Teachers' notes

This lesson is designed to develop students awareness of interpretations of King John's reign. The textual content is aimed at students working at levels 4-6 of the National Curriculum. Students should be encouraged to make use of the provided additional links which will take them to sites that offer more detailed and analytical overviews of John's reign. It is assumed that students have already acquired a knowledge of the events of John's reign.

Students are provided with simple statements about john's life and reign. These are followed by relatively easy activities. Upon completion of these tasks there are a range of options for students and/ or teachers to select from. In brief, these are:

Modeling an answer activity - aimed at students working at level 3, this activity helps students to structure their work by providing a framework within which they can work. Upon writing their answer students are asked to edit their work before moving on. The next page shows students a modeled answer, illustrating ways that the source material can be used to demonstrate two alternative interpretations of King John's reign. Teachers can then ask students to evaluate their own response, with the modeled answer providing a stimulus for this self evaluation. Alternatively students can be challenged to use the modeled answer as a stimulus for improvement of their answer: or indeed of the modeled answer which is intended to illustrate a good level four response.

Support Materials that teachers may wish to print out and hand out during this lessons are available:

Use of Microsoft Word to identify and use evidence in a Newspaper obituary. This activity is aimed at students working at levels 4 or 5. Students are provided with a range of sources that show King John in two very different lights. They must transfer the sources into a pre-prepared template that begins to report on the reign of King John. Students must then go on to write the editorial piece, which is to be an objective overview of his life and achievements. The templates are formatted in a manner that will allow students who are familiar with MS Word to allow them to reformat the work to their own tastes. Students less familiar with MS Word will be able to make use of the sheet in it's current format. Once completed, this work would be suitable for display purposes.

A Range of quizzes and games are also available should you wish to offer a more lighthearted opportunity in which students can demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.

All of the sources that are used in this activity are also available as a MS Word file to enable teachers to prepare classes for the activity in advance or to issue during the lesson. Students would benefit from having access to a wider range of sources if their study of John is to be further developed - I would recommend:

Contrasts and Connections, SHP core Text for Year 7. Published by John Murray.

This is History - King John. A KS 3 investigation into Medieval monarchy by Ian Dawson and Dale Banham. Published by John Murray.