Author: Russel Tarr

ClassTools Name Picker

Copy and paste a class list into this little application, then click a button to watch a “fruit machine” animation which will randomly spin the names until one is chosen at random. A nice way of selecting people to answer questions. Alternatively, put in a list of keywords and then teams have to correctly define…

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Make your own Flash quizzes!

I have developed the Quiz Maker at www.classtools.net so that you can now cut and paste questions and answers from a word processor very easily and, with the click of a button, create a Manic Miner / Wordshoot / Cannonball Fun / Matching Pairs game.

Medieval Realms: KeyWord Challenge

A new end of unit quiz for Year 7. Put students into teams of 4-5. The first member of the first team sits in the “hotseat” with their back to the interactive whiteboard. The teacher uses the “Random Word Picker” at www.classtools.net to choose and display a word at random on the interactive whiteboard. The…

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Origins of the Cold War – Cartoon Analysis

Analyse a series of cartoons by hovering over details and answering exam-style questions. When you have finished, the computer will provide you with a printout comparing your answer to a model answer. A great way to revise and develop sourcework skills.

Medieval Images of Heaven / Hell

A worksheet, with 5 interactive exercises to accompany it. Students will label different features of various “doom” paintings, then print them off for display purposes. In the worksheet, they will produce a medieval sermon trying to bring alive the sights, sounds and smells of hell from their investigations.

Origins of the Cold War

https://www.activehistory.co.uk/fling/quizzes/gcse_cold_war_origins/quiz.htm with several sets of questions.

Manchuria and Abyssinia – GCSE Cartoon Analysis

Analyse a series of cartoons by hovering over details and answering exam-style questions. When you have finished, the computer will provide you with a printout comparing your answer to a model answer. A great way to revise and develop sourcework skills.

Hitler’s Foreign Policy – GCSE Cartoon Analysis

Analyse a series of cartoons by hovering over details and answering exam-style questions. When you have finished, the computer will provide you with a printout comparing your answer to a model answer. A great way to revise and develop sourcework skills.

Nazi Germany – GCSE Cartoon Analysis

Analyse a series of cartoons by hovering over details and answering exam-style questions. When you have finished, the computer will provide you with a printout comparing your answer to a model answer. A great way to revise and develop sourcework skills.

Weimar Germany – GCSE Cartoon Analysis

Analyse a series of cartoons by hovering over details and answering exam-style questions. When you have finished, the computer will provide you with a printout comparing your answer to a model answer. A great way to revise and develop sourcework skills.

League in the 1920s – Cartoon Analysis

Analyse a series of cartoons by hovering over details and answering exam-style questions. When you have finished, the computer will provide you with a printout comparing your answer to a model answer. A great way to revise and develop sourcework skills.

Political Cartoons – The Versailles Peace Treaty

Analyse a series of cartoons by hovering over details and answering exam-style questions. When you have finished, the computer will provide you with a printout comparing your answer to a model answer. A great way to revise and develop sourcework skills.

Opposition in Nazi Germany

A new Fling the Teacher Quiz, designed to test factual knowledge of this GCSE Modern World History topic.

The Nazis and Propaganda

A new Fling the Teacher Quiz, designed to test factual knowledge of this GCSE Modern World History topic.

Nazi Treatment of Jews

A new Fling the Teacher Quiz, designed to test factual knowledge of this GCSE Modern World History topic.

Nazi Religious Policies

A new Fling the Teacher Quiz, designed to test factual knowledge of this GCSE Modern World History topic.

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Korean War Quiz

Korean War Fling the Teacher Quiz – 75 possible questions: I like to get all the students playing it simultaneously, and award 25 points for the first person to finish, 24 for the next, and so on; over the course of a few weeks you can build up a “Fling the Teacher Leaderboard” if you…

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Truman’s Dismissal of MacArthur

A new worksheet on the Cold War section of the website. Was Truman right to limit his policy of “rollback” in Korea, or should he have followed MacArthur’s advice to escalate the war at the risk of conflict with China and the USSR?

The Rise of Rasputin

For IB / A-Level historians. This worksheet develops student understanding of the personal weaknesses of the Tsar and the Tsarina but focuses most heavily on the damage done to the reputation of the regime by Gregory Rasputin, the “mad monk”.

The Korean War – Escalation

The Korean War – Escalation After a successful invasion at Inchon led by MacArther, should the USA settle with “Containment” of communism, or pursue “Rollback” of the communist threat? Students examine the sources and reach their judgements.

The Korean War – Background and Significance

The Korean War – Background and Significance In this activity, students consider the early events in the war, assess why the Korean War is historically significant, and reflect on the arguments for and against the involvement of the US and the UN.

Interactive Newsfeed – The Korean War

A new activity for IGCSE History (The Korean War). Students complete a timeline of events by furiously jotting down events presented to them in an interactive newsfeed.

The Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid

A new worksheet which introduces students to the concept of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid, and then encourages them to compare various cartoons to reach their own judgements.

Agricultural Reform under Peter Stolypin

For IB / A-Level historians. Agricultural Reform under Peter Stolypin: In a similar exercise to that relating to Witte’s policies for industry, students consider what has caused each problem that is listed, they then suggest what should be done to solve it, then compare this to what Stolypin actually did to form an overall asessment….

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Wall St. Crash Simulation

A completely new version of this popular interactive simulation, which now focuses much more heavily on the historical events of 1929 for GCSE Modern World History students. A new history worksheet is also provided with the game.

