Chapters:

1.   1066

2.   A Villeins's Life

3.   Church

4.   Government

5.   War

6.   A Changing World

 

 

A Note from the Author

When I started teaching in the 1970s, there was no National Curriculum.  Teachers in those days had to design their own syllabus, and design their own lessons – so everything that follows was developed and tested and refined in my History classroom.  In the 1990s, after twenty years of teaching, I got the chance to publish my developed Scheme of Work as four textbooks in the 'Options in History' series.  It was well-received, had some wonderful illustrations and (I hope) teaching ideas, and I like to think it was in some respects ground-breaking.

Eventually, of course, it went out of print, whereupon copyright reverted to me ... so I have decided to put it online for anybody who wants it.  This is Book One of the series, so please bear with me as I work through scanning the rest onto the website in the coming months.

Each webpage represents a lesson, and has a worksheet of work attached (just click on the 'Time to Work' icon at the top of any page).  History teachers with access to a computer room will be able to use it to deliver online lessons.  Alternatively, they will be able to set webpages for online homeworks.  The site will be of particular use to homeschoolers. 

Time moves on, and we demand more from a Scheme of Work nowadays – it will not be possible for teachers simply to adopt this as a ready-made course of study.  There are no overview 'Big Picture' lessons, there are no topics from the wider world (so if you are a homeschooler, you will need to do an additional international topic such as the Islamic Empire), and we place more emphasis nowadays on Interpretations – for which I recommend the BBC Bitesize Key Stage 3 website).  Also, unlike the lessons which accompanied the original series, the work suggestions are not differentiated; a lot of the source materials are visual, but poor readers will need help even so.

Nevertheless, whether you are a student or a teacher, I trust that you will find the materials interesting and engaging.  This course trained many students, some of whom went on to be History Graduates and even History teachers, so I can say with a surety that the lessons that follow will teach you how to be an historian!