DP History, ready to teach.

Across 30 lessons and five topics, this unit covers every focused study in the syllabus: climate and innovation, independence and identity, political and economic transitions, conflict and displacement, and protest and change. Schools choose one focused study and study both of its specified examples — all five are built out in full, so the choice is already covered whichever way a department goes.

Skills & assessment. The focused study is assessed by Paper 1, a source-based paper, so every lesson works directly with historical sources: establishing origin, purpose and content, weighing value and limitations, and building evidence-based arguments through the key concepts of causation, consequence, perspectives, continuity and change. Each lesson carries a student worksheet and full mark scheme.

Across 48 lessons and three topics, this unit covers conflict (from 750 CE onwards), authoritarian rule (from 1750 CE onwards), and popular movements (from 1750 CE onwards). Each is developed through sixteen lines of inquiry that carry students across periods and world regions rather than settling in one case study. Schools choose one thematic study; three of the syllabus's four are built. Innovation and transformation is not yet available.

Skills & assessment. Thematic studies are examined in Paper 2 Section B, which sets two questions on each study in parts (a) and (b). Lessons build the comparative reach that paper rewards — identifying patterns of causation, change and continuity across contexts and supporting them with precise examples drawn from more than one region. Every lesson includes a student worksheet and full mark scheme.

Across 168 HL-only lessons and seven regional studies, this unit covers two of the four world regions in depth. The Americas: the Great Depression in the Americas (c1920–1939), the Americas during the Cold War (1945–1991), social movements in the Americas (1945–2020), and political developments in the USA and Canada (1960–2020). Europe: the Russian Revolution (1855–1924), European totalitarianism (1918–1941), and Europe and the Second World War (1918–1949). Each study is taught across its specified content points rather than sampled. Africa and the Middle East, and Asia and Oceania, are not yet available.

Skills & assessment. HL students take one region and two studies within it, examined in Paper 3 — so a department choosing either region has more than the two studies it needs. Lessons build the sustained, evidenced argument that paper demands: multi-perspectival analysis, close attention to turning points and their consequences, and the ability to hold political, social and economic change together in a single account. Every lesson includes a student worksheet and full mark scheme.

Across 8 lessons and four topics, this unit treats each key concept as an object of study in its own right. Students examine how to identify, weigh, and communicate causes and consequences; how to assess the pace and nature of historical change while recognising continuity; how perspective shapes the production and interpretation of historical accounts; and how to evaluate criteria for historical significance. Lessons draw on examples from across the broader course to reinforce conceptual application.

Skills & assessment. This unit is directly preparatory for the analytical and evaluative demands of AO2–AO4. By making the key concepts explicit — rather than leaving them implicit in content teaching — students develop the metalanguage and disciplinary habits needed to construct well-structured, concept-led arguments in examination responses. Each lesson includes a lesson plan, student worksheet, and mark scheme.

Across 8 lessons and four topics, this unit develops the practical skills of historical inquiry: formulating and refining valid inquiry questions, identifying the origin, purpose, and content of primary and secondary sources and assessing their value and limitations, drawing comparisons and identifying causal links across contexts, and — for HL students — comparing competing historiographical perspectives and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of historical interpretations and arguments.

Skills & assessment. The skills taught here map directly onto the assessment objectives and the command terms students encounter across Papers 1–3 and the Internal Assessment. The two lessons on Evaluating Arguments are designated HL, reflecting the additional interpretive demands of the HL programme. Each lesson includes a lesson plan, student worksheet, and mark scheme.

This unit addresses the three core stages of the Historical Investigation: formulating a focused and historically valid research question on a chosen topic, gathering, selecting, and correctly referencing primary and secondary sources, and constructing an evidence-based argument in response to the inquiry question. Each lesson targets a distinct phase of the IA process, giving students clear procedural guidance grounded in the syllabus requirements.

Skills & assessment. The lessons develop the skills of source selection and referencing, argument construction, and the sustained application of perspectives — all criteria-referenced to the IA mark scheme. Teachers will find the accompanying lesson plans and mark schemes useful for structured feedback conversations and for preparing students to meet the demands of each assessment criterion with confidence.