LE 6 C DELL’APPRENDIMENTO
APPRENDIMENTO EMOTIVO
PERCORSI INTERDISCIPLINARI
#BOOKTOK e STORYTELLING
DEBATE
NUOVA EDUCAZIONE CIVICA
Silvia
Ballabio Alessandra Brunetti
Voices
in Literature, Art and Global Issues
From the Origins to the New Millennium
Attività con IA
Costruire il futuro insieme
Il
Gruppo Editoriale ELi
offre proposte editoriali che coprono tutti i gradi e i rami scolastici, all’insegna della qualità, del rigore e dell’innovazione.
INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE
Percorsi didattici con attività pratiche che mirano ad approfondire i principali strumenti di IA generativa per favorirne un utilizzo critico e consapevole.
EQUILIBRI
Progetto di ricerca costante che mira a eliminare gli stereotipi di genere nei testi scolastici ponendo particolare attenzione alla scelta dei contenuti, a una valutazione iconografica ragionata e all’utilizzo di un linguaggio testuale inclusivo.
INCLUSIONE
Sviluppo di una cultura dell’inclusione attraverso contenuti accessibili e adeguati ai diversi stili di apprendimento.
ORIENTAMENTO
Approccio educativo e formativo volto a favorire la conoscenza di sé, delle proprie attitudini e delle proprie capacità, oltre a sviluppare le competenze non cognitive e trasversali necessarie per le scelte del futuro.
EDUCAZIONE
CIVICA secondo le NUOVE Linee guida
Aggiornamento e ampliamento dei nuclei tematici attorno ai quali si articolano le competenze e gli obiettivi di apprendimento: Costituzione, Sviluppo economico e sostenibilità, Cittadinanza digitale
STEM/STEAM, CLIL
Attivazione del pensiero scientifico e computazionale, approccio interdisciplinare e laboratoriale, sviluppo della competenza multilinguistica, attraverso attività STEM, STEAM e CLIL.
DIGITALE
Acquisizione delle competenze digitali e dell’alfabetizzazione informatica come aiuto all’inclusione sociale e alla cittadinanza attiva.
EDUCAZIONE ALLE RELAZIONI
Percorsi incentrati sullo sviluppo di competenze relazionali che arricchiscono la consapevolezza del vissuto personale in relazione con la realtà circostante.
Gruppo Editoriale
ELi
Il piacere di apprendere
GLI APPROFONDIMENTI
Gli approfondimenti presentano temi utili per lo sviluppo di una cittadinanza consapevole e per il colloquio dell’Esame di Stato attraverso lo stimolo del pensiero critico
• Across time and space: affinità tra fenomeni storici, sociali o letterari lontani fra loro nel tempo e nello spazio.
• Rights for all: il tema dei diritti e della sostenibilità in riferimento ai Global Goals 2030.
• The arts: opere artistiche significative per la comprensione del periodo storico-letterario e dei suoi protagonisti.
• Women that made history: figure di grandi donne che hanno dato un contributo fondamentale allo sviluppo della storia e cultura del loro tempo.
• Films for thought: film e serie TV per immedesimarsi, emozionarsi e approfondire temi e personaggi.
LE ATTIVITÀ CREATIVE
• StoryTelling: l’arte del narrare per acquisire consapevolezza del proprio processo di apprendimento attraverso strategie che favoriscono l’immedesimazione e suggerimenti per un uso consapevole dell‘IA.
• #BookTok: la letteratura per young adults si mette al servizio dei valori universali trasmessi dalla letteratura tradizionale attraverso i suggerimenti di giovani lettori.
L’ATTIVITÀ DIDATTICA
L’offerta didattica di Voices è multifunzionale e altamente inclusiva
• In action: attività per un coinvolgimento attivo su lingua, contenuti e temi presenti in pagina.
• Check out: esercizi di comprensione a risposta chiusa, aperta e con alcuni esempi sul modello delle certificazioni FIRST, IELTS e della prova INVALSI
• Web quest: una personale ricerca online per approfondire autori, opere o temi.
• Thinking routine: attività di analisi e riflessione su immagini a confronto.
• Debate: la classe, divisa in due gruppi, si confronta e dibatte su un tema portante attraverso pro e contro.
• Mediation: attività di passaggio da una lingua/cultura ad un‘altra.
• Project: organizzazione e realizzazione di un progetto su un tema proposto.
