Medieval Holidays and Festivals
| Grade | Work Samples |
|---|---|
| End of Stage 4 (end of Year 8) | |
| Grade A | Ricky |
| Grade B | Bailey |
| Grade C | Courtney |
Description of activity
Students research some of the holidays and festivals of the Middle Ages and compare their relevance to medieval and modern Australian society.
- Students complete a note-making scaffold from their own research. A worksheet is provided for students to use.
- They make a comparison between a medieval holiday or festival and the same holiday or festival today.
- Students present their findings to the class in one of the following formats:
- PowerPoint
- poster presentation
- performance
- storyboard.
Note to teachers
A very useful printed publication is:
Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Medieval Holidays and Festivals: A Calendar of Celebrations,
Judy Piatkus (Publishers) Limited of London, 1984 (reprinted 1996).
If students are researching online, it would be advisable to guide them to a selection of reliable sites.
Context
Students have worked in groups to identify Australian public holidays and discussed what these holidays commemorate, how they are commemorated and whom they involve. Teacher has explained the origin of the word ‘holiday’ and the fact that in Medieval Europe there were far more holidays and festivals than there are today.
Areas for Assessment
Outcomes
A student:
4.8 locates, selects and organises relevant information from a number of sources, including ICT, to conduct basic historical research
4.10 selects and uses appropriate oral, written and other forms, including ICT, to communicate effectively about the past.
Criteria for assessing learning
Students will be assessed on their ability to:
- locate, select and organise relevant information from a number of sources
- compare the medieval and contemporary significance of a holiday or festival
- communicate their knowledge and understanding to the class.