Interactive Newsfeed – Cold War Origins

Students use this interactive newsfeed activity to record the main events of the origins of the Cold War. They then produce a “chat show” dialogue between a communist and a capitalist using the events in a timeline that is provided; each speaker will have a biased interpretation. As an extension, students produce a “living graph”…

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Interactive Quizzes – Roots of the Cold War, 1914-45

End of Unit Test: The Roots of the Cold War, 1917-45 A 20-Question “Fill the Gaps” exercise which gives a handy one-sided summary of the main events up to 1945. Students should be encouraged to play one of the following games prior to completing the test – either as a homework exercise, or as “last…

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Korean War – IGCSE Cartoon Analysis

Analyse a series of IGCSE History level cartoons by hovering over details and answering exam-style questions. When you have finished, the computer will provide you with a printout comparing your answer to a model answer. A great way to revise and develop sourcework skills ready for the IGCSE History Examination!

Kolb Learning Cycle Generator

Using this template, Teachers are increasingly using accelerated learning, an approach to learning which builds on a range of learning styles. This template will help you plan lessons which address the issue of multiple intelligences. Kolb’s Learning Cycle: The learning cycle model, developed by David Kolb, identifies four stages in learning. Peter Honey and Alan…

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Living Graph Generator

This “Living Graph” template encourages students not only to select the most important events within a topic, but also to rate them against criteria such as success and failure, strength and weakness and so on.

Timeline Generator

This timeline generator is a great way of getting students to select and summarise key events across a defined period. This activity allows them to do this simply and effectively, and to colour-code the events if they choose to do so. They can also add a background image before printing off their work and /…

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The Significance of the 1905 Revolution

For IB / A-Level historians. What was the significance of the 1905 Revolution? Why did it fail? These are important questions to consider, especially given the tendency of examiners to ask why the 1917 Revolutions succeeded when the 1905 Revolution failed.

The Yalta Conference: Online Simulation!

An artificial intelligence simulation, complete with a worksheet: students choose whether to play as Churchill, Roosevelt or Stalin at the Yalta Conference of 1945, and then pit their wits against their opponents to achieve their objectives. Complete with a worksheet, this computer lesson runs itself and is a great way of learning about the personalities,…

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Stalin’s Foreign Policy

This worksheet covers the period 1917-39. Students use a detailed timeline to produce a biased account from firstly a communist, then a capitalist perspective.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In this lesson, students consider the ethical implications behind the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by reconstructing a scientific debate chaired by Farrington Daniels in 1945. Some excellent multimedia materials are available at the Atomic Archive.

Nicholas II: Industrial Developments

For IB / A-Level historians. A PowerPoint presentation with an accompanying worksheet. Teachers may wish to use this if they are pressed for time and so prefer to simply deliver a lecture with students taking notes. It’s less fun that the “Witte’s Dilemma” worksheet above, though!

Video Worksheet [2]: Who were the top suspects?

This worksheet accompanies the final 20 minutes of the video available from Amazon. In this part of the documentary, the top suspects are suggested and the video narrator offers his own view on who the murderer was. This is a stimulating way of following the classroom debate and usually provides some lively discussion.

Yalta and Potsam: How similar were they?

Students answer the key question, then the class is divided into groups representing USA, USSR, UK, Germany and Poland. Each person in the group needs to produce a biased news report about the outcomes of the two conferences.

Overview of the Reign of Tsar Nicholas II, 1894-1917

For IB / A-Level historians. Students now spend a lesson researching different aspects of the reign of Tsar Nicholas II. Each topic area has a brief introduction, and individual students take responsibility for reporting back to the class with their findings. This helps to break the topic up nicely before they start to look at…

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Yalta and Potsdam: What really happened?

In this exercise, students learn about what really happened at Yalta and decide who got the most out of the conference; they then compare this to the results of the Potsdam Conference.

The Yalta Conference: Classroom Role Play!

The class re-enacts the debates at Yalta by dividing into three groups and campaigning to get their voices heard on key issues. A great way of familiarising students with the differences of opinion between the Big 3.

The Yalta Conference: Photographs as evidence

Students compare several photographs of the Big Three at Yalta, and produce a newspaper headline to accompany each one highlighting how different pictures can create sharply differing impressions.

Roots of the Cold War: Events (Historical Differences)

Students produce a “chat show” dialogue between a communist and a capitalist using the events in a timeline that is provided; each speaker will have a biased interpretation. As an extension, students produce a “living graph” using www.classtools.net.

Cold War Timeline

Students start the topic with an introduction to what the Cold War was, and then they conduct their own research to produce an illustrated timeline of the main events using this cold war work sheet.

Why Appeasement?

A worksheet to accompany the classic history documentary from the BBC.

Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram

A fishbone template is an essay planning tool. Whereas the burger diagram encourages students to think in terms of introduction, three main sections and a conclusion, the fishbone approach involves selecting four main factors, then providing three key pieces of detail about each.

When, Why, How Should We Oppose?

Originally designed as a PSHE lesson for Year 11, this worksheet would also fit well into studies of opposition within Nazi Germany.

Life of Martin Luther – Hollywood Style!

The life of Martin Luther: Not strictly necessary, but it’s a great story – and in this activity, students use a timeline to produce a Hollywood Film Poster advertising a new blockbuster about the life of the Reformation giant. Focusing on the cast list, the film title and the key events of his life, it…

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The Causes of World War Two – GCSE History

A revamped and relaunched version of this popular interactive investigation for GCSE / IGCSE History. The investigation focuses on getting students to think about how factors link together, and the work sheet helps them to structure an essay.