The Middle Ages (Honors) – 0910

Vocabulary: chivalry; communal; endemic; epidemic; fief; illuminated text; knight; lord; manor; monk; peasant; pogrom; serf; subsistence agriculture; vassal

9/9 – Class intro, honors intro, self-evaluation – (45 min)

* Introduce self, class title, basic class rules. – 5 minutes

* Explain the “Skills Self-evaluation” and have them take it. Put a version of what I expect and what I would have said on the overhead. Discuss class expectations. Have them write what grade they expect to get an why on the back of the sheet. Collect it. (Take roll off of these.) – 20 minutes

* Hand out the class expectation sheets. Warn them that the slips at the bottom of the class expectation sheets must be back by Friday or they will lose extra credit. – 5 minutes

* Hand out the parent permission slip for Bloody Sunday and explain to get it back ASAP. – 5 minutes

* Assign (due Friday): Write a one-page letter to me. Who are you? – 3 minutes

* Materials – Class expectation sheets; Bloody Sunday permission slip; “Skills Self-evaluation”

9/10 – Intro the Middle Ages, Determinism – (50 min)

* Remind students of the extra credit, the permission slip, and the expectation sheet slip. Warn them to get the vocab list off the web. Warn that the vocab will be quizzed with the test. Tour the web site on the overhead projector. – 15 minutes

* Brainstorm what things cause history to happen in particular ways. Very quick speech on determinism. Discuss all the things that might "determine" history (history is not an accident) (Get a brainstormed list of determinants. Make sure to get the basic list: economic, ecological, gender, racial-ethnic, great man, religious, tradition, intellectual/cultural, political.) - 25 minutes

-Determine: to cause, affect, or control; fix or decide causally or to give direction or tendency to; push.

-Determinism: Something in history which determines (shapes) the flow of events.

* Draw the hierarchy of feudalism on the board (kings to serfs) and discuss the ideas of Lord, Vassal, Serf, and Fief. Do the "who pays for a bridge" thing. (Shows the loss of money and the failure to communicate orders over the system.) – 10 minutes

9/11 – Feudalism – (50 min)

* Collect the letters from them.

* Have the students take out a sheet of paper and write a description of what life was like for each of the following people:

1. A commoner who works the land

2. The wife of a blacksmith

3. A knight (baron or duke)

Discuss what they wrote. Why did they think what they did? – 20 minutes

* Have my lame-o drawing of the manor up on the board. Discuss what it all means and what it would have been like to live there. Focus on self-sufficiency. – 20 minutes

* Do the layered and sub-divided map of an ideal feudal kingdom. Discuss how land can have more than one "owner." – 5 minutes

* Hand out “The Villager’s Way of Life” and the question packet. It is due on Monday September 14th. – 5 minutes

* Materials – “The Villager’s Way of Life” and questions packet.

9/14 – The Early Middle Ages – (50 min)

* Collect the homework. Discuss. 8 minutes

* Graded Lecture: “Economics and Politics of the Middle Ages” Take time beforehand to discuss how to take notes. Put the notes up and discuss afterwards. – 35 minutes

* Put the outline map of Europe up on the board and have them come up one by one and fill out something or another about what they know about the geography of Europe. – 7 minutes

9/15 or 9/16 – From Manor to City, Middle Ages Geography, and Art of Illuminated Texts – (80 min)

* Lecture: “From Manor to City.” – 20 minutes

* Map of Feudal Europe. Hand out the maps and have them fill them in. – 25 minutes

* Check out the textbooks while they are doing the map. Hand out the worksheet on the plague section, due on Wednesday or Thursday.

* Slide Show: "Illuminated Texts" – 30 minutes

* Assign their own illuminated text as extra credit due on Monday 9/21. – 5 minutes

* Materials – Feudal Europe Map; Slide show on illuminated texts; plague chapter worksheet.

9/16 or 9/17 – Women in the Middle Ages and the Plague – (80 min)

* Discuss the role of women and whether it is important to study. What is important to study? – 10 minutes

* Watch Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives: The Damsel and do the worksheet. – 35 minutes

* Collect the plague homework.

* Do a quick gloss of what the plague is and how it works. – 10 minutes

* Hand out the "Early Account of the Black Death." Read and discuss. – 20 minutes

* Warn that there will be a unit test on Monday. Explain what will be on it. – 5 minutes

* Materials – Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives: The Damsel and worksheet; "An Early Account of the Black Death;" “Confession of Agimet”

9/18 – Jews and the Plague – (50 min)

* Hand out the history of the Jews in Europe from “The World Must Know” and have them read it silently. – 15 minutes

* Hand out the "Jewish History Sourcebook: The Black Death and the Jews." Read and discuss. – 20 minutes

* Quick-write: Had you been Jewish in one of the pogrom described, how would you have reacted had you seen an angry mob of Christians marching down your street to your home and family? What would you have done? – 10 minutes

* Hand out the weekend homework, the worksheet for “Feudalism, Manorialism, and the Church.” Warn that there will be a unit test on Monday. Explain what will be on it. – 5 minutes

* Materials - "An Early Account of the Black Death," Euro history section from “The World Must Know;” Worksheet for “Feudalism, Manorialism, and the Church”

9/21 – Middle Ages Unit Test – (50 min)

* Collect the homework.

* Remind them again what determinism means. Go over the key ones with definitions on the board. – 10 minutes

* Unit Test – 40 minutes

* Materials – Unit test

9/22 or 9/23 – Bloody Sunday – (80 min)

* Hand out the readings on Bloody Sunday and read by turns out loud. Discuss as we go along. When finished, talk about how to make the movie. How would it look? Who would be the heroes? Who would be the narrator? Etc. – 40 minutes

* Start the film. – 40 minutes

* Materials – Bloody Sunday DVD, readings on Northern Ireland

9/23 or 9/24 – Bloody Sunday – (80 min)

* Finish the film. Use any remaining time to discuss. – 80 minutes

* Materials – Bloody Sunday DVD, readings on Northern Ireland

9/25 – The Problems of History – (50 min)

* Discuss Bloody Sunday in small groups, numbered off. Prepare to report out: Who or what started it? Who were the heroes? Who was at fault? Was the film well-made and believable? Report out after 20 minutes of talking. – 40 minutes

* General discussion of the film. Historian pontificates. – 10 minutes