002 - Research

What is Historical Fiction?

• It is a story set in the past - we are focusing on the medieval period
• It deals with historical themes (war, daily life, disease, death, worship (Christendom and Islam), society, economy, and politics)
• It allows emotional and psychological engagement with the past (putting ourselves in other people’s shoes in times past and imaging living their lives as lived over a particular period of time);
• It can describe what happened at a key event e.g. a battle
• It describes also what might have happened - it works in the gaps of history
• It deals with known historical figures and great events (e.g. The Battle of Hastings of 1066, the Black Death pandemic of 1347-53, the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381)
• It deals with ordinary people in ordinary historical situations (peasants, merchants, Reeves, priests, bishops, knights, noblemen and women)

1. Watch the youtube clip below and write in the padlet questions you would have needed to answer to get the historical accuracy of the films.

What makes a good story?

Thank you for this Mrs. Davison. I have colour coded what we will focus on in I&S and what you will focus on in English. This is to help make sure the subjects don't overlap too much. Remember in I&S you are researching the historical setting and facts for your story.

• I&S = Green
• English = Red

Activity - Research

In Individuals and Societies, we will be using MindMeister to record your questions and research for your story. To find out how to use MindMeister read the article below. A template for your MindMeister has been shared below. Once you have signed into MindMeister you will need to upload the link shared with you. The template will help you to think about what questions you will need to ask yourself before you begin even researching for your story.

Using Mindmeister by Richard Allaway at integrateth.is

Historical Fiction IDU Research and Planning Document by Ellena Mart

Useful Resources

It is always good to share resources and we will fill in the table below as a group. Just send your teacher an email with a link to the useful resource and it will be added to the table below. You don't have to stick to just those headings though.