Year 8 - History - Medieval Times - Analysing sources

There are 10 slides in this lesson.

This lesson is on analysing sources from the Medieval Period.

• Analysing sources by asking ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ questions will help you identify the origin and purpose of the sources.

• Who wrote, produced or made the source?

  −  Is the creator’s personal perspective obvious in the source?

  −  Is the creator a member of a particular group, religion or organisation?

• What type of source is it?

  − Was the source created at the time of the event or afterwards?

• When was the source written, produced or made?

  −  How old is the source?

  −  Is it an eyewitness account or is it

  -  written by someone at a later date?

  −  Is the source complete?

• ×Why was it written or produced?

  ×−  Was it designed to entertain, persuade

  ×or argue a point of view?

  −  Does the creator have anything to gain personally from the source?

  −  What other events may have beenhappening at the time and might have influenced the author or source?

• the historical setting in which they were created.

These factors are important because they provide clues about the perspective of the person who made the source, as well as the attitudes and beliefs that were common at that time.

All sources are influenced by the author’s own point of view. In some cases the author may even have been paid (or compelled) to write in a particular way or to ignore certain facts. This is referred to as bias and is often aimed at persuading the reader to agree with the author’s point of view.

• You must use written quotes or describe what you see to prove that your analysis is correct.
• You will not receive full marks unless you do this.
• “always use quotation marks to identify a quote”

• The Author Geraldine Brookes published this book in 2001  and it is a fictional account of a village in England where an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London. A housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as a healer. It is a fictionalised account of a historical event. Over a period of 14 months, 274 people died out of a total of 350 people.

  The book gives the reader a perspective of life during the black death.

  “George Vickers lay with his head pushed to the side by a lump the size of a new born piglet, a great, shiny, yellow-purple knob of pulsing flesh” page 42

  * This quote demonstrates that the book is describing the experiences of the Black Plague.

• Purpose what is the purpose of this painting - example for students to work on.