This is a really fun lesson which shows children what is meant by historical interpretations in an engaging and accessible way. It appeals to both visual and kinaesthetic learners by using the police line-up approach.
The use of an interactive timeline always succeeds in helping pupils to understand how and why we have particular images of iconic figures such as Henry VIII.
Learning objectives
- Pupils are able to test the validity of paintings of Henry VIII by comparing them with what they already know of Henry;
- they are able to compare various interpretations and can select the most likely one to be Henry using specific criteria;
- they can explain why textbooks tend to include particular images of Henry VIII at the expense of others.
NB You will need to provide yourself with 6 or 7 images of Henry VIII.
7 have been provided on the accompanying PowerPoint presentation but they are small and low resolution. You can simply carry out a Google image search for these. Make sure they are sufficiently different. You will need one in old age, one or two in his early years as monarch, some showing him as a learned scholar or musician and then two
