Lesson Plan
Subject – Russia depth study 1905-1945
Lesson title – The Bolsheviks (and Lenin) in Power: The Final Frontier
Lesson objective - Did the Bolsheviks succeed in keeping the people happy between 1917-1924?
Unit of study – GCSE Controlled Assessment Russia Depth Study 1905-1945
Teaching group – Year 11 (lower set)
Outcome - By the end of the lesson students will have further enhanced their paragraph writing skills, and learnt what the NEP was and War Communism. They will also have been given an overview of the time period 1905-1924 through the experience of the peasants, which is a task directly designed to prepare them for their controlled assessment question.
Intended learning outcomes
Substantantive knowledge – Recap on what the Bolsheviks did once they got into power
(Decrees, Treaty, Civil War and Red Terror) and new knowledge, War Communism and the NEP).
Syntactic skills – Paragraph writing (PEA’ing). Using sources to support points and source evaluation.
Differentiation (SEN and G&T) – There are a number of students in this lower set who are targeted A’s and who I hope may achieve A*. I have worked with those students over the past year and have given them very specific feedback in my marking for guidance. A few of these students have also been given A Level books and handouts to help stretch them further. No SEN students are in this lesson.
Assessment of students learning – No formal assessment completed during the lesson, but previous assessments have been completed. Observational assessment of students will be completed during the lesson.
Key question – Did the Bolsheviks succeed in keeping the people happy between 1917-1924?
Resources:
 Powerpoint presentation
 Muddled up model paragraphs
 Highlighters
 Sheets for students on War Communism and the NEP
 A4 sheet with Katalina the peasant on it
Episode 1: 5 Minutes – Register class, settle them and get them to write down the title and objective.
Episode 2: 10 Minutes – Starter activity is 2 model paragraphs which have been muddled up.
Students have to work out the correct order of them, stick them into their books in the correct order, then colour code them PEEA and underline the evaluation.
Episode 3: 5 Minutes – Recap from previous lesson of some of the key events that occurred after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Episode 4: 15 Minutes – Teach the students about the policy of War Communism and the subsequent policy of the NEP. Talk through the slides and then give students the handout on these two policies that summarise them clearly.
Episode 5: 20 Minutes – The final activity encourages students to get an overview of the period studied so far (1905-1924) through the eyes of a peasant. Teacher leaves the room and dresses up as a peasant. Students then have to complete an A4 sheet that summarises the peasants (Katalina) life from 1905-1924. This will involve them using previously acquired knowledge and also newly acquired knowledge from the lesson.
Episode 6: 5 Minutes - Homework is set and combined in with a plenary task, which is for the students to create their own A4 sheet, similar to the one on Katalina, but the focus is on the workers. They will need to use their knowledge, textbook and handouts given to help them find the information. Pack away and dismiss the class.