GCSE History A: Do my students need to know everything in the textbook? How should I best use the textbooks?

Start by trying to answer the Key Questions using only the big picture outline on the first page of each chapter.

Then try to just enjoy the narrative – tell some of the story yourself, ask students to read sections and do the Focus Tasks as discussions, or not at all – ie just get them reading and then filling in relevant bits of the Key Questions.

Do the Review Tasks at the end of each section – it’s amazing how many people skip these as they are not ‘content’. St of these tasks involve going back over the various Key Questions and not going back to the book – powerful organising and memory tools.

In terms of exam prep focus attention on the significance questions. If you have thought about those the others are dead easy.