These free resources provide GCSE history teachers with an engaging and structured way to introduce students to the complexities of the American West (1835-1895).
Designed to encourage critical thinking, the materials explore the experiences of three key groups – Plains Indians, homesteaders/migrants, and cowboys/ranchers. This offers multiple perspectives on the period’s key events and conflicts.
The PowerPoint presentation sets the historical context. It traces the impact of European colonisation, US expansionism and the struggle for land and resources.
The presentation introduces essential terminology, such as ‘homesteader,’ ‘Plains Indian’ and ‘cattle rancher.’ It also includes interactive activities, prompting students to categorise and analyse historical events.
Tasks such as sorting event cards into thematic and chronological groups help students make connections between different experiences in the West.
Key American West events for GCSE history
The accompanying ‘Key Events’ document provides a timeline of significant moments. This includes the 1834 Indian Frontier Act, the 1848 California Gold Rush, the 1862 Pacific Railroad Act and the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.
This resource helps students recognise patterns of conflict and cooperation. They will also consider the long-term consequences of US policies on Native American communities and settlers.
By integrating source-based activities and discussion prompts, these materials encourage students to judge historical statements for accuracy.
Why use overviews in history?
Lecturer Richard McFahn explains the importance of the bigger picture when studying history…
I’ve been a fan of using big picture overviews for some time. ‘Scale switching’, as the American history education professor Bob Bain calls it, allows students to see the whole of what you’re teaching over a course. It provides perspective.
Curriculum theorist Mary Myatt argues that when students begin a new unit, they need to be able to see where it fits into the wider whole. That way, they can learn the particular by locating it in the general. Sound advice!
Others before her have previously criticised school history courses built around different teaching topics for providing pupils with a ‘bits and pieces’ knowledge of the past that ultimately adds up to very little.
But if we’re honest with ourselves, how often do you present your students with a big picture overview like this? Maybe once, at the beginning of the course?
Balancing overview and depth
This year I’ve been working with a group of teachers, helping them think more deeply about their history curriculum.
Over 50 of them kindly completed a questionnaire for me. Most agreed that it was important to get a good balance of overview and depth at KS3. Many also concurred that a key curriculum aim was to help students develop a ‘big picture’ view of the past.
Yet in practice, how often do you do this? I know that I’ve seldom seen big picture overview lessons being taught.
I also know that when analysing different departmental schemes of work as part of the same project, I’ve struggled to identify any big picture overview lessons that cover a certain time period, depth study or thematic study.
So why not take in the view? Help your students see that big picture of the past. Show your classes the whole picture of what you’re teaching, both before and after you dive into the depth. Doing so will give them a better sense of perspective and help to cement their learning.
How to create your own big picture overviews
- Remember that you should be able to work through your big picture framework quickly, within a one-hour lesson.
- You don’t have to cover all the details of the course in your overview; similar to a pencil sketch, concentrate on capturing the main features, then fill in the detail during later lessons.
- You can start new topics by presenting your ‘overview’, but it might be worth revisiting it mid-way through the unit and again at the end.
- Organise your overview around key themes that can be seen across the unit, rather than just a set of random events.
- Pictures from different stages of a specific period will give your students an accessible way to more fully appreciate the topic under discussion.
Richard McFahn is a lecturer in history education at the University of Sussex and a consultant.
