Elizabeth I – Online Lesson Plan

Learning Outcome:

• To gain an insight into the early life of Elizabeth I.
• To understand why Elizabeth had portraits painted of herself at intervals during her reign.
• To have some idea of what Elizabeth may have looked like and to appreciate that ‘what you see is not always what you get.’
• To understand that Elizabeth’s portraits were a form of propaganda – designed to make her subjects view her as strong, brave, virginal, caring etc.

Skills Developed:

• Chronology and historical terms; Knowledge and Understanding; Interpretation of sources, evaluation.

Introduction:

Remind pupils to read instructions carefully and to ask for help if they do not understand.

When ready, click on ‘Begin Lesson’.

(Duration: 2 minutes)

Part 1:

Pupils to read page about Elizabeth’s early life.

(Duration: 4 minutes)

Part 2:

They then complete a quiz to check their understanding.

(Duration: 4 minutes)

Part 3:

Pupils move on to an explanation about why Elizabeth had portraits of herself painted at intervals during her reign. They are also told why the portraits had to impress her subjects.

(Duration: 5 minutes)

Part 4:

The next page gives a description of what Elizabeth really looked like.

(Duration: 4 minutes)

Part 5:

Pupils are now shown an enlarged version of the Armada Portrait. A multi choice quiz is used to help pupils work out what the picture is saying. Some of the answers are intentionally obvious to allow all pupils to succeed.

(Duration: 6 minutes)

Part 6:

This can be used to go over answers as a whole class.

Pupils could be allowed to play some of the history games on this site.

Further historical research could be done using the pages on this site or from the A-Z of History.

(Duration: 20 minutes)