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 when the Vikings landed in 865 there were 4 Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. 200 yrs later just one England. There were also separate Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
- They can recount key episodes in the struggle and can identify at least one turning point in Saxon fortunes.
- They can explain what is meant by the Danelaw.
- Pupils know that around 955 the kingdom of England was formed but that it was still faced with opposition. By 1016 Vikings back in control briefly under Cnut, before Edward Confessor took over. And then came 1066.
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
