Was Henry VIII a good or bad king?

This KS3 unit of work should take around four lessons to complete. It includes the assessment for the unit on the Tudors. The Power Point leads students through all of the activities with accompanying resources.

Aims and Objectives:

• To learn some facts about Henry VIII and decide whether these make him a good or a bad king.
• To consider why we have different opinions about Henry VIII and how our sources aren’t completely reliable.
• To use (critically) a range of different types of sources to reach a reliable judgement on the key question.

The first lesson introduces the idea of source reliability by drawing inferences from the Holbein portrait and then considering two source samples- one which supports and another which contradicts the painting. Students are asked to consider why they are different. We then study the six wives of Henry, completing a cut and stick activity (wife to fate) and begin to make our notes on whether he was a good or bad king. The second lesson covers the break with Rome and then a card sort, adding further information to our good v. bad table. The extension activity asks students to use a range of resources to add to their notes. I used our class textbooks but also informatioin that I took from BBC schools. This is also a good homework task at this stage as it can be completd using the Internet. The third lesson is where there students prepare for the assessment using a collection of eight sources. An SEN version of the source sheets is also included. The fourth lesson is the assessment write-up. The students are asked to use both the sources and their own knowledge to present a balanced argument before reaching a final judgement. A mark scheme is included.