The Conquest of England
My double lesson focuses on the Conquest of England, in particular looking at the two main characters in the Battle of Hastings: William the Conqueror and Harold, Earl of Wessex. It fits into the NSW History K-10 Syllabus, Stage 4, Depth Study 4b: Medieval Europe. It deals with continuity and change in society in military and defence systems (ACDSEH051), as well as getting students to, using a range of sources, investigate and assess the role of significant medieval individuals, use sources to identify different perspectives on the chosen individuals, and discuss how Medieval Europe has influenced the world today (ACDSEH052).
I liked the idea of using a web-quest; however felt that despite utilising interesting activities, the task still felt like worksheet work, with scaffolded research. By using the PowerPoint medium students can still have the scaffolded learning, yet when finished have a presentation that they can show their family and peers to demonstrate what they have learned.
Each slide has a different activity for the student, such as a section for them to insert a picture that they have found, or a text box where they have to find the answer to a few questions. The task is heavily scaffolded, which comprehension questions, yet has the potential to allow the student to reach higher understand. Some links are provided for research, but students can do their own research as well. Similarly, basic slide transitions have been inserted, but the students are able to animate the slides to make the presentation more aesthetic.
These multiple activities mean that students undertake multiple literacies, as they look at English comprehension, History research, Geography, and specific ICT skills as they animate the show. The medium also means that it can be given to individual students, or worked on together as a class if they were particularly struggling.
Ideally though the lesson would involve splitting the class and getting half to work on one slideshow, and the rest on the other. By getting students invested into one side of the battle, it also promotes problematic knowledge as they decide who was in the right.
The lesson concludes with a short quiz to test knowledge, however the finished show that they produce will be able to be utilised at a later date, and acts as a short refresher for the content. The Kahoot page for the teacher can be found here https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/89feebac-95d9-4314-8c79-1c1487c8a0b0
Sources:
Maps:http://mapmaker.education.nationalgeographic.com/enhKVQkpJOGdoyxrxJQJHP/?edit=cQL1orlo32EOiwYZoAa9pj
Border 1: http://www.j-d.com/images/frame.png
Border 2: http://www.fontcraft.com/scriptorium/images/borders/
Border 3: http://www.clker.com/cliparts/a/n/C/3/E/Z/border-md.png
Border 4: http://www.christiannstpierre.com/images/bw/hmbrdrs.jpg
Bayeux Tapestry: http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/2/9/1360423664182/The-Bayeux-tapestry-011.jpg
Ship: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/76/01/b0/7601b0b8bfb4062ee917fc3284cf9622.jpg