Power & The People: What Was Magna Carta?

AQA GCSE history lesson for The Power & The People Thematic Unit. In this lesson we look at what Magna Carta was, the events preceding it and its significance.

We start with a picture source showing the signing of the charter, there is a challenge grid where the pupils can create a question and then answer it.

We start the main part of the lesson recapping the aggravations of the barons. We then look at the events immediately preceding the barons revolt against John. The pupils do a simple summarising activity and answer some questions on this. This sets up the meeting at Runnymede. We then look at 6 of the clauses. The pupils complete a worksheet with a number of activities, they translate into their own words, tick who the clause benefits and shade in King John a shade of angry. The pupils write a paragraph on which clause they feel made the barons happiest (and John the angriest). We then look at the significance of Magna Carta of the years and its impact. The pupils shade in the boxes to categorise the impacts as either short or long term. We finish with a GCSE practice question “Explain the significance of Magna Carta” with some guidance on how to answer it.

I hope that this saves you some valuable planning time.

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