Certificate Generator

I’ve just finished coding a new Certificate Generator at www.classtools.net. Simply fill in the fields to get an editable certificate you can award to students.    

Printable Calendar of Historical Anniversaries 2017-2018

Printable Calendar of Historical Anniversaries 2017-2018! I’ve now finished work on my classroom calendar of notable anniversaries for the forthcoming school year, which you can download by following the link. I’ve also added a facility so you can search for your own alternative events too.

Diamond Diagrams for Prioritisation

Overview: Students produce or are given 9 pieces of information which they arrange in order in a diamond diagram. Examples: Arrange outcomes of the Treaty of Versailles from most successful to least successful; Arrange medieval jobs from highest status to lowest status; arrange historical figures from most significant to least significant. Taking it further: Students…

PieChart Prioritisation

At the end of a unit of study about causation, ask students to divide responsibility between factors in an Excel template which automatically converts the percentage splits into piecharts; thereafter they have to explain their reasoning. Here’s an example where students had to reflect upon WHO and WHAT was most responsible for the First World…

Causation Diagram Template

The following image comes from an old textbook, and illustrates the respective importance of long, mid and short-term factors in causing World War One. I created a ‘blanked out’ version which I provide to students at the end of a topic and ask them to decide what factors they would place in the various spots in the…

Students design a Hollywood Film about the study topic

A great way to get students familiar with the key events of a historical person’s life and consider concepts of significance. Stage 1: Start by outlining the central task  [themify_box style=”purple comment rounded” ] You are a Hollywood director producing a film about [person / topic]. You will produce a poster advertising your film, including: –…

Design a Cartoon

For a homework exercise, get students to design a political cartoon to illustrate one key aspect of the topic from either a negative or a positive perspective. No words allowed. In a subsequent lesson, the pictures are swapped around and each student answers the question “What is the message of this cartoon?” using the framework…

Silent Discussion

This is a great way of getting students to conduct some close reading of detailed sources. The lesson is framed around a key question for investigation (which could be about causes, consequences, significance…), and then carefully selected sources are placed at different points around the room. Students move between the sources in pairs, in silence, annotating and…

Source Evaluation Overlay Template

Overview: This template is designed to be placed over a written or visual source and provides a scaffolding framework to help students develop source work evaluations skills. Taking it further: Ask students to focus on the issues highlighted in the left-hand column first and make annotations as appropriate. Then they swap with a partner, read…

“Wheel of Life” Template

A simple, visual way to evaluate historical and literary characters from more than one perspective! Students choose a fictional or historical character to evaluate and write their name into the template. Decide on at least 4, but up to 8, ways to rate your historical/fictional character (e.g. loyalty, friendliness, intelligence, determination, tolerance – this is…