Great lesson on the reasons for the First Crusade which uses a Zone of Relevance activity to show students how to answer the question set, not the one they want to answer. This is followed by a critique of a KS3 diagram. Students have to find the elements that are missing that would make it a really good GCSE answer.
Explain that today we’re going to answer two important questions concerning the crusades
1. Why did Pope Urban II call for the First Crusade in 1095?
2. Given all the dangers, why did so many people join the crusade so enthusiastically?
Sometimes, in exams, students include material that should be used when answering the other question. It’s important that you answer the question that’s set and include only relevant information.
Step 1
To start with we’re going to answer Q1. Why did Pope Urban II call for the First Crusade in 1095? Rather than give students the answer, they have to work out as much as they can from Urban’s speech. Hand this sheet RS3 to students in pairs to analyse and annotate to discover as many reasons as they can.
Step 2
Slides 4 and 5 provide a summary