• Survey making: organizzazione e realizzazione di una indagine conoscitiva.
Particolare attenzione è posta all’attività didattica relativa ai brani antologici:
• Step in: attività che prevede un video di Emotional learning per un’introduzione emozionale al brano, seguita da un esercizio di pre-comprensione.
• Understand: capire quanto viene detto nel brano.
• Analyse: analizzare personaggi, temi e caratteristiche stilistiche del brano.
• Interpret: interpretare personalmente il brano, anche con attività di discuss, debate e work creative
Voices • Contenuti digitali integrativi
Voices Compact offre un ricco apparato digitale per consolidare e ampliare l’apprendimento e potenziare la competenza digitale.
VIDEOPRESENTAZIONI
Video introduttivi in apertura di capitolo, contesto e per ogni autrice e autore con attività di Flipped classroom
POWERPOINT
Lezioni in PowerPoint che identificano gli aspetti fondamentali di avvenimenti e personaggi del periodo.
ANALISI VISUALI
Per tutti i testi antologizzati sono disponibili analisi per un apprendimento visuale
ANALISI INTERATTIVE
• Di un’ampia selezione di brani antologici.
• Di un’ampia selezione di opere artistiche.
MAPPE INTERATTIVE
Tutte le Mind map sono modificabili e espandibili per favorire una didattica realmente inclusiva.
VIDEO DI BOOKTOK
Suggerimenti di lettura fatti da e rivolti a young adults
MATERIALI EXTRA
Voices offre numerosi documenti di approfondimento su temi, personaggi, autrici e autori, opere. Il canone letterario si arricchisce di nuovi contributi ampliando l’offerta autoriale e antologica.
PER L’INCLUSIONE
• Un’ampia selezione di esercizi a risposta chiusa sono resi interattivi con autocorrezione per l’autovalutazione e l’apprendimento.
• Tutti i testi antologici e i commenti negli Study Booster sono registrati.
PER L‘APPROFONDIMENTO
balance as ideals towards the perfectly rational man and society of the Enlightenment a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that revolutionised art, philosophy, and politics. The method of reason was applied to religion itself in Deism which believes in the existence of one God on the basis of reason and evidence. Deists saw God as a sort of architect who administered rewards and punishments, and they believed in the need for humans to be virtuous and pious.
The two dominant genres of the age were satire and the realistic novel
Literary models
• The Classics and his noble suicide, emperor Augustus was viewed as an ideal ruler, at the head of a powerful empire that the English were replicating in an important patron
The France of Louis XIV (1643–1715), the Sun King, and Louis XV (1715–74) offered the model of Voltaire (1694–(1689–1755), who helped to spread the ideas of tolerance, democracy Encyclopédie of was a showcase for the Enlightenment and its ideas; it was the result of and they appreciated clear and precise language. The helped to increase the number of potential readers among the urban middle classes. Neoclassical theories, with their focus on “clarity,
Non-fiction prose
Study Booster : uno strumento digitale utile per l’approfondimento della competenza letteraria, con i commenti dettagliati di tutti i testi antologici (Your text explained). Sono presenti inoltre una trattazione cronologica dei generi letterari (Genres ) e la Seconda prova dell’Esame di Stato; sono proposti infine testi e attività utili per l’Orientamento
1 FROM THE ORIGINS TO THE MIDDLE AGES
• Doggerland • Stonehenge • The Celts
• The Norman Conquest • The feudal system
• Magna Carta
PPT • The Origins: History and Society
• The Middle Ages: History and Society
PDF • Royal dynasties: The Normans • The Plantagenets
• StoryTelling: My father, King Alfred the Great
PDF Rights of today
• Anglo-Saxon prose • Anglo-Saxon poetry
PPT The Origins: Literature and Culture
Beowulf PPT Beowulf
PDF • Full plot • Beowulf: a long-lasting hero • Beowulf, epic or elegiac? • Across time and space: Heroes and anti-heroes • They would kill me • The wanderer Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
• Medieval literature • Romances • Ballads
PPT The Middle Ages: Literature and Culture
PDF • The Cuckoo Song • Films for thought: Knights and ladies, what a passion! • Rights for all: Poverty, the greatest evil of all times • Across time and space: Are pilgrimages and crusades here to stay?
• Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur DT1 The sword in the stone Medieval drama
2 THE RENAISSANCE AND THE PURITAN AGE
• Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy • Elizabeth I’s reign • Defeat of the Spanish Armada
• James I’s Bible • The Pilgrim Fathers
• Execution of Charles I during the Civil War
PDF History narrated: The Tudors and the first Stuarts
PPT The Renaissance and the Puritan Age: History and Society
PDF Royal dynasties • The Tudors • The Stuarts
• The English Renaissance • The sonnet
PPT The Renaissance and the Puritan Age: Literature and Culture
PDF • The courtier
• Edmund Spenser DT4 Ye tradeful Merchants Renaissance drama
The Jacobean and Puritan Age
Christopher Marlowe and Doctor Faustus
PDF Full plot Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
William Shakespeare and the Globe
PPT William Shakespeare Shakespeare’s Sonnets
PDF DT5 Let me not to the marriage of true minds
PDF • Visual analysis
• Translation
• Interactive analysis PDF • Visual analysis • Translation
PDF • Visual analysis
• Translation
Shakespeare’s plays PPT Shakespeare’s plays
PDF Julius Caesar DT6 Brutus’ speech
PDF • Full plot • DT7 Goodbye, my lord
PDF Visual analysis Interactive analysis
PDF • Full plot • DT8 The magic juice
PDF Visual analysis
PDF • Full plot • The three pigs and the three avengers
• Hamlet in the bush • The hero and the foil
• DT9 Remember me
PDF Visual
PDF • Full plot • Witchcraft and King James
• DT10 The dagger scene
John Donne and Songs and Sonnets and Holy Sonnets
PDF DT11 A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
analysis PDF • Visual analysis • Translation
3 THE RESTORATION AND THE AUGUSTAN AGE
LITERATURE AND CULTURE
• The Restoration • The Glorious Revolution
• The Bill of Rights • The Jacobite rebellions
• The War of the Spanish Succession • The War of the Austrian Succession • The Seven Years’ War • The Act of Union
PPT The Restoration and the Augustan Age: History and Society
PDF Royal dynasties: The Hanoverians
The Restoration Age
PPT The Restoration and the Augustan Age: Literature and Culture
• The Augustan Age
• ‘The Tatler’ and ‘The Spectator’
PDF • The Ancients vs the Moderns
• Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock DT12 Belinda’s toilet DT13 The mortal offence
The novel
PDF • Samuel Richardson, Clarissa DT14 Clarissa’s death • Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy DT15 Tristram’s breeches
William Congreve and The Way of the World
PDF The Way of the World: full plot
PDF Visual analysis
Aphra Behn and Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave
PDF • Full plot • Slave trade through the centuries
PDF Visual analysis
Daniel Defoe and Robinson Crusoe
PPT Daniel Defoe
PDF A Journal of the Plague Year DT16 Shutting people in their homes
PDF • Full plot • Robinson Crusoe, the economic man
PDF Visual analysis
Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Jonathan Swift and Gulliver’s Travels
PPT Jonathan Swift
PDF Swift, politics and satire
PDF • Full plot
• Gulliver’s travels DT17 Yahoos and Houyhnhnms
PDF Visual analysis Interactive analysis
Visual analysis
THE ROMANTIC AGE
The American Revolution • The French Revolution • The First Industrial Revolution
PPT The Romantic Age: History and Society
PDF History narrated: The age of revolutions
Pre-Romanticisim
PPT The Romantic Age: Literature and Culture
PDF • Thomas Gray DT18 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
• Robert Burns DT19 Auld Lang Syne DT20 A Red, Red Rose
• Sir Walter Scott, Waverly DT21 The Highlander
The Romantic movement
PDF The good and brutal savage
WORKS
Romantic poetry
PDF Romantic poets redefine poetry
Romantic fiction
PDF Social conventions in the early 19th century
William Blake and Songs of Innocence and of Experience
PDF • DT22 The Blossom • DT23 The Sick Rose
PDF • Visual analysis
• Translation
PDF • Visual analysis • Translation Interactive analysis PDF • Visual analysis
• Translation
William Wordsworth and Lyrical Ballads
PPT William Wordsworth
PDF DT24 The new poetry DT25 My heart leaps up DT26 Tintern Abbey
Interactive analysis PDF • Visual analysis
• Translation
PDF • Visual analysis • Translation
Samuel T. Coleridge and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
PPT Samuel T. Coleridge
PDF • Full plot • The mystery of a sea story
• The Rime, a Reverie
Interactive analysis PDF • Visual analysis • Translation
PDF • Visual analysis • Translation
PDF • Visual analysis
• Translation
George G. Bryon, the Grand Tour and the Byronic hero
Interactive analysis PDF • Visual analysis • Translation
Percy B. Shelley and Ode to the West Wind
• Visual analysis
• Translation
PDF Full poem PDF • Visual analysis
• Translation
John Keats and Ode on a Grecian Urn
PPT John Keats
Interactive analysis PDF • Visual analysis
PDF • Visual analysis
• Translation
• Translation
Ann Radcliffe and The Mysteries of Udolpho
COLD WAR AGE
• The Cold War • The Moon landing
• The Fall of the Berlin Wall • The Marshall Plan and the EU • Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister
PPT The Cold War Age: History and Society
PDF Why did the Berlin Wall fall in 1989?
