Status, fashion and wealth in Elizabethan England

AQA GCSE 9-1 Elizabethan England, 1568-1603

The overarching aim of this and the subsequent bundle of lessons is to question and explore how Elizabeth asserted her authority and control in the second half of her reign.

In this lesson, students learn how much Elizabethan society was changing due to this increase in status, wealth and power.

The foundations of the Great Chain of Being were being shaken as there was a rise in status of the gentry class, making their money through land and trade and being given jobs of responsibility by the Queen such as JPs, MPs and Privy Councillors.

With this new money came the desire to build new houses and a case study of Hardwick Hall is used as an example of how to show off your wealth and power,
Students analyse how these new houses demonstrated that their inhabitants were cultured and fashionable people.

Students are shown the latest ideas from the BBC and have to analyse and colour code text before demonstrating their knowledge in a ‘how important’ GCSE practice question.

After completion they peer assess their answers to check they have included the correct evidence and answered the question properly rather than a given a narrative description which can be a common error.

The lesson is enquiry based with a key question using a lightbulb posed at the start of the lesson and revisited to show the progress of learning.

The resource includes suggested teaching strategies, retrieval practice, differentiated materials and comes in Powerpoint format if there is a wish to adapt and change.