Resources for A Level
A level teaching is often deeply enjoyable and rewarding. This stems, I think, from the combination of experiences – getting to know the students really well, the opportunity to develop the depth of knowledge we need as teachers, the challenge of thinking hard about teaching so that we help students learn most effectively.
Teaching at A level is just as demanding technically as at any other level and we need to use at least as wide a range of activities to deepen students' knowledge and understanding. Therefore this section contains the same kinds of physical activities – decision making activities, structured role-plays and others – which you use with other ages because in my experience and that of other teachers they are just as successful with older students as with younger ones. Some of these resources and activities even started life being used for undergraduate teaching – very successfully.
Generic Techniques
A couple of ideas putting analysis of the source before what it says. |
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How to involve students in creating a human map of ‘who’s who’ in any period – vital for improving their confidence at GCSE and A Level. |
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A twitter-style activity requiring clarity of thought and precision of language and which helps sort out confidence-sapping confusions. |
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An effective if unusual way of helping students improve essay structure. |
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Create a timeline showing why interpretations change |
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Simple techniques for developing a key aspect of chronological understanding |
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Help your A level students remember who was who |
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A group activity for comparing periods of history – good for KS2 and KS3 – good for A level synoptic understanding. |
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Ever confused Mary Tudor and Mary, Queen of Scots? A simple way of disentangling the Marys and many other confusing people. |
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Get your next A level topic off to a demanding start by turning your class into the royal council, the cabinet or the Politburo. |
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A gloriously simple idea for use from KS2 to A level, as a lesson starter or to conclude a whole Key Stage |
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Personal memories as stimulus for creating or summarising a sense of period |
Using your own memories to model the key features of any period |
Timelines, Time-Stories and Developing Confidence at A level |
Discussion on the use of timelines and time-stories to develop an overview of the content of a new module – vital because it creates confidence, it creates a context and it starts to give a module a unity. |
Helping students identify different types of history books (Updated 2019). |
c.1000 – 1450
Students use information about a wide range of Saxons and Normans to explore the extent of the impact of 1066 |
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Three activities helping students get to grips with all the names, places and terms encountered with The Crusades – so essential for confidence, when starting a new A level unit. |
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Events of the First Crusade: helping Y12 understand the course of events |
An active, enjoyable way to find your way from western Europe to Jerusalem! Deus Vult
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A hot-seating activity that can be used at KS3 or extended for use at A Level. RADA qualifications not required! |
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Can your students do better than King John or will they lose their crowns? |
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Burgundians, Orleanists and Armagnacs: French politics in the age of Agincourt |
Making sense of the divisions in France c.1400-c.1435 that aided the English conquest |
A collection of sources on events 1415 to 1453 for use in A level courses and for independent studies (on the HA Site) |
1450 – 1700
A set of simple resources and ideas (using the example of the Wars of the Roses) which may be useful for A level teachers – of any topic. |
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An introduction to the people and events of 1450-1485 for A level students |
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A bundle for The Wars of the Roses at A Level – resources, additional activities and more |
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A discussion for A level students exploring the nature of late medieval sources and summarising their contextual backgrounds (on the HA site). |
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Activities with a lengthy set of mini-biographies of key figures for A level students (on the HA Site). |
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A structured role-play covering 1450-1487, intended as an introductory activity for A level students. |
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The Wars of the Roses Part 1: Rivalries and Alliances 1450 – 1455 |
An introduction to the events leading up to the first battle of St. Alban |
Two activities and articles provided by Helen Snelson that she’s used with her A level students. |
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A brief activity enabling students to work out how feuds led to alliances and how these alliances determined the sides at the first battle of St. Albans. |
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A role–play introduction to the people and events for A level and above |
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Three brief activities exploring the pattern of events between 1455 and 1461 |
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An activity from Helen Snelson who teaches in York which helps students understand the links between and pressures on gentry and nobles around 1460. |
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The Fishpool Hoard: Evidence of Lancastrian Resistance 1461-4? |
A puzzle from the 1460s – why was this large collection of coins and jewellery buried? |
A card-sort demonstrating how to use the Enquiry Process to help students study more independently and with more confidence. |
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This brief role-play explores why Burgundy helped Edward IV in 1471. |
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A case-study for A level students examining Richard’s options and decisions in the wake of the 1483 rebellion. |
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Resources created by Andrew Wallace to help students deepen their understanding and knowledge of the events of 1483. |
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Valuable reading including a very helpful review essay summarising changing interpretations of Henry VII and much else. |
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A decision-making activity which introduces the key events of Henry’s reign |
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Create a living graph to show just how unlikely a king Henry Tudor really was |
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An intriguing find and a possible introduction to reading about the 1487 rebellion |
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You play the part of Henry VII and your students are the nobles - how will they feel about bonds? |
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A brief update on recent interpretations (which appeared in Teaching History, 118, March 2005). |
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A good deal of work has been undertaken on Henry VII in recent years but Henry remains puzzling and students still have the same problem I was trying to deal with here – how to reconcile the intriguing complexities of Henry’s personality and reign with the often dull certainties conveyed in older textbooks. (From The Historical Review, 22, Sept. 1995). |
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A decision-making activity for use as an introduction or conclusion and revision at A level. |
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Turn your room into a map of Europe and chart Henry's road to glory – or failure |
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A timeline to develop a sense of duration |
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A play by Mark Fowle to help his A level students deepen their knowledge. |
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A short decision-making introduction to the key events of 1547-58 for A level students. |
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A role–play that brings people and decision–making off the page and helps students deepen their understanding. |
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Holy Box and the Altar Table – 16th century religious changes |
Create your own church interior – then change it, then change it again, then ... |
A decision-making activity for A level which introduces the key events of Elizabeth’s reign. |
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Jen Thornton’s structured drama provides a memorable overview of Elizabeth’s reign |
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Tell the story of the Armada by turning your pupils into ships and develop their understanding of causation and interpretations |
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A role play for A Level students who take the roles of the leading villagers of Deerhurst, dealing with the pressures put on them by Royalists and Parliamentarians |
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A timeline to develop a sense of duration |
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Jen Thornton’s structured drama introduces or summarises the key issues and events |
1700 – 1900
A role play that’s simply not fair – but very good for learning |
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Test your acting skills and get your students researching Chartism with renewed interest and purpose |
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Getting started with Italian Unification at A level. |
1900 & After
Walk your students through the map of Europe and make your decisions - then discover the grim reality |
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A role-play, by Mick Long, to develop students’ understandings of the political situation in Russia in 1921. |
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Sally Burnham demonstrates how these complex events can be readily assimilated. Chocolate biscuits an essential resource! |
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Help your A Level students get to grips with all those Weimar acronyms |
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Can your students buy a bar of chocolate before their money runs out? |
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An active overview of key events that creates more complex explanations |
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Ian Luff explains how to introduce students to Hitler’s rise to power and then build in complexity. |
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Were the politicians of the 1930s really blunderers? |
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This activity created by Martin Strawson demonstrates that fear of the Gestapo rather than numbers explains their effectiveness. |
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Make the Depression personal and enhance students' understanding |
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Turn a difficult topic into an enjoyable, effective and inspirational lesson |
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Will students risk trying to cross the Berlin Wall? |
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A gloriously simple way to make your students’ understanding far more sophisticated |