1066: Contenders for the Throne

Welcome to my corner of the TES. These outstanding and popular resources span ‘two’ lessons and set the scene for the Norman Conquest by looking at the claims of the main contenders for the English Crown in 1066. They have been carefully designed to suit for the full ability range and are primarily aimed at Year 7, but could be easily adapted to suit older or younger students. The tasks and activities have been carefully refined over 26 years and are based upon the best practice for teaching this topic.

When you purchase these resources you will be able to download two Microsoft PowerPoints and an accompanying worksheet. The PowerPoints include all the starters, plenaries, activities, differentiated tasks, information slides and links to video clips that are necessary to accompany the worksheet. Lesson one looks at the claims of Harold Godwinson and Edgar, whilst lesson two looks at the claims of Harold Hardrada and William, Duke of Normandy. Both lessons, begin with a choice of starters, but lesson one also includes a brainstorming activity around what whats a good King? Both lessons include source analysis tasks which get students to access the respective claims, but lesson two also includes a summary table which can be used to help students structure their PEE’d paragraphs explaining who they think should be King.

I have included the preview files for the first lesson to give you a taste of the quality of these resources. Please note that the TES preview does sometimes ‘play around’ with how resources appear.

The aims and objectives for these lessons are:

Theme: Why was England invaded twice in 1066?
Know: Who were the contenders to the throne?
Understand: Why did each contender think that they should be King of England?
Evaluate: Who had the best claim?
Skills: Cause and Consequence, Source Analysis, Interpretation and Judgement.

WILF – What Am I Looking For?
Identify & describe: Who were the contenders to the throne?
Explain: Why did each contender think that they should be King of England?
Analyse: Who had the best claim?

Once all the tasks and activities have been completed, this final outcomes or extended writing exercise on ‘Who should be king?’ could be used as an assessment task to help check progress and decide upon setting. These lessons can also be purchased as a bundled item called ‘The Norman Conquest Scheme of Work with resources.’