Activities for A Level
This page lists all the activities that can be used with A level students.
Information
Not all the activities listed below were devised for teaching at A level and therefore will need adapting in detail and demand. That might lead you to wonder why they are here at all. The answer is that, allowing for those adaptations, the nature of the activity will work perfectly well with older students, at A level and at university. All students benefit from a variety of activities and many A level students gain a lot from structured role-plays, living graphs and the other techniques because they help build up a first layer of knowledge, enabling students then to go on and read with greater confidence and therefore more effectively.
One of the key messages of this site is:
A good teaching method is a good teaching method, no matter what the age of the students
So don’t reject an activity because it was originally devised for KS3. If it’s a good activity, based on sound teaching and learning principles, it will work at A level too.
General Techniques
An effective if unusual way of helping students improve essay structure. |
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Use your students to create a memorable timeline that will help them understand all kinds of issues of chronology (Added Jan 11) |
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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 motivating and fun way to start a topic – all the way from KS2 to A level |
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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 |
Ideas for helping students develop as learners in the historical Market Place. |
Medieval
The Battle of Hastings: Decisions on the Spur of the Moment? (Groan) |
Recreate the battle and help your students understand why the Normans won |
Rebellions, castle-building, changes in land ownership, Danish invasions, the Harrying of the North and William getting angry in French – c’est magnifique |
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Create a map of England, walk your pupils through key decisions and see how their chronicles match up to the real thing. (Don't forget the hair dryer!) |
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A physical, involving and very clear way into the nebulous business of assessing consequences. We're hanging out the consequences on a washing line! |
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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? |
1450 – 1700
A bundle for The Wars of the Roses at A Level – resources, additional activities and more |
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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 |
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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A card-sort demonstrating how to use the Enquiry Process to help students study more independently and with more confidence. (Added Aug 09) |
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This brief role-play explores why Burgundy helped Edward IV in 1471. |
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Create a living graph to show just how unlikely a king Henry Tudor really was |
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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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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 map, a whiteboard, a camera – and enhanced understanding of Warbeck’s travels |
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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 ... |
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 |
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 |
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. Added Dec. 09 |
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Were the politicians of the 1930s really blunderers? |
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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 |