This task encapsulates the struggle between the Anglo-Saxons and the Vikings in an engaging way that really makes pupils think about the dynamics of the conflict – rather than ‘one damn event and treaty after another’.
By using a technique called living (or fortunes) graph, pupils have to work collaboratively to create and then analyse a visual representation of the struggle. By making the shape themselves they are far more likely to understand and remember it.
Learning objectives
- Pupils grasp that Vikings kept coming to Britain for almost 300 years first as raiders then as conquerors
- They can identify at least one period when the Vikings were successful and another when they were not.
- They understand the importance of the Danelaw as an area of Viking settlement. The most able can identify, analyse and explain 2 or 3 turning points in Viking fortunes.
Activity
The activity works like this. In 2s or 3s, pupils firstly arrange the event cards (which have been cut up into strips in advance of the lesson) into chronological order. Placing the long strips on their short end, 90 degrees to the table top. (NB. Copying sets onto different colour paper makes counting them back in
