This lesson introduces students to the second-order concept of significance, and gives them a chance to practise applying a set of significance criteria.
The focus is on the Black Death and the ‘Little Ice Age’. These two events had an undeniably devastating impact across medieval Europe.
After exploring ‘significance’ in connection with two key individuals who have been previously studied in the unit, students turn their attention to these ground-breaking events.
They use Ian Dawson’s criteria to begin judging the events’ significance, before a ‘tug-of-war’ activity sees them select evidence to help determine the ‘winning’ (i.e. most significant) of the two events.
Finally, they are in a position to reach well-substantiated conclusions in response to the enquiry question.
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- Lesson presentation: PowerPoint
- Lesson write-up: PDF
- Worksheets 1 – 3: PDF
