World War 2

The aim of this lesson is to question whether the breaking of the Enigma Code led to Britain winning World War 2.

Having watched the ‘Imitation Game,’ I was fascinated to learn more about the story of Alan Turing and the injustice he received at the hands of the British Government.

I was therefore inspired to write this lesson for my department especially after his contribution to the war effort and his brilliant mind.

The first task naturally is for students to crack the code and find out what they will be learning about in the lesson.

They will also learn about the significance of Bletchley Park and how the code for the Enigma Machine was deciphered by Turing and his team in Hut 8, using a missing word activity.

A thinking quilt will also test and challenge their understanding of his early life, his work during the war as well as his legacy.

There are some excellent video links using the bbc website and an exert from the film above.

The plenary will finally test their understanding of the lesson, using a true and false quiz as well as images to link to the key ideas of the lesson.

The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited throughout to show the progress of learning.

The resource includes retrieval practice activities, suggested teaching strategies and differentiated materials, and comes in PowerPoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.