How successfully did Medieval castles adapt to the use of gunpowder?

This outstanding lesson looks at the arms race between castle builders and attackers to adapt to the use of gunpowder during the twilight of the Medieval period. The lesson begins with an engaging starter that challenges students to chronologically order changes in castle design or participate in a interactive snowballing activity with key words. Following a brief introduction featuring a source activity, students are equipped with a graphic organiser to effectively summarize the pivotal changes showcased in the subsequent five slides. This is consolidated through by the class feeding into blank copy of the summary sheet. Alternativey, we have provided a missing word version of the summary sheet in the extra resource section at the end. Once completed, you have the option to either set the class an extended writing task, which is supported with writing frames or skip straight to a continuum plenary.

The extra resources section contains a range of alternative tasks and slides including a heads and tails activity, missing words and a word search, so that you can easily customise the lesson for your students.

When you download this lesson, you will be able to access a 32 PowerPoint Presentation with aims, objectives, differentiated outcomes, historical sources, information slides, templates, writing frames, tasks and activities. We have also uploaded this resource as a PDF. Please see the detailed preview for more information.

The aims and objectives of this lesson are:

Theme: Medieval Castles
Know: Why did Medieval castles decline?
Understand: How did both attackers and defenders use gunpowder weapons at first?
Evaluate: How effective were these changes to castle design?
Skills: Cause, Consequence, Continuity and Change.

WILF – What Am I Looking For?
Can You Describe: Why many castles declined and became ruins?
Can You Explain: How both attackers and defenders used gunpowder weapons at first?
Can You Evaluate: How successfully did castle design adapt to the use of gunpowder?

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