New Activity on the Thinking History Website: Decisions of a Kentish Villager, 1381

Ian Dawson has had this activity sitting in his in-box for too long but other things, like editing 97 A level books got in the way, so he is delighted to finally get this activity onto the site.

It was devised by Ian Luff and used with great success with his year 7s. Ian then kindly allowed me to fiddle with it and develop a few of the decisions so it now could more properly be described as a Luff-Dawson co-production.

The idea is that students take a series of decisions, building up points to improve their family's welfare - but will they hit the jackpot and win what they want from the young King Richard II or face defeat and misery if their journey to London all goes wrong?

See the activity: Decisions of a Kentish Villager in 1381

The activity exemplifies some of the issues I've discussed elsewhere on the site about possible aims for teaching about 1381 - yes, it a rattling good story but it's easy to underestimate the intelligence and good intentions of many of the original protesters.

See the discussion: Teaching about 1381