WHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE THAT HE WAS GOOD OR BAD?
Now they are going to look at some contemporary medieval sources (Balance Appendix i contemporay sources.docx). Tell the students that the story of the reign of King John has been heavily influenced by what was written around the time he lived. They should read the extracts below and highlight all the negative things that are said about him in one colour, and the positive things in another.
Recording activity
Get the students to think back to the first exercise when you checked how balanced or reliable a modern day source was. Use the same questions to check the reliability of the sources about King John:
1. Who are they? Do they have any reasons do dislike King John?
2. Why did they write this source? Did they want to make John look bad? Are they trying to be balanced?
3. When did they write the source? Was it during John’s reign or after? Did they know him, or people who knew him? Did they witness any of the events they talk about?
4. What is its content like? Is it mainly factual information or opinions? Does the language chosen indicate that author disliked King John?
Students should discuss the questions for each source in pairs and then write an explanation of how reliable they think each source is. They could use the following phrases to help them:
Source A is…
· Totally trustworthy and reliable because…
· Very reliable because…However, you do have to be a little bit careful in trusting it because…
· Quite reliable because… However, you do have to be careful in trusting it because…
· Mainly unreliable because…Although, it has some good points…
· Totally unreliable…
The lesson could be ended by asking the students how fair and balanced they think the popular view of King John is. Is it very fair, quite fair, unfair or very unfair? They could show their opinions with a show of hands, ready-made banners of different colours to wave or by standing in a certain part of the room. They could then be asked to explain their thinking.
Recording activity
Get the students to think back to the first exercise when you checked how balanced or reliable a modern day source was. Use the same questions to check the reliability of the sources about King John:
1. Who are they? Do they have any reasons do dislike King John?
2. Why did they write this source? Did they want to make John look bad? Are they trying to be balanced?
3. When did they write the source? Was it during John’s reign or after? Did they know him, or people who knew him? Did they witness any of the events they talk about?
4. What is its content like? Is it mainly factual information or opinions? Does the language chosen indicate that author disliked King John?
Students should discuss the questions for each source in pairs and then write an explanation of how reliable they think each source is. They could use the following phrases to help them:
Source A is…
· Totally trustworthy and reliable because…
· Very reliable because…However, you do have to be a little bit careful in trusting it because…
· Quite reliable because… However, you do have to be careful in trusting it because…
· Mainly unreliable because…Although, it has some good points…
· Totally unreliable…
The lesson could be ended by asking the students how fair and balanced they think the popular view of King John is. Is it very fair, quite fair, unfair or very unfair? They could show their opinions with a show of hands, ready-made banners of different colours to wave or by standing in a certain part of the room. They could then be asked to explain their thinking.