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Medieval Identity: Teacher’s NotesEach year at the beginning of our Year 8 History course, I ask students to create a medieval identity. The identity is referred to across our depth studies on Medieval Europe and The Black Death. Students use the identity to answer questions, complete tasks, and as a basis for the major assignments.This has been useful for engagement and critical thinking as students are encouraged to make connections between their worlds and the world we are studying. This idea was inspired by the Society for Creative Anachronism (the SCA): a roleplaying society who are obsessive in creating historically accurate identities. If you’re curious, check out their website: and their links to research on the Middle Ages: : I limit the research students do to 14th century England purely so their identity could be a victim of the Black Death! Students at my school have their own laptops and internet access. Our students access the documents via our wireless network. However, I’ve tried to include ‘Printable’ versions where possible; and of course you could adapt to your needs.Within the first week I introduce the concept of feudalism :The PowerPoint I use is very popular and available here: I invite students to pull a ‘rank’ out of a hat (Medieval Identity Rank Cards).For your sanity, record which student gets which rank and what name they choose on the record sheet: students will forget!There is only one royal and a limited amount of clergy (monk/nun), nobility and knights. This provides a talking point about how approximately 5% of the population were the ‘ruling classes’ while the remainder were workers.Students then do the research to find the following (Medieval Identity Profile and Medieval Identity Research Links):An appropriate name for a 14th century Englishman or women of that rank.Note: In the past I have provided students with a document on common names in the 14th century which I have also included: Common Medieval English Names. I found this simplified the task of choosing a name.An occupationA family mottoA family crest or shieldEveryday life including clothing, housing, occupation, free time etc.Note:Depending on the class I might deliver content lessons on naming and heraldry, rather than leaving students to research it independently. Generally I deliver lessons on housing, occupation and clothing as part of our depth study, so students fill in those sections then.Strictly speaking only the nobility and royalty would have their own motto or crest but I find all students enjoy making their own, so that has become a major component of this task. I prefer to use online shield generators (such as the one on Mytribe) but if your students do not have internet access, then there are some really excellent heraldic shield design lessons available, for example: create an A4 (Letter) sized poster showing their information. In the past I have given students a template, just to keep the posters uniform (Medieval Identity Poster Template) though in the future I might encourage students to design their own.An example of the Profile Poster:The posters are then arranged on a pinboard in the Feudal Pyramid, to match the diagram from the Feudalism PowerPoint: of Medieval Identity Posters:King / QueenKing / QueenNobilityNobilityClergyClergyKnightsKnightsPeasants etc.Peasants etc.This display remains on the wall throughout the length of the Medieval Europe and Black Death depth studies and functions as a reminder of the Feudal system.I would then move on with our depth study on Medieval Europe.At the end of our depth study on Medieval Europe, students complete a major assignment: Medieval Identity Comparison. We We then commence the depth study on the Black Death. I have been busy upgrading this unit of work to put up on TPT.My Black Death depth study can be found starting here: the end of our depth study on the Black Death, students complete another major task: Black Death Diary Assignment, whereby they write a diary from the perspective of their medieval identity. Students enjoy this as it is creative and I encourage students to ‘coffee stain’ their paper to get a medieval effect.For the features of diaries and journals, see this great Prezi: for downloading a resource from Duffy Stirling’s Teaching Stuff.Visit my Blog: my Teachers Pay Teachers store: Feedback: duffystirling@ Australian Curriculum Links:Year 8 HistoryDEPTH STUDY 1 The Western and Islamic worldStudents investigate ONE of these societies/empires from the Western or Islamic world in depth: the Vikings or Medieval Europe or the Ottoman Empire or Renaissance Italy.DEPTH STUDY 3 Expanding contactsStudents investigate ONE of the following historical developments in depth to explore the interaction of societies in this period: the Mongol expansion or the Black Death in Africa, Asia and Europe or the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas.License: work is licensed under a?Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. ................
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