The Mystery of Anastasia – Online Lesson Plan

Learning Outcome:

• To develop an understanding of who Anastasia was.
• To have a basic knowledge of the members of the Romanoff family and their lives.
• To have some knowledge of what happened to the Russian royal family after the revolution of 1917.
• To be familiar with the Anna Anderson Case.
• To be able to recognise bias and see how it can be used to persuade people to one point of view.
• To formulate an opinion based on opposing biased statements.
• To write an essay.

Skills Developed:

• Chronology and historical terms
• Knowledge and Understanding
• Interpretation of sources
• Recognition of bias
• Communication and Understanding.

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 through the Facts about Anastasia.

(Duration: 5 minutes)

Part 2:

Pupils to complete the paragraph by choosing the correct missing words from the list.

(Duration: 5 minutes)

Part 3:

Pupils read through an explanation of who Anna Anderson was.

(Duration: 5 minutes)

Part 4:

The next two pages offer biased evidence.

The evidence on the first page suggests that Anderson was Anastasia, while the evidence on the second page suggests that she was an imposter.

Clicking on the word document at the bottom of the page will open a comparative table in a separate window for pupils to complete. They may need some additional explanation about how to minimise the Word table using the horizontal bar at the top right of the screen while they are reading the evidence.

Part 5:

Pupils read through the first page of evidence and fill in their table.

NB – Instructions are not given as to whether pupils should cut and paste the information or should re-write in their own words. If you wish your pupils to specifically use one method or the other you will have to instruct them on this.

(Duration: 10 minutes)

Part 6:

Pupils read through the second page of evidence and fill in their table.

(Duration: 10 minutes)

Part 7:

The next page shows information that has been cut and pasted from the two sets of information.
The first part is taken from Anna Anderson 1, and the second from Anna Anderson 2.

Pupils are told that the reason for this is that the evidence is biased. They can then vote for Anna Anderson as Anastasia or an imposter.

(Duration: 5 minutes)

Part 8:

Pupils are given details of the court cases which debated the Anna Anderson case.

(Duration: 5 minutes)

Part 9:

Pupils write an essay using either the Word frame provided or a blank Word document.

(Duration: 20 minutes)