Key stage 5 history
The reasons why Labour won the General Election of 1945.
If Churchill’s popularity rating rarely dropped below 80% during the Second World War, why then was there a landslide victory for Labour in 1945? Building on the obvious paradox of…
Read MoreKristallnacht: Did the press allow itself to be taken in by Nazi propaganda?
This lesson starts by creating tension between what students have read in preparation for the lesson and a contemporary newspaper. With students clearly aware of the obvious contradiction, they then…
Read MoreLESSON IDEA: Why have there been so many different theories as to why Stalin carried out the Terror?
Varied and active lesson in which students: generate a list of relevant questions; prioritise their own reasons; role-play the arguments used by 4 different named historians, and relate this to…
Read MoreHitler Youth AS/A2 task
This smart task uses one of the most frequently misunderstood Hitler Youth posters. By taking students through a step-by-step deconstruction of the poster using an animated PowerPoint presentation, students are…
Read MoreAS SMART TASK Vietnam; why was Rolling Thunder ultimately unsuccessful?
When by the end of 1965 US pilots had flown over 24,000 sortie missions and wiped out 355 of North Vietnam’s ammunition dumps, why then was operation Rolling Thunder ultimately…
Read MoreWhy was Anne Boleyn executed? Which of these seems most plausible?
In this short task students work out for themselves the key inter-related reasons why Anne Boleyn was executed. Using the influence cards provided (see resources section below) which draw on…
Read More10 commandments for successful source work at A-level
Although it grieves me to say it, these strategies may not have much to do with better teaching or understanding of the period being studied. They are, lamentably, the product…
Read MoreSMART 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…
Read MoreIndependent learning in post-16 history
This section focuses mainly on ways of helping students become more effective independent leaners. The crucial role of the Student planner It has always a been a concern that students…
Read MoreLESSON IDEA: Edward IV was more successful as a king in his second reign than his first’. How far do you agree with this view?’
Activities 1. Introductory. Brainstorm Edward’s achievements and failures. 2. Provide students with cards for them to place on a spectrum from ‘unsuccessful’ to ‘highly successful’. 3. Compare this with historians’…
Read MoreAssessing students’ work
Answering judgement type question at AS level Typical stems for questions which call for students to make and to justify an historical judgement about, for example, the significance of a key…
Read MoreWhy did Bolshevism survive in Russia between 1917 and 1924? SMART TASK AS-A2
This task asks students to investigate the perplexing question as to why the Bolshevik regime was able to survive from 1917-24. Students are given the context: no plans; poor start;…
Read MoreItalian foreign policy-outstanding lesson
At what point did Mussolini seem to side more with Germany than with Britain or France? Students arrive at the lesson having familiarised themselves with key events of Mussolini’s foreign…
Read More‘Gladstone’s conversion to Home Rule was a calculated political act’. Assess the validity of this claim
Start by posing the question as a puzzle to be solved. Why would Gladstone convert so suddenly to Home Rule – one of the great voltes-face of the 19th century?…
Read MoreTeaching source work imaginatively in AS and A2 history
Imaginative approaches to source work Again, 10 examples are provided on a separate PowerPoint presentation. The approach has been to look for imaginative approaches that really help students to ‘get’…
Read MoreCurriculum planning for post-16 history
As all schools and colleges have their own schemes of work I have not made the modelling of good schemes of work too much of a priority. However, given the…
Read MoreWho 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…
Read MoreUsing minute papers to monitor student progress in GCSE and A level history lessons.
Minute papers are small doubled-sided A5 sheets, blank other than the pre-printed heading which is always in the form of a perplexing key question. It is this question that drives…
Read MoreImaginative and effective teaching strategies for A2 and AS history
Finding high-quality advice on teaching A2 and AS history is a difficult and time-consuming job. With so much post-16 work dominated by exam boards and textbooks, there is precious little…
Read MoreWas Hitler totally responsible for the Second World War?
This smart task looks deceptively simple, and should serve as a useful introduction, leading on to some sophisticated analysis exploring recent historiography. The main focus for this subsequent study hinges…
Read MoreAS/A2 SMART TASK Threats to Henry VII, a living graph
Students create event cards for homework by way of preparation for creating a multi strand living graph showing the degree of threat to Henry VII from different quarters and how…
Read MoreThe Marshall Plan: How should we interpret it? Just how philanthropic was it?
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…
Read MoreAS/A2 SMART TASK Did the ending of the Second World War make the Cold War inevitable?
In order for students to form their own view on this challenging question they read, discuss, sort and then place on a spectrum a number of influence cards enabling them…
Read MoreThe rise of Stalin: 4 smart tasks
Included here are 4 distinct smart tasks which could be used in various combinations at AS and A2 level. They vary from laying odds on the outcome of the leadership…
Read MoreGeneral resources for teaching A level
Resources I have included a section on resources as it is likely that keeping up-to-date with all the recent websites/articles is a tough job, especially if you are teaching in…
Read MoreWays of ensuring that students think harder in A-level history lessons.
Download the 20 different practical strategies brought together in one document to make sure that students make the most of the lessons and the time between them. You will, I’m…
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This section of the site has been updated to match the current requirements of the new AS and A2 courses. You will see that it has been sub-divided into 5 parts. The first is a rich array of outstanding lessons and smart tasks to both improve the quality of students’ learning and to enliven your teaching. The second looks at planning from two perspectives: the traditional, from the teachers’ perspective – what we might call schemes of work; and more importantly from the students’ perspective showing what they need to do in advance, during, and after each session, planned over the entire module.