PDF Royal dynasties: The House of Windsor
AUTHORS AND WORKS John
• Literature in the UK
PPT The Cold War Age: Literature and Culture
PDF • A. Carter, The Bloody Chamber DT62 The Werewolf • P. Larkin DT63 Mr Bleaney • T. Hughes DT64 The Thought Fox • H. Pinter, The Caretaker DT65 Friends forever?
• Literature in the USA
PDF • J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye DT66 Name something you’d like to be • S. Plath, Ariel Collection DT67 Daddy • A. Sexton DT68 Ringing the Bells • A. Ginsberg DT69 Howl
The sci-fi heritage • P.K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? DT70 Human or non-human?
• R. Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 DT71 The Book People
• Literature in English
PDF • N. Gordimer, July’s People DT72 We are all prejudiced • K. Das, The Descendants DT73 The White Flowers • V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas DT74 The new house • A. Munro, Dance of the Happy Shades DT75 Flora • P. White, Voss DT76 Voss’ death J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings
PDF Full plot Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Doris Lessing and The Grass Is Singing
PPT Doris Lessing PDF Full plot
Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Samuel Beckett and Waiting for Godot
PPT Samuel Beckett PDF Full plot
Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Seamus Heaney and Death of a Naturalist
Interactive analysis PDF • Visual analysis • Translation
Jack Kerouac and On the Road PPT Jack Kerouac
PDF Full plot Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Flannery O’Connor and The Life You Save May Be Your Own
PPT Flannery O’Connor
PDF Full plot Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Alice Walker and The Color Purple
PDF Full plot Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
PDF •
PPT
W. Soyinka and Telephone Conversation
J.M. Coetzee and Waiting for the Barbarians
THE NEW MILLENNIUM
• The Twin Towers attack • The 2008 world economic crisis • Brexit • The Covid-19 pandemic
• Migration • A new Cold War?
PPT The New Millennium: History and Society
PDF Royal dynasties: The House of Windsor
AUTHORS
AND WORKS
Ian
Literature in the New Millennium
PPT The New Millennium: Literature and Culture
PDF • Z. Smith, NW DT78 Faces in London • P. Auster, The Invention of Solitude DT79 A man hidden inside • J.S. Foer, Everything Is Illuminated DT80 Myself and my family
Ian McEwan and Enduring Love
PPT Ian McEwan PDF Full plot
Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Hilary Mantel and Wolf Hall
PPT Hilary Mantel PDF Full plot
Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Kazuo Ishiguro and Never Let Me Go
PDF Full plot PDF Visual analysis
Toni Morrison and Home
PDF Beloved DT81 Sethe’s memories
PDF Full plot PDF Visual analysis
Cormac McCarthy and The Road
PPT Cormac McCarthy
PDF Blood Meridian DT82 War endures. War is.
PDF • Full plot
• DT83 You have to carry the fire
Interactive analysis PDF Visual analysis
Don DeLillo and Underworld
PDF Falling Man DT84 The towers fell. The world changed.
PDF Full plot
Derek Walcott and Omeros
PDF Sea Grapes DT85 Love After Love
PDF • Visual analysis • Translation
Margaret Atwood and The Handmaid’s Tale
1
FROM THE ORIGINS TO THE MIDDLE AGES (6th
century–1485)
THE IDEA OF THE TIME
THINKING
Invasion and conquest
1 Look at the images; how do you think that the people involved in the two historical events were feeling? Choose from among the following: afraid for their lives • excited • proud • scared • tense • in danger • united • strong • weak
2 Answer the questions.
The D-Day landing
1 What does the photo show?
2 Which perspective was the photo taken from?
3 The Normans left from Normandy to conquer Britain, and the Allied troops left from Britain to (re)conquer France. Both invasions were legitimate in the eyes of those who led them. Is there a ‘right of conquest’, or is any invasion a form of violation?
