Bravery Or Fidelity: Venn Diagram Creates A Quandary

Venn diagram creates a quandary Bravery or fidelity? A Venn diagram, asking them to compare Alfred the Great and Brian Boru, put Year 3 and Year 4 pupils in a quandary. Their task was to decide which king was the more worthy of having a saga composed about them.

English & Irish history for primary schools Being adapted for new hybrid GCSE The study unit is intended as a depth study within the Key Stage 2 History curriculum when studying the Vikings, addressing the key question: If you were a Viking, whose story would you choose to tell: Alfred the Great’s or Brian Boru’s?

Their choice of Brian Boru caused more than a little concern.

Click here for the study unit: http://members.aol.com/iis05/A_B_Study_Unit_A4_01.pdf Other resources: http://journals.aol.co.uk/iis04/BrianBoru

He was the more heroically swashbuckling, but they liked Alfred better.

Lessons 1. What makes a good story? 2. What impression do you get of Alfred & Brian? 3. How well did Alfred & Brian deal with the Vikings? 4. How important were the battles of Edington & Clontarf? 5. Eric Bloodaxe asks, whose story would make the better saga - Alfred's or Brian's?

Alfred was, they concluded, more trustworthy than Brian. Such was the outcome of an enjoyable and well-crafted five-lesson study-unit, outlined opposite.

Activities A series of activities compares how Alfred the Great and Brian Boru dealt with the Vikings who invaded England and Ireland. Using a Viking saga as initial stimulus material, the unit: • • • •

Ireland in Schools

encourages children to explore the past by looking at historical figures in context; leads children to consider what makes a fit and proper subject for a saga; provides an opportunity for them to present their work in a variety of formats, including an assembly; and offers scope for work in Literacy, such as examining kennings and constructing sagas and other narratives.

Birmingham Pilot Scheme BASS University of Bimingham http://iisresource.org

University of Northampton