Black Death Wordsearch : Clues!

By the end of the lesson we should know… What people thought caused the Black Death in Medieval Europe. By the end of the lesson we should have proved… By the end of the lesson we should have developed… Skills in Persuasive speech writing that we can use in other subjects. We can empathise with people in different situations.

Black Death Crisis… In your groups of 3-4 you are going to be given a task to prepare a brief speech on what you think caused the Plague and what your village should do to stop it. You are going to be given a task sheet to follow and you need to persuade everyone that your view is right. Remember- it’s a life or death situation!

The skills you are going to develop are… Working together as a team Source analysis Empathy Time management Active listening English speaking skills such as describing, narrating, explaining, arguing, entertaining and persuading These are level 6 skills!!! But how do I persuade the rest of the class of my opinion?

With the person sitting next to you… Try and write down as many features of persuasive writing that you can remember from your English and History lessons Remember, this is a speech so you should think about how you move and speak also Ooh, now that is a hard task…I wonder if everyone will be able to do it?!

Two minutes to go! Can you finish before the jar fills up with marbles?

Time’s up!

Now look in envelope #1… How many of these did you remember?! Which features of persuasive writing are the most important? Prioritise them If you do not have them already, write your top three features onto your brainstorm Finally, read through this very famous pre-battle speech from Shakespeare’s play Henry V. Can you spot any examples of the persuasive features that you mentioned? Once more to the breach dear friends…

Hopefully you have now got some ideas on how to write a persuasive speech! You are now working in your groups of 3-4 You have 15 minutes to prepare a persuasive speech that one (or more) of you will deliver to the class. Open Envelope # 2 you have been given and read the speech task Include as many persuasive features that we have looked at as possible! Read the instructions before asking me for help!

People of our great village of Estone, we are in crisis. Already we have heard terrible news of the Great Pestilence ravaging our country! We must decide what we are going to do to stop it! There are many different ideas on what has caused this disease and how we can stop it, but we need to decide which one we believe. In small groups you need to look at the evidence in front of you and prepare a speech on a) What has caused this Plague and b) How we can stop it You need to persuade us that your idea is right! You can choose one person to speak in your group or you can take it in turns. You can use pictures/visual aids if it will help your cause, but you only have 15 minutes to write it… The Black Death is almost upon us! Argue your case and we will have a village vote to decide what we should do. We are relying on you!

STOP & LISTEN!!! We are now going to listen to the speeches. There is NO TIME for you to add anything to your speech! We need to watch our time keeping! There is no time to talk in between each group’s speeches. This is the independent part! You need to give each presentation a comment and grade. It’s what you think, so do not discuss it! You had better listen to the speeches or I will go MENTAL!!!

You will now hear one or two speeches for each point of view. Fill in the chart below, including a comment (can be good or bad) and a mark out of 10 for their speech (with 10 being the most persuasive). You can’t vote for your own group! Name of Group leader What do they believe caused Black Death? CommentMark out of 10

I think the Black Death is caused by ………………………. ……………………………………… I want …………………………… to be our village leader!

What really caused the Plague…?

Foul conditions aided the spread of fleas, rats and germs…

If we do not keep our streets and school clean… The GREAT PLAGUE Could come back!