Learning objectives:

• To introduce pupils to the life and work of Elizabeth Fry.
• To enable pupils to start thinking beyond the Villainous Victorians stereotype of harsh and cruel Victorians.
• To help pupils deconstruct the interpretation presented in Villainous Victorians.
• To get pupils to think of useful questions to put to Fry.
• This will help consolidate and
  assess their understanding of her work.

 

Possible teaching objectives

• Find a female teacher or other adult to play Elizabeth Fry. She should be very familiar with her life and work and influence on contemporary attitudes. This will help reinforce the idea that not all Victorians were harsh. Indeed some, like Fry, were profoundly interested in reform and helping the underprivileged in society.
• Explain to pupils that they will be journalists at a press conference interviewing a famous Victorian. This lady called Elizabeth Fry will be taking questions from them about her life and work. This means they must be familiar with her since they don't want to look foolish. She is a very busy lady and we do not want to waste her time.

 

 

• Pupils to investigate BBC educational website (bbc.co.uk/famous people) about Elizabeth Fry which provides some useful material about her life. A link is listed in the resources column. Although it is aimed at Key Stage One pupils it can still be used to encourage pupils to think of the best three questions to ask Elizabeth Fry.
• Fry is then introduced to pupils who proceed to question her. This works best if chaired by another teacher or other adult.
• With an image of Elizabeth Fry, using ICT pupils should add speech bubbles around her and write in sentences to summarise her thinking. This will help reinforce Fry's views on the poor and criminal people of her day.
• Should pupils have studied the work of Shaftsbury or Dr Barnado, they can also be incorporated into this activity and all three characters' speech bubbles can be printed out for pupils to hold on to. This will prove useful for the final task.
• The pupils' secret envelopes can now be handed back to them. When they read what they wrote at the end of the first session, ask them whether their views of Victorians have remained the same, changed slightly or been completely revised.
• Ask them to explain why their view is the same, different etc.

 

Learning outcomes

• Pupils should have investigated the life and work of Elizabeth Fry.
• They will have discovered that some Victorians such as Fry, Shaftsbury and Barnado worked to improve the lives and conditions of the working poor and criminals in Britain during the Victorian period.
• They will have questioned why these individuals worked so tirelessly for reform.

Resources:

• Pupils' earlier
  statements in
  envelopes.
• BBC education
  website:
  www.bbc.co.uk/
  famouspeople