Savour the Early Middle Ages: a six-week unit for 14-year-olds that tastes of oak-smoke, ink and stitched banners. Learning intentions: students will understand the transformation of Britain and northern Europe from the fall of Rome to 1066; they will interrogate primary and secondary sources, construct explanations of continuity and change, and evaluate historical significance.
Big inquiry question: How did societies in Britain and northern Europe change between AD 450 and 1066?
Week 1 — Setting the table: post‑Roman kingdoms and migration. Readings: D'Amato & Salimbeti; Johnson (Humanitas Book 1). Activities: timeline creation, map work, source starter using 'Asnapium' estate inventory.
Week 2 — Power and piety: the rise of kings, Christianisation and monastic life. Resources: Musée de Cluny, ecclesiastical extracts, Gladstone (theatre of power). Compare archaeological vs textual evidence.
Week 3 — Castles and lordship: fortifications, feudal relations and landscape. Resources: Alan Lee & David Day; Macaulay video. Practical: model a motte‑and‑bailey; source analysis of estate records.
Week 4 — Everyday tastes: economy, craft and gendered labour. Resources: Boults & Sullivan (landscape); Musée de Cluny embroidery. Inquiry: what does material culture whisper about ordinary lives?
Week 5 — Stories and memory: epic, romance and legend. Readings: Southern; Hardman; Pratchett for mythic framing. Task: compare Martin Guerre accounts (Davis & Lewis) to explore identity and testimony.
Week 6 — Crisis and climax: Vikings to 1066. Culminating assessment: creative source‑based project and analytical essay on continuity and change.
Assessment: two formative checks (source analysis, model‑making), one summative task — 800‑word essay OR multimedia exhibition (curation of 6 sources with annotations) assessed against rubric: evidence use, argument, contextual knowledge, source critique.
Differentiation: scaffolded source sheets, extension research pathways, multimodal options. Literacy/Numeracy: constructing timelines, quantitative interpretation of estate inventories, writing structured arguments.
Links to cross‑curriculum priorities: Indigenous perspectives on continuity; Civics — governance; STEM — engineering of castles.
Teacher resources: Johnson (Humanitas series), D'Amato & Salimbeti, Boults & Sullivan, Macaulay film, Medieval Sourcebook 'Asnapium', Metropolitan Museum resources.
Tone note for teaching: teach like you taste — slow, sensuous, delighting in details; allow pupils to savour a single textile’s stitch as much as a battle’s roar.
Assessment rubric: like a recipe — clarity of argument (30%), evidence and source use (30%), contextual understanding (20%), communication and creativity (20%). Classroom routines: short 'tasting' seminars, source 'tasting menus', gentle peer feedback, and a final 'feast' exhibition where students present their curated displays. Celebrate curiosity; feed it with rich primary sources and let their historical appetites grow. Savour history, teach with appetite.