Reading Time: 6 minutes

 

Title of Lesson: The Black Death in Medieval Spain 
Name: Emma Loog Age Group: Grade 9-10

 

1. Learning Objectives: What do I want the students to learn?

  1. Students will be able to define what the Black Death is, how it spread, and the basic science behind the plague.
  2. Students will be able to identify the impact that the Black Death had on the citizens and the communities in medieval Spain.
  3. Students will be able to distinguish between the practices that were used to prevent the spread of the plague, to those used today to prevent the spread of disease.
  4. Students will be able to compare and contrast the beliefs and practices around diseases from the medieval time period and the 21st century.
  5. Students will be able to demonstrate and understand how the evolution of science changes such beliefs and practices.
  6. Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the information provided by completing a comprehensive response.
  7. Students will be able to show the amount of knowledge that was learned by completing a quiz.

 

2. Assessment: How will the students show their learning and how will I determine if it was successful?

How will the students demonstrate their learning?

 

The students will be required to write a quiz that will demonstrate their understanding of the information that was presented to them in the PowerPoint lecture. In addition, they will write a response to one of the practices that were believed to help stop the spread of the plague during the medieval times.  The response should include the specific practice that is discussed and an analysis of if it is based on science or religion. They should also compare it to modern day practices that are used with preventing the spread of disease.

 How will I track their success?

 

I will track their success by their grade of the quiz that was written and by the quality and understanding that is demonstrated in the responses to the practices used to prevent the spread of the Black Death.

3. Prerequisite Knowledge: What do the students need to know before we start?

The students need to have some background knowledge about the medieval times; however, it does not need to be specific to medieval Spain. They will need to know how to study history and understand it. The students may also need to know the background of some religions including Catholicism, Judaism, and Islamic. By having this knowledge, it will make the lesson easier to understand and more specific to the subject. For example, instead of focusing on the different religions or going into too much detail of the medieval time period the lesson can focus more on how the black death impacted the people living in medieval Spain. In order to write a proper response as one of the activities they will need to have knowledge of how to write a proper paragraph while using correct grammar and spelling.

 

4.  Supplies Needed: What supplies do I need for this lesson?

  1. Computer and projector (to show PowerPoint)
  2. Access to the PowerPoint itself
  3. Primary resources discussing practice to prevent the spread of disease
  4. A worksheet that outlines the criteria for the response with a marking rubric
  5. Paper, pens, pencils (for notetaking during PowerPoint)
  6. A quiz for the next day to evaluate learning

 

5. Layout of Lesson:

Total Allotted Time: 30 minutes for the PowerPoint presentation and notetaking, 1 hour to choose specific practice and write the response, 30 minutes the next day to write the quiz. Total time of lesson = 2 hours.

Set Up:

What do I need to do prior to beginning my lesson?

 I will need to set up the computer with a projector to show the PowerPoint. I will also need to have researched and have copies of primary sources that explain the practices that were believed to help stop the spread of the plague for the students to choose from and write their response about. I will need to photocopy the right amount of copies of the worksheet and the quiz for the class.
Hook:

How will I attract the attention of the students and make this learning worthwhile?

  I believe that the hook to this lesson will be the different beliefs and practices that were used to prevent the plague. Some of the beliefs and practices were quite ridiculous as science was not as evolved as it is now. I think that the students will be interested to know how people in medieval Spain thought that they could protect themselves from the black death.
Lesson:

How will I present the information they need to learn?

  In order to present the information, I will create a PowerPoint to go along with a lecture that will include all of the information needed for the quiz the next day.
Activity:

How will the students demonstrate their learning?

  The students will have a quiz on the information that was covered in class regarding the impact of the black death and the beliefs surrounding it in medieval Spain. They will also be expected to write a response to one of the ways the people of medieval Spain believed would protect them from the plague.
Conclusions:

How will I end the activity?

  The activity will end when the one hour is up; however, students who did not finish may take it home for homework. The students who do finish can hand their responses in to the teacher as they finish them.
Review and Summary:

How will I summarize the learning and affirm that the students understood?

  To summarize the lesson I will get all of the students attention and get them to share what they learned and then I will explain how it is important to know about the medieval times during the black plague because it shows how much science has evolved especially in times like these.

 

Bibliography

Constable, O. R. (Ed.), (2012). 73. Memoirs of a Castilian women. Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish sources. (2nd ed., pp. 427-434). University of Pennsylvania Press.

These memoirs were written by Doña Leonor López de Córdoba. She was a Castilian Noblewoman who was taken prisoner by Enrique II along with her family. She was held captive with her family and survived the outbreak of the black death in the jail which killed most of her family. The memoirs are a description of her life as she was imprisoned then when she was released it describes how she survived the black death. It describes the hardships that she went through during this time period.

This source provides insight on the life of a noblewomen during the time period of the plague. It demonstrates how the fear of contracting the disease changed how people in medieval Spain treated others when that fear was instilled into them. It also brings into consideration just how many lives were lost and how many people were affected by the Black Death.

 

Aberth, J. (2005). Regimen of protection against epidemics. The black death: The great mortality of 1348-1350, a brief history in documents. (pp. 51-55). Palgrave Macmillan.

This letter was written by a physician and a professor of the University of Lerida who addressed it to the city. It suggests a regimen of prevention when it comes to the concern of the Black Death. Included in the letter are home remedies to prevent the spread and contractility of the plague, along with an explanation to the understanding of the disease itself. It was written to inform the community of medieval times medicine.

This source explains how people in the medieval times viewed science, or rather did not view it at all. Modern day science is completely different than that of back than; however, the same basics are incorporated. This excerpt brings insight on how much the understanding of science has evolved and how it influences our actions and thoughts.

 

Agresta, A. (2020). From purification to protection: Plague response in late medieval Valencia. Speculum, 95(2), 371-395. 10.1086/707682

This article explores how the council in Valencia responded to the spread of the Black Death in the 14th century. The author points out the efforts that the council took to try and control the plague that was overcoming the city.

The source also touches base on the various ways that the disease was looked at in a way of understanding it and how it is spread. It examines the eventual shift in the knowledge of the black death and the understanding of it as time progressed.

 

Vargas, M. (2011). How a “brood of vipers” survived the black death: Recovery and dysfunction in the fourteenth-century Dominican order. Speculum, 86(3), 688-714. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0038713411001151

This source explores the aftereffects of the plague as well as the way people viewed the Black Death. It focused on the social and economic problems that were faced during this time. This article goes into great detail about what happened after the Black Death had gone through medieval Spain.

It also explores the way that the plague was viewed whether that be religiously or scientifically. It shows the progression of the views as the black death continued to spread through medieval Spain. This article provides insight to the eventual shift to a more scientific view of the plague.

 

History. (2020, July 6). Black death. https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/black-death

On this website there are specific details related to the Black Death. This website provides the science behind the Black Death and helps with the understanding of how it