Resources and images on the discovery of the Mary Rose

The opening of a museum on the Mary Rose has provided some excellent coverage on the BBC News website. Below are some links showing some reconstructions based on skeletons and other artefacts found on the Mary Rose. These are superb visual resources which can be used in History lessons on the Tudor period. In particular, the third link below is excellent giving an interactive reconstruction of the people and part of the hip as well as an interesting article and timeline on the events surrounding the sinking of the Mary Rose.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-22625898

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20384277

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-22639505

Excellent link to the Tudor season on BBC2

As an A Level teacher in Tudor history, the new series of Tudor documentaries are a must watch. The link below takes you to many resources and overviews linked to the documentaries. Highly recommended.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p015vkbl

A link to a review of my Signposting Progress Workshop at TLAB13

Was delighted to read a great record of my workshop, Signposting Progress, at Berkhamsted School’s Teaching, Learning and Assessment Conference 2013 from Sally Thorne on her excellent blog, which is highly recommended. Thank you for your kind words.

http://sallythorne.com/2013/03/16/tlab13-first-workshop-john-mitchell/

 

Causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis – lesson resources

This lesson I gave to Year 11 as part of their GCSE Modern World History course and focuses upon the causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The PowerPoint presents the key causes and figures involved and has a variety of visual resources to aid student understanding.

The tasks can be used in a variety of ways and can be edited accordingly. The main tasks are as follows –

– Significance Pyramid where students record the six main causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis in order of importance. There is a slide in the PowerPOint that explains this task in detail as well as a worksheet containing a blank pyramid.

– A Cartoon Analysis worksheet – this is optional and can be used as an extension exercise for the more able.

– A word cloud based exercise which can be used as a starter or a plenary and can introduce the main elements of the topic or to sum up knowledge and test progress.

– A hexagon learning sheet – which encourages students to think in the SOLO taxonomy mode. Here I have used this task as a Home Learning exercise but this can be used as a main lesson activity.

Hope you find these resources useful.

Causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Significance pyramid – Causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis

Causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis cartoon – cigar

Causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis – Hexagonal Learning

Great online resource of Henry VIII and his wives portraits

Just seen the BBC slideshow of portraits of Henry VIII and is wives. Great for lessons on this subject as well as a source for research for an independent task based on this subject. I hope you find the link below useful.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/mypaintings/Six_Wives_of_Henry_VIII/my-collection/#/6

 

Was Chamberlain brave or a coward? A lesson in cartoon interpretations

In preparation for the next Year 9 assessment which is on the causes of the Second World War in cartoons, I have created these resources based on appeasement and the Munich Agreement. The aim of the lesson is for students to know the arguments for and against appeasement and explore the different arguments through cartoons which offer alternative interpretations.

The PowerPoint goes through the key points of appeasement and the arguments for and against. Then three cartoon sources are examined. There are three worksheets that accompany this which students need to fill in. These worksheets aim to help students unwrap the meaning of the cartoons and analyse their meanings. Once this has been completed students then need to reach a substantiated judgement on which cartoon is the most convincing.

Hope you find these resources useful.

Chamberlain and appeasement

The Munich Agreement cartoon

Appeasement cartoon 2

Appeasement cartoon task

Make your own card game – a review activity

The resources for this lesson look at reviewing the Medieval Realms topic in an engaging way. The objective of the lesson is for students to review a topic through making a card game. Students have a choice of two card games to make – the classic Top Trumps game or a memory card based upon Brainbox’s card game, which are highly recommended.

The PowerPoint goes through the key aspects of each type of game offering students ideas on how to create the game and how to present their chosen information. The worksheet supports the PowerPoint giving students extra guidance.

I hope you find this useful and you can use this type of activity to review any topic.

Medieval Realms review

Medieval card game task sheets

With or without you – a quick starter/plenary activity

Another quick and simple starter or plenary which needs no preparation and helps students to think laterally and apply the knowledge they have learned in your lesson so you demonstrate progress.

With or without you …….

Give students a statement to complete along the lines of ….

Without ……… there would be no ……..

For example …..

Without the Treaty of Versailles there would be no …….
Without the dagger in Romeo and Juliet there would be no …..

This encourages students to explore consequences and connections as well as applying their knowledge they have gained in lessons. Once students are used to this activity, then can then set their own examples and test each other in pairs or groups.

Broken words – presenting lesson objectives differently

A quick and easy strategy for presenting lesson objectives that I presented at Berkhamsted School’s Teaching, Learning and Assessment Conference in March 2013 –

Broken words

The learning objective can be presented to students with the words in the wrong order. Students have to decipher this and put the words in the correct order.

English Civil War project – giving Year 8 student a choice of project

I was asked to develop a project framework for Year 8 students on the English Civil War – an often neglected aspect of English history on the curriculum. I thought rather than stick to the traditional writing project, I would incorporate this into a more creative structure allowing students a choice of project to demonstrate their learning. Please find the project brief at the bottom of this post for more details as well as for you to use.

The first lesson in this sequence would be setting up the project outlines which included the following –

– Make booklet.
– Make a set of top trumps cards.
– Design uniforms.
– Make a shoebox full of artefacts.
– Write a script for a scene in an English Civil War play.

Students would then be introduced to the research resources available and have independent lessons exploring them. Also the assessment criteria would be shared.

Once the research and projects were completed, the students would have a lesson sharing their projects with the rest of the class making judgements alongside the shared criteria. Students would be then expected to write an evaluation along the 5-3-1 formula as well as post the most interesting thing/fact/aspect they have learnt on the English Civil War on an online wall created on Padlet so that everyone in the class can share.

Looking forward to the results!

Year 8 English Civil War project