The Bayeux Tapestry
ROUTINE Interactive analysis
4 What do the wavy lines indicate?
5 Are the human figures outlined according to perspective?
6 The words in Latin mean ‘and [W illiam] came to Pevensey.’ Do they match the scene? Why?/Why not?
7 William’s ship carries a banner, the Pope’s, with a cross inside it and another inside that. What was its aim, in your opinion?
Which is which?
3 Conqueror, or conquered? Choose.
1 the Aztec Empire:
2 Alexander the Great:
3 Genghis Khan:
4 the US natives:
5 Julius Caesar:
Key words
• invasion = an army entering a country or region for conquest
• conquest = taking a country or region by force
▲ D-Day landing, 6th June 1944, World War II
US army troops disembark from their landing craft during the D-Day landing, and approach Normandy’s ‘Omaha’ Beach, France. They have to advance through water while carrying their weapons. The D-Day landing was a strategic moment in the Allied forces’ attempt to reconquer France and free it and then Europe from Nazi occupation.
LEARNING DIGITAL
Interactive mind maps
Visual mapping of key ideas
Interactive ideas for your map
Key ideas of contexts, authors and works
Interactive texts
A detailed analysis of texts
Video presentations
Overviews of contexts, authors and works
Emotional learning
Stepping in texts through moods and emotions
#BookTok
Discover top trending book recommendations
PPT PowerPoint presentations
A step-by-step presentation of contexts and main authors
Listening
Listening tasks, tracks of all texts and of their comments
PDF Visual analysis of texts
Key features of texts made clear
Text bank
Extra texts of authors
Depth-in bank
Learning/reading more about contexts, authors and works
The 70 scenes of the Bayeux Tapestry represent the events leading up to the invasion of Britain by William Duke of Normandy ‘The Conqueror’ in 1066. He claimed that he had a right to the English throne and crossed the Channel to claim it.
This scene represents ‘The crossing’ with William’s boats before landing at Pevensey, near Hastings, where he defeated the AngloSaxons, and conquered Britain.
▼ The Bayeux Tapestry (1073–83)
AND SOCIETY Key Facts Migrations and invasions
12.000 BCE–1200 BCE
• Doggerland
• Stonehenge
• The Celts
• The Norman Conquest
• The feudal system
• Magna Carta
• The Origins: History and Society
• The Middle Ages: History and Society
• History narrated: Migrations and invasions ( Digital resources, Study Booster)
• Royal dynasties: The Normans
• Royal dynasties: The Plantagenets
• StoryTelling: My father, King Alfred the Great
THE FIRST INHABITANTS
Some 20,000 years ago sea levels started to rise, covering part of ‘Doggerland’, the narrow piece of land that joined Britain to mainland Europe. Around 6,200 BCE a huge underwater landslide off the coast of Norway created an enormous tsunami, definitively cutting Britain off from Europe. The surviving Ancient Britons built special monuments for the dead and stone circles, like Stonehenge, probably for religious ceremonies. Different peoples continued to migrate for centuries and gradually cleared the forests to make more and more land for crops and animals.
