This lesson follows on well from the studies of individuals (see entire unit here). Students consider the big changes – transport, agriculture, smelting and so on – and try to link them together in a meaningful way. I have now added are some samples produced by my own students: Olivia | Hanif | Grace

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The full study unit covering the causes and the events of the French Revolution takes up to 15 hours. However, in this condensed study unit, designed to last about 7 hours, students will learn about the main causes of the French Revolution. The Three Estates System, the mistakes of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the role of Enlightenment Philosophers and the American Revolution are all covered.
The main outcomes are:

A news report, radio broadcast or video newsflash reporting (in a biased manner) about the Fall of the Bastille.
A flowchart designed to link the various causes together meaningfully; this can also be developed into an essay.
A decision-making exercise in which students are in role as members of the National Assembly and the Convention debating how to solve the problems of the country.
A full-scale roleplay activity (”Louis XVI on Trial”) in which the class will be divided into prosecution / defence teams, with three judges, a courtroom scribe and King Louis XVI (played by the teacher). Through thisthis courtroom trial, students will select appropriate evidence and defend its reliability, whilst their opponents will try to discredit it. In this way the students build up some excellent sourcework analysis skills.

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The full study unit covering the causes and the events of the French Revolution takes up to 15 hours. However, in this condensed study unit, designed to last about 7 hours, students will learn about the main causes of the French Revolution. The Three Estates System, the mistakes of King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, the role of Enlightenment Philosophers and the American Revolution are all covered.
The main outcomes are:

A news report, radio broadcast or video newsflash reporting (in a biased manner) about the Fall of the Bastille.
A flowchart designed to link the various causes together meaningfully; this can also be developed into an essay.
A decision-making exercise in which students are in role as members of the National Assembly and the Convention debating how to solve the problems of the country.
A full-scale roleplay activity (”Louis XVI on Trial”) in which the class will be divided into prosecution / defence teams, with three judges, a courtroom scribe and King Louis XVI (played by the teacher). Through thisthis courtroom trial, students will select appropriate evidence and defend its reliability, whilst their opponents will try to discredit it. In this way the students build up some excellent sourcework analysis skills.
An independent research project on another revolution in History to facilitate comparison and contrasts of different revolutions.

At the end of the unit (or later in the school year, as a revision exercise) students should play the Interactive Simulation and complete the worksheet that accompanies it

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• French Revolution Simulation now with highscore board

A QR-Code Treasure Hunt is a fun, simple way to get students using their mobile devices to continue learning outside of lesson time. Here’s how we set one up at the International School of Toulouse with some guidance on how to do the same with your own students using the QR Treasure Hunt Generator at ClassTools.net.

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A range of interactive quizzes to test understanding.

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Print off these 20 QR codes and put them up around your classroom / school. Students have to answer as many questions as they can in the time available. The completed answers can be used to develop their individual research project stemming from the interactive simulation.

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Students are presented with a long list of alternative names that have been used for the American Civil War. They organise these into suggested categories, compare their ideas with a partner, and then choose what they feel is the best alternative title.

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In this activity, students analyse the lyrics (and, if possible, listen to the music) of popular Confederate and Unionist songs from the civil war. They then have to produce their own civil war song to a civil-war era tune of their choice. Their objective is to produce a song which clearly explains the causes of the war. Finally, they look at the legacy of the civil war on American popular music, using examples from The Band, Elvis Presley, Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

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For this activity, organise the class 5 teams. Display the first event by clicking the button. All the students should copy this information into their worksheet. The first team can play for up to 10 points depending on their confidence. They have to not only identify the mistake in the account, but correct it. If they do so successfully, they gain the amount of points they played for. If they fail, they lose the same amount of points. Proceed to the second event, for the second team, and continue this format until all the slips are used. The winning team is the team with the most points.

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This unit is in the form of an ActiveHistory Mystery. Through a roleplay, stimulus images and information slips, students formulate questions, speculate answers, then research for themselves to produce a report which is then peer-assessed against a standard markscheme. The full investigation takes 2 hours of classroom time and at least another hour of individual research time.

If teachers wish to deliver this unit in less time, it is easy to do so. For example:
(a) Simply give each student a complete sheet of information slips from the outset to answer the questions;
(b) Don’t require students to produce a full written essay on the topic – instead, simply choose one of the Extension / Additional Activities listed below.

Discussion points to follow:
a. If you had to divide 100% of blame for the outbreak of the civil war between the slave states and the free states, what percentage would you allocate to each side? Explain your answer.
b. At what point did the civil war become inevitable? Explain your answer.

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In this multiplayer interactive simulation, you will take the role of an advisor to either President Davis, or President Lincoln. You will be given a series of military, economic and political problems to deal with. Your first objective is to choose the course of action which you think your President took in real life (his ‘approval rating’ of you will then stay high). Your second objective is to correctly answer the factual questions you are given as the game proceeds (your ‘factual knowledge’ score will then stay high). As you proceed through the simulation, complete the worksheet. At the end of the game there will be follow-up tasks. You can play as a Confederate, a Unionist, or against another player.

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60 song titles are shared between the class.
a. Locate the lyrics of the song titles you are given (e.g. using elyrics.net) and read them.
b. Decide which one song you like best overall from its lyrics.
c. Copy an extract from these lyrics into a shared Google Presentation like this one.
d. Embed a video of the song from YouTube and listen to it.
e. Place an “interesting fact” about the song and/or its writer into the “Did you know…?” box.
f. Vote on the most interesting songs as the basis of a “Best of…” CD.

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Students complete this worksheet following from the image, and then students in the class who researched musicians as their “Fakebook” project now feedback to the class with their findings by identifying the one most important event in their lives which illustrates their importance to the civil rights struggle. Everyone in the class uses this to continue developing their thematic timeline document.

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Students are presented with two famous images. What is going on in each one? This introduces to 1968 as a “Year of Tragedy” for the Civil Rights struggle and also makes use of this video file.

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Using this worksheet to help them, students conduct a “Head to Head” Interview with Martin Luther King Jr. to spot mistakes in an account of his life, then produce a newspaper report based on the extra questions they choose to ask him. There is also a completed teacher version available.

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