Role Play and Creative Writing on the Black Death/ Plague

Too often do year 7 arrive in my classroom having learned the basics of the 1664 plague at primary school and so thinking they already know about the 1348 plague as the symptoms were the same. This creative writing task and role play revitalises what can for some students be a surprisingly well trodden topic.

NB: Primary school teachers - this task is equally appropriate for KS2 when covering the 1664 plague, although I imagine you will want to add more structure to the writing task.

Melton Task: Students will write a short story detailing the events in the fictional village of Melton when the Plague arrives. The story will be in three distinct stages that are already prestructured for students: What happens when the Black Death reaches Melton, how the villagers respond and what happens to the survivors.

Melton Background - this is the beginning of the story, or the prelude. You can get students to read this, read it too them or do a 'knock and read' to keep students following along. (This is where you begin to read and circle the room, knock on the table of a student you want to read next, then keep walking and knocking so as many as possible get to read. the uncertainty of knowing who is next makes all students keep up with the reading in front of them.)

Melton Role Play - the second part of the play asks students to detail a discussion the villagers might have had in the village church when they knew what they were up against. This task allows students to role play in groups, you will want to prompt them to be finding solutions - what 'cures' were on offer? What did people believe caused the Black Death?

Finally students will write up their story, most likely they will do this for homework. There is great potential for you to use your own success criteria to generate a relatively painless level for this work.

Thanks to Paul Durnall who gave me these.