IN ACTION
English in action
1 Choose the correct alter native.
1 to migrate = to leave / stay in your country
2 to separate = to cut out / off
3 to clear a forest = to let it grow / cut it down
4 to raid = to defend / attack
5 to subdue = to subjugate / represent
6 to own = to sell / possess
7 to commission = to order / refuse
8 to claim = to desire / say one has a right to something
9 to summon = to request the presence / absence of
871–1066
THE CELTS
The Celts probably began raiding the British coasts during the early Iron Age; one of these tribes, the Gaels, reached the west and south-west of Britain, where they created a distinct Celtic-British culture, introducing the Celtic language. The Celts were a warlike people organised into clans led by a chief; the chief was elected by the descendants of the preceding chiefs. Clans were united with other clans into tribes guided by a leader Celtic women could choose their husbands freely, own property such as jewellery, cattle and land, carry weapons and fight. The Celtic religion, which was based on the natural elements, was in the hands of Druids, an educated class of powerful priests. The Celts made jewellery decorated with repetitive patterns and spirals. Their literature was passed down orally; bards sang verses celebrating the Celts’ ancient world full of magic, heroes, gods and marvellous birds and beasts. 1200–c. 50 BCE
1066
THE KINGDOM OF WESSEX
Alfred the Great, the King of Wessex, defeated the Viking King, Guthrum, at the Battle of Edington in 878. Alfred established law and government, and in 890 he commissioned the compilation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle ( p. 26). Alfred’s son Edward the Elder and his daughter Aethelflaed ( p. 23) completed the ring of fortresses around Wessex and Mercia, and in 912, they won back Essex, East Anglia and other Danelaw territories from the Vikings. This was the first step towards the unification of the four Kingdoms of Wessex, Northumbria, Mercia and East Anglia, which came during Edward the Confessor’s reign (1042–1066).
THE NORMANS
On Edward the Confessor’s death William, Duke of Normandy (1028–1087), claimed the throne; he won the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and was proclaimed King William I (or the Conqueror). The new language of the court and government became Norman French, the dialect spoken by the invaders. A survey, called The Domesday Book (1086), was carried out to gain accurate knowledge of the new dominions. The Normans introduced feudalism. The lords (or barons) received land – the fief (feudo) – from the king. The clergy could also own land, the knights were the best soldiers serving the nobility. The peasants rented land, while serfs were landless but tied to the land. When Richard I the Lionheart (1157–99) died in France
ROMAN BRITAIN
Julius Caesar invaded Britain twice (55 and 54 BCE), but the conquest of Britannia was completed only in 43 CE under Emperor Claudius. In 60 BCE Queen Boudicca ( p. 23) of the Iceni tribe led a rebellion that ended with the massacre of the Britons. By 77, the Romans controlled most of the island. They were unable to subdue Scotland, and in 122 they started building Hadrian’s Wall. They built roads and canals, cleared the land and created large areas for farming. Gradually, Britannia adopted Roman law and ways, and with them Latin. Towns were built following Roman architecture; soon London (Londinium) became the administrative capital. Christianity was introduced into Britain by Alban, a Roman soldier and martyr.
ANGLO-SAXON SETTLEMENT
In 410 the Romans left Britannia and the Germanic tribes of the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes from Northern Europe and Scandinavia subdued the Romanised Britons; they pushed the Celtic tribes mainly to the west (to Cornwall and Wales), and to the north. The Anglo-Saxons were organised in families and united into tribes. Each tribe was under the leadership of a chieftain – the ‘cyning’ (‘king’). During the 7th and 8th centuries, larger kingdoms, traditionally known as Wessex, Mercia, Northumbria, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, and Sussex were created and by 850 three large kingdoms, Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex, were consolidated. With the Anglo-Saxons no one, not even the cyning, owned land, but landholders had to participate in the national army and to assist with building or repairing fortifications or bridges. Anglo-Saxon women had property rights but were subject to the authority of men. The Anglo-Saxons were pagan and polytheistic: they believed in supernatural entities like elves, monsters and dragons. In 597, Pope Gregory I sent a monk, Augustine, to convert the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian faith Churches, cathedrals and monasteries were built and written culture in Latin started.
The 12th – 15th centuries
in 1199 his brother John (1166–1216) became king as John I Lackland. When he decided to raise taxes in 1214 his most powerful barons forced him to sign Magna Carta at Runnymede on June 15, 1215 ( p. 24). John’s successor, Henry III, was imprisoned by Simon de Montfort, who summoned two knights and two citizens to sit in the assembly of noble men and clergy members. Edward I, Henry III’s successor, (1239–1307), summoned two representatives of the burgher class from every town and two knights from every shire (today’s county), and he included them in the Great Council which served as Parliament, called the Model Parliament. This established the principle of representation of certain groups from the common people for the first time.
8th–10th centuries
THE VIKINGS’ INVASION
The Vikings, expert sailors from today’s Denmark, Norway and Sweden, began raiding the coasts of Britain in about 700; in 793 they destroyed Lindisfarne monastery, the most important centre of Christianity in Northumbria. By the end of the 870s they controlled Danelaw, a vast territory that extended across the entire northeastern area of England.
