Okay — picture me in my lawyer shoes, but instead of a courtroom I have a medieval village, a manuscript and a karaoke machine. Hi! I’m Ally McBeal, and we’re going to travel to the Middle Ages in a way that matches ACARA v9: we’ll use sources, compare perspectives, and practice historical thinking. Ready? Let’s sing, learn and investigate.
Step 1: Hook — story and song
Start with a short reading from Guest’s The Mabinogion: a magical tale to show what people remembered and wanted to celebrate. Ask: What feels true here? What feels like legend? This meets ACARA’s focus on using sources to explore the past and understanding perspectives.
Step 2: Meet the sources — primary and secondary
Bring out the Asnapium: An Inventory of One of Charlemagne’s Estates, c. 800. Read aloud some inventory lines (land, livestock, rents). Ask students to list what daily life required. Then compare with R. W. Southern’s 'From Epic to Romance' to see how stories and social ideals shifted. Use Natalie Zemon Davis and Janet Lewis (The Return / The Wife of Martin Guerre) to show how historians and novelists reconstruct lives — and where imagination fills gaps.
Step 3: Skills work — compare and question
Activity: evidence triangle. Put the Asnapium (economic record) at one corner, The Mabinogion (literary/legend) at another, and a modern secondary source (Eleanor Janega’s graphic history or the Disney Middle Ages overview) at the third. Ask students to identify what each source can and cannot tell us. This develops ACARA skills: assessing reliability, purpose, and usefulness.
Step 4: Big ideas — continuity and change, cause and effect
Use Southern’s essay to discuss how epic values shifted into romance — knights, courtly love, and new literary forms. Then compare to Japanese court life using Tale of Genji material to highlight that medieval societies were diverse. Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World helps with philosophical context: what did people value?
Step 5: Creative assessment
Student tasks (choose one):
- Write a diary entry as a teenager living on the Charlemagne estate (use Asnapium details).
- Stage a short mock trial based on the Martin Guerre story: who is telling the truth? Use sources to argue.
- Create a comic strip comparing a Disney scene and historical evidence, explaining differences.
Wrap up — reflection
Finish by asking: How do historians use different kinds of evidence? How do stories shape what we think about the past? Encourage students to read Natalie Zemon Davis alongside Janet Lewis to see fiction and history talk to each other, and to dip into Gladstone’s theatre history for medieval performance ideas.
There — we’ve analyzed documents, weighed perspectives, developed empathy, and even performed. I’d call that a win for ACARA v9 and a very entertaining medieval field trip. Now, who brought the gavel? (Or the lute?)