick ranking activity for GCSE/AS students. Students are asked to consider the relative significance of 11 possible arguments that have been used by historians who claim that the Montgomery bus boycott was the real start of the Civil Right movement in USA. The 11 arguments and full...

SMART TASK: Causes of the Wall Street Crash

Influence cards: If the price of stocks and shares continued to rise year by year in the 1920s, why did the Wall Street Crash happen suddenly in 1929?

Students are given a set of influence cards which help them to work out the answer to an apparent paradox. If people were getting rich quick in the 1920s, why then was there such a crash in 1929? Here the focus is on students making their...

Hoover’s rubbish: Roosevelt moves in

Students predict what pieces of departing Hoover's rubbish policies Roosevelt might be throwing out

This lesson on a fairly familiar theme approaches GCSE cartoon analysis in a different way. Instead of showing the students the cartoon they are to interpret, they are simply given an outline, without the detail and certainly without the text. Using their contextual knowledge students...

SMART TASK Key Stage 4: Stalin and the Korean War: can you interpret the cartoon?

This Smart task uses a Punch cartoon as part of a lesson on the Korean War. It carefully steers students through several thinking processes. To start with they have to raise good historical questions. They then annotate a copy using the guidelines provided. When you...

SMART TASK: Why did Communism end when it did in Eastern Europe?

Prior to writing an answer to this question students will need to organise their thinking. These factor cards might help. Ask students to think of different ways in which to arrange the cards to create a pattern that might help shape their answer to the question....

New GCSE Crime and Punishment resources

To support the teaching of the GCSE thematic study, Crime and Punishment, the Digital Panopticon team has developed Criminal Lives, 1780-1925 an exhibition and education pack for schools. This is an eight panel pop-up banner exhibition that uses historical images and archival documents to explore...

Penicillin: From discovery to world-wide use? Who should take the credit?

Students have to divide a $100 million bequest to those people who did most to develop penicillin. But in what ratio? Should Fleming get it all? What about the Oxford team, Florey and Chain, even Heatley? Students create a living graph to show the turning...

Teaching USA 1900-1990 to Key Stage 4

The first batch of lessons focuses on four examination favourites but each adds a different subtle twist that lifts the lesson and makes students much more active and involved in their learning. The lesson on the economic prosperity of the 1920s encourages students to work out...

Teaching international relations 1945-1990

This section, dominated by the Cold War focuses mainly on teaching its origins, its main crises and the reason why it came to an end. With the recent 'strengthening' of GCSE specifications many schools who had hitherto taught Inter-war International Relations alongside Germany 1918-39, now...

Did everyone benefit equally from life in the USA in the 1920s? A market place activity. SMART TASK KS4

This activity is great for getting students off their feet and talking to every other students in the class - with a clear purpose! The idea is that every student is given a role card. You will want to differentiate these, matching the complexity of the...

Why was Hitler able to consolidate his position in power between January 1933 and August 1934? Smart Task KS4

This smart task works as a starter. Students are given 7 reasons why Hitler came to power. In just 5 minutes, and working in pairs, they have to see if they can find and explain any links between the reasons given on Resource Sheet 1...

How well do these cartoons cover the causes of World War One?

In pairs, Y9/GCSE students visit 9 different cartoons posted around the wall. They have to work out: a. Which cause is being ‘covered’ in each cartoon - sometimes two. b. Which causes are NOT covered. They are given a textbook diagram explaining the causes in the form of an...

When Prohibition was so popular when it was introduced, why had it failed within 12 years? SMART TASK

small illustrations of reasons for failure of prohibition

In this varied series of activities, students predict from pictures, categorise influence cards, and create a tweet before structuring an answer that will impress a GCSE examiner.

Starter

Project slide 2 which is a pretty dramatic image. What does it show and how does it help answer...

Who started the Korean War? Smart Task

In this short starter smart task students are given two contradictory accounts of the start of the Korean War, both emanating from Korea. But which account do they think is more plausible and which extract goes with which book? Students look for loaded language and...

Teaching Crime and Punishment

I am sure you all know of the excellent websites out there to help you, but I would particularly recommend the Durham University Library, The British Library, and the National Archives . The Learning Curve section of the National Archives site is probably well-known to...

If the Bloody Code made so many offences punishable by death, why were so few criminals hanged? SMART TASK

Fun lesson in which small groups have to predict punishments meted out for specific crimes in 1786 using original documents and then see if they were correct. They then try to work out why so few executions took place, prioritising their ideas with support to...

The Marshall Plan: How should we interpret it? Just how philanthropic was it?

1949 German Poster showing benefits of Marhsall Aid

The activities in this very varied lesson ask students to raise questions, place sources on a continuum, add analysis to a short descriptive account and quickly tweet a caption to three contemporary cartoons.

Starter

Show slide 1 which is a German poster from 1949 advertising an exhibition...

Outstanding Lessons

Step 1

The Unholy Alliance: why on earth did Hitler and Stalin sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact when they clearly hated each other?

Resources

Task I - brainstorming early ideas

Starter

Starter