THE CONSTITUTIONS OF CLARENDON AND THE BLACK DEATH
Henry II of Anjou (1133–1189), the first king of the Plantagenet dynasty, ascended the throne in 1154. His decision to adapt a body of laws known as the Constitutions of Clarendon brought him into conflict with Thomas à Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who feared the Church would be deprived of its rights and independence. In 1770 he was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral, which became a place of pilgrimage.
The Black Death, a bubonic disease from Asia, struck Europe in the 14th century, and reached Britain in 1348 causing terror, the loss of between one third and a half of the population, and enormous social and economic changes.
The century was also tormented by wars, with the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) on the continent, and in England the Wars of the Roses (1455–1485) between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, two noble families who contested the royal succession.
The Yorkist King Richard III was defeated by the Lancastrian Henry Tudor in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
Vikings
(2013–2020, six seasons plus a 2022 spin-off Vikings: Valhalla) Vikings was generally inspired by the 13th century Nordic sagas about legendary Viking chieftain Ragnar Lothbrok and his descendants. He is a Viking warrior and farmer who wants to explore and raid more and more lands, and the series opens with one of the most significant events in the Viking invasion, the raid and destruction of Lindisfarne monastery in 793.
FILMS FOR THOUGHT
We all love a good fight!
The two series Vikings and The Last Kingdom give a fascinating view of the Anglo-Saxon-Viking long-lasting conflict, their cultures and values. The popularity of the TV series lies in people’s fascination with the myths of the birth of a nation, swords, epic battles and the fight for freedom.
The Last Kingdom (2015–2022, five seasons plus a 2023 sequel)
The Last Kingdom, an adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s novels The Saxon Stories, is set around 800–900, when King Alfred’s Wessex stands alone, resisting the invading Danes. Uhtred, born a Saxon but raised by Vikings, is a fictional character in this violent era. In the hope of regaining his home, he decides to unite with King Alfred to combat the continuous Viking incursions. The dream of a single kingdom, England, appears for the first time in history.
SURVEY MAKING
1 Organise a survey about the popularity of a TV series with teenagers, especially one about a mythical past with epic battles. The purpose of the survey is to understand what makes a TV series popular with young people.
Step 1 Prepare at least five questions. Use either multiple-choice questions, or a 1 to 5 scale (from ’very bad’ to ‘excellent’), for example:
Multiple-choice question
How old are you? a 15 or younger b between 16–17 c 18 or older
1–5 scale question
How good is the acting in the TV series? 1 2 3 4 5 very badnot so badsatisfyinggoodexcellent
Step 2 Give out your questions to as many teenagers as you can.
Step 3 Compare your findings; which age group (a, b, or c) is fonder of the TV series, and why?
WOMEN THAT MADE HISTORY
They said of this...
A free womAn
Britain‘s first women warriors
1 Tacitus reports Boudicca’s actions but also her own words; what is he highlighting about her? IN ACTION
Boudicca, mounted in a chariot with her daughters before her, rode up to clan after clan and delivered her protest: — ‘It was customary, she knew, with Britons to fight under female captaincy; but now she was avenging, not, as a queen of glorious ancestry, her ravished realm and power, but, as a woman of the people, her liberty lost, her body tortured by the lash, the tarnished honour of her daughters.’
(Tacitus, Annals, 114–120 CE)
Boudicca, the warrior Queen
Boudicca (33–61 CE) was the wife of Prasutagus, the Celtic King of the Iceni (a tribe in eastern Britain) and an ally of Rome. On his death in 61 CE, the Romans stopped respecting all the rights of the Iceni. When Boudicca opposed this, she was flogged1 and her two daughters raped2 Consequently, she brought together an army and led an attack that destroyed the Roman towns of Londinium, Camulodunum (Colchester) and Verulamium (St Albans). Over 70,000 Roman citizens died. Boudicca lost the final battle, and it is said that she committed suicide. Her statue shows her and her daughters riding into battle. She is celebrated as a universal symbol of freedom and fight against injustice.
WORK CREATIVE ▶
Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians
Aethelflaed (872?–918 CE) was the daughter of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex. Her marriage with Aethelred, Lord of Mercia, facilitated an alliance between Mercia and Wessex, the last Saxon kingdom to resist a complete Viking victory. When Aethelflaed’s husband died, she became ‘the Lady of the Mercians’, de facto queen of Mercia. She was a brilliant diplomat and made important treaties. She also led armies, built fortresses, beat back Viking attacks and led several successful campaigns into Danelaw. Today, more than 1,100 years after her death, one of the great forgotten figures in British history is emerging from the shadows.
