Year-long plan for a 14-year-old: ACARA v9 — Medieval History to 1066.
Term 1 (8 weeks): Foundations. Study collapse of Rome, post‑Roman kingdoms, chronology skills. Readings: Junius Johnson (Humanitas), R. W. Southern, Asnapium inventory. Skills: timeline construction, source provenance, map work. Assessment: annotated timeline and source booklet.
Term 2 (8 weeks): Polities and power. Anglo‑Saxons, Franks, Charlemagne, kingship legends. Use Philip Hardman, D'Amato & Salimbeti, DK visual guide. Practical: castle form and landscape using Alan Lee, Boults, Macaulay video. Assessment: comparative source analysis (text + material).
Term 3 (8 weeks): Belief, law and daily life. Monasticism, law, gender and identity; case study Martin Guerre (Davis, Lewis). Use Metropolitan Museum resources and Musée de Cluny. Skills: historical empathy, interpretation of material culture. Assessment: structured essay on continuity and change.
Term 4 (8 weeks): Contact and conquest to 1066. Viking expansions, political causes of 1066, archaeological enquiry with Time Team specials. Culminating task: inquiry project — investigate a question, use primary/secondary sources, produce essay and creative presentation.
Pedagogy and assessment: Explicit instruction, weekly retrieval practice, source workshops, modelled writing, clear rubrics. Differentiation via scaffolded source packs, extension readings (Pratchett for science connections, Joy Hakim for Aristotle), and teacher guide materials (Humanitas, Curious Historian). Resources to consult: Silent Spring and Fumifugium for environmental context; National Geographic and Metropolitan Museum for visuals.
Classroom routine: short strict warm‑ups, 20 minutes focused teaching, evidence tasks, peer feedback, weekly homework, regular low‑stakes quizzes. Assessments are frequent: fortnightly source tasks, three major summative tasks (midyear source analysis, term 3 essay, end‑of‑year inquiry) with explicit A‑E criteria. Homework: 45 minutes three times weekly, reading and source work. Parents will be informed of progress every term. Teacher will model exemplar responses and insist on revision until mastery. No excuses. High standards.
Read the set texts; consult Time Team videos and DK visuals every week. Expect correction, redrafting, and improvement. You will work. You will read. You will produce.