North Sea Empire: Alfred/Knut/Emma or Normandy (AQA Migration History GCSE)

This lesson is part of the AQA History GCSE ‘Migration, Empires and the People’ module, specifically section 1: Conquered and Conquerors.

Lesson starts with a recap of what students can remember about Alfred the Great, before introducting Knut’s North Sea Empire. Main focus of the lesson is on the significance of Alfred, Knut and Emma of Normandy - mostly who was the most significant.

Main task is a card sort where students are provided with evidence that can be attributed one of the three historical figures. First they have to establish who each piece of information belongs to; once that’s done, they must stick them down - the highter to the top of the page they place them, the more significant they deem the piece of evidence. (Provided is a blank copy of the evidence, and a colour coded version to check the answers)

Following this, there is the plan for a significance question on Knut. This comes with a blank copy to fill in individually or as a group, and a filled in version for some ideas.

Finally, a chance for a written answer or group discussion which of the three (Alfred, Knut, Emma) they think was the most significant and why (When I’ve done this in the past, I’ve often ask them to stick a post-it on the board with their choice and reason)