1 flogged: frustata
2 raped: violentate
1 Boudicca’s revolt was ferocious and devastating, but she was the victim of brutal violence, too. Aethelflaed was a military leader, but she also used the art of diplomacy. Write a short text following these guidelines:
• How important is a person’s upbringing in shaping their future choices, including the negative ones? Draw your list of five key factors (parents, friends, gender, wealth, etc.), and compare them.
• Identify the two most mentioned factors, and imagine the life of a person shaped by these factors in a short text, or a cartoon
▲ Statue of Boudicca, Westminster Bridge, London
Statue of Aethelflaed, Tamworth Castle, Staffordshire
RIGHTS FOR ALL Steps to civil rights
▲ This is
of
Magna Carta (1215)
The rights to liberty and to equality represent claims of individual persons against the state, and today they are firmly accepted norms identified in international treaties and conventions. A new type of right, rights to solidarity, which represents claims of peoples and groups against the state, still lacks both legal and political recognition.
The history of democratic institutions in Western Europe is interwoven1 with the struggles for the basic rights of human beings, but much is still unaccomplished2. For this reason, in 2015 world leaders agreed to plan their future development on the basis of the 17 Global Goals, whose purpose is to build a sustainable and fairer world by 2030. Each goal relates to some basic human rights.
Written in 1215, Magna Carta was the first written document to establish rights to liberty. It was an agreement between King John I and the barons; copies of the document were sent out to be read out in each county of England so that everyone knew of its existence. In it, the king was forced to agree to a series of concessions concerning the rights of the community against him, and it also dealt with matters such as the reform of law and justice, trade, taxation, the freedom of the Church and the behaviour of royal officials. Only a few of the 63 clauses in Magna Carta are still of relevance today. It is also remarkable that a Council of Barons was established to enforce Magna Carta; this paved the way3 to an independent Parliament.
1 interwoven: intrecciata 2 unaccomplished: incompiuto, da far si
3 paved the way: spianò la strada
LET’S SUM IT UP!
1 Match each summary (1–4) to the corresponding clause in Magna Carta.
1 People could only be judged according to the law, and even the king himself had to follow the law. A person should be judged by a group of their equals (not by the king or his men).
2 The king could not demand new taxes without first obtaining the approval of the key people in his kingdom.
3 The barons had the right to form a committee of 25 who would monitor the king and take action against him if he failed to honour his agreement.
4 Nobody could be deprived of their rights, or have to pay for their rights, or be made to suffer by waiting for their rights.
2 Answer the questions.
CLAUSE 12 No ‘scutage’ or ‘aid’ may be levied in our kingdom without its general consent, unless it is for the ransom of our person, to make our eldest son a knight, and (once) to marry our eldest daughter. For these purposes only a reasonable ‘aid’ may be levied. ‘Aids’ from the city of London are to be treated similarly.
CLAUSE 39 No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land.
CLAUSE 40 To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.
CLAUSE 61 We give and grant to the barons the following security: The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter. If we, our chief justice, our officials, or any of our servants offend in any respect against any man, or transgress any of the articles of the peace or of this security, and the offence is made known to four of the said twenty-five barons, they shall come to us – or in our absence from the kingdom to the chief justice – to declare it and claim immediate redress. If we, or in our absence abroad the chief justice, make no redress within forty days, reckoning from the day on which the offence was declared to us or to him, the four barons shall refer the matter to the rest of the twenty-five barons, who may distrain upon and assail us in every way possible, with the support of the whole community of the land, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, or anything else saving only our own person and those of the queen and our children, until they have secured such redress as they have determined upon.
1 Which clause establishes the very idea of having inalienable rights, i.e. rights no one can be deprived of?
2 One of these clauses was known as ‘the security clause’ and it was seen as the most radical in keeping the king ‘under the control’ of the barons. Which clause is it? Why?
3 If you have made an offense in Britain today you will be judged by a jury system. Which clause anticipated (at least as a principle) this system?
4 One clause can be interpreted as the anticipation of Parliament. Which one?
one
the four surviving copies of Magna Carta dispatched throughout the kingdom.
Rights of today PDF
LEARNING DIGITAL