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

Helping Students Think about the Provenance of Sources	A couple of ideas putting analysis of the source before what it says.
Helping students learn and remember Who’s Who	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.
Twitter Biographies	A twitter-style activity requiring clarity of thought and precision of language and which helps sort out confidence-sapping confusions.
Physical Essays	An effective if unusual way of helping students improve essay structure.
Outlining Historiography at A Level	Create a timeline showing why interpretations change
Timelines for Understanding Duration	Simple techniques for developing a key aspect of chronological understanding
Who's Round the Table?	Help your A level students remember who was who
Comparative Lifetimes	A group activity for comparing periods of history – good for KS2 and KS3 – good for A level synoptic understanding.
Physical Family Trees	Ever confused Mary Tudor and Mary, Queen of Scots? A simple way of disentangling the Marys and many other confusing people.
What's on the Agenda?	Get your next A level topic off to a demanding start by turning your class into the royal council, the cabinet or the Politburo.
Guess Who? Post it!	A gloriously simple idea for use from KS2 to A level, as a lesson starter or to conclude a whole Key Stage
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.
Are All History Books the Same?	Helping students identify different types of history books (Updated 2019).

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c.1000 – 1450

The Impact of the Normans: A Character Cards Activity	Students use information about a wide range of Saxons and Normans to explore the extent of the impact of 1066
Getting Started with The Crusades	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.
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
King John in the Hot Seat	A hot-seating activity that can be used at KS3 or extended for use at A Level. RADA qualifications not required!
King John; The Decision–Making Game	Can your students do better than King John or will they lose their crowns?
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
Hundred Years War Sources	A collection of sources on events 1415 to 1453 for use in A level courses and for independent studies (on the HA Site)

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1450 – 1700

Battle cards, tweets and mini-sagas	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.
Anne Herbert: A Life in the Wars of the Roses	An introduction to the people and events of 1450-1485 for A level students
The Wars of the Roses - More Resources	A bundle for The Wars of the Roses at A Level – resources, additional activities and more
Wars of the Roses Sources (HA site)	A discussion for A level students exploring the nature of late medieval sources and summarising their contextual backgrounds (on the HA site).
Wars of the Roses ‘Who’s Who’ (HA site)	Activities with a lengthy set of mini-biographies of key figures for A level students (on the HA Site).
The Wars of the Roses – a light-hearted outline!	A structured role-play covering 1450-1487, intended as an introductory activity for A level students.
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
Using articles on the 1450s with students	Two activities and articles provided by Helen Snelson that she’s used with her A level students.
Feuds and Alliances: 1452–1455	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.
The beginnings of the Wars of the Roses: 1452–1455	A role–play introduction to the people and events for A level and above
Understanding the Pattern of Events 1455–1461	Three brief activities exploring the pattern of events between 1455 and 1461
Understanding the links between nobles and gentry	An activity from Helen Snelson who teaches in York which helps students understand the links between and pressures on gentry and nobles around 1460.
The Fishpool Hoard: Evidence of Lancastrian Resistance 1461-4?	A puzzle from the 1460s – why was this large collection of coins and jewellery buried?
1471: Why did Edward IV win the crown back?	A card-sort demonstrating how to use the Enquiry Process to help students study more independently and with more confidence.
Why did Burgundy help Edward IV win back his crown in 1471?	This brief role-play explores why Burgundy helped Edward IV in 1471.
Richard III and the problem of how to secure the south	A case-study for A level students examining Richard’s options and decisions in the wake of the 1483 rebellion.
Four activities for A level on Richard III	Resources created by Andrew Wallace to help students deepen their understanding and knowledge of the events of 1483.
Henry VII and the Early Tudors	Valuable reading including a very helpful review essay summarising changing interpretations of Henry VII and much else.
Henry VII Survival Game	A decision-making activity which introduces the key events of Henry’s reign
Henry Tudor's Road to the Throne	Create a living graph to show just how unlikely a king Henry Tudor really was
Ryther Hoard & Lambert Simnel	An intriguing find and a possible introduction to reading about the 1487 rebellion
Henry VII's Use of Bonds	You play the part of Henry VII and your students are the nobles - how will they feel about bonds?
Henry VII: Diligent bureaucrat or paranoid blunderer?	A brief update on recent interpretations (which appeared in Teaching History, 118, March 2005).
Henry VII: Out of the shadows?	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).
Henry VIII – the Glory Trail?	A decision-making activity for use as an introduction or conclusion and revision at A level.
Henry VIII, Wolsey and Europe 1509-1529	Turn your room into a map of Europe and chart Henry's road to glory – or failure
Henry VIII & his Wives – which Queen lasted longest?	A timeline to develop a sense of duration
Martin Luther and the Road to Worms	A play by Mark Fowle to help his A level students deepen their knowledge.
William Cecil’s Dilemmas 1547-1558	A short decision-making introduction to the key events of 1547-58 for A level students.
Kett’s Rebellion – what happened and why?	A role–play that brings people and decision–making off the page and helps students deepen their understanding.
Holy Box and the Altar Table – 16th century religious changes	Create your own church interior – then change it, then change it again, then ...
Elizabeth I – Survival Game	A decision-making activity for A level which introduces the key events of Elizabeth’s reign.
The reign of Elizabeth I: A Scripted Drama	Jen Thornton’s structured drama provides a memorable overview of Elizabeth’s reign
Why did the Armada fail?	Tell the story of the Armada by turning your pupils into ships and develop their understanding of causation and interpretations
Civil War comes to Deerhurst	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
Will you have finished school before Charles I is executed?	A timeline to develop a sense of duration
1646-9: Who was the blame for the execution of the King?	Jen Thornton’s structured drama introduces or summarises the key issues and events

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1700 – 1900

Pre–1832 Election Game	A role play that’s simply not fair – but very good for learning
Shall we join the Chartists?	Test your acting skills and get your students researching Chartism with renewed interest and purpose
Which one is Piedmont again, Sir?	Getting started with Italian Unification at A level. A physical map activity helping students make sense of all those different states and the story of unification.

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1900 & After

Failure of the Schlieffen Plan	Walk your students through the map of Europe and make your decisions - then discover the grim reality
Should we support the Bolsheviks – 1921	A role-play, by Mick Long, to develop students’ understandings of the political situation in Russia in 1921.
Stalin, Trotsky & the struggle for power after Lenin	Sally Burnham demonstrates how these complex events can be readily assimilated. Chocolate biscuits an essential resource!
Weimar Republic Party Games	Help your A Level students get to grips with all those Weimar acronyms
Hyperinflation Crisis in Germany	Can your students buy a bar of chocolate before their money runs out?
Germany 1918–1939; Living Timeline	An active overview of key events that creates more complex explanations
Reichstag 1932-1933: How did Hitler finally gain power?	Ian Luff explains how to introduce students to Hitler’s rise to power and then build in complexity.
Rhineland Occupation Game	Were the politicians of the 1930s really blunderers?
Eye Spy Gestapo	This activity created by Martin Strawson demonstrates that fear of the Gestapo rather than numbers explains their effectiveness.
Role-playing Unemployment in the 1930s	Make the Depression personal and enhance students' understanding
Re-packaging the Alphabet Agencies and the New Deal	Turn a difficult topic into an enjoyable, effective and inspirational lesson
Shall we escape to the West?	Will students risk trying to cross the Berlin Wall? A practical activity that really improves discussion, thinking and understanding.
The Cuban Missile Crisis	A gloriously simple way to make your students’ understanding far more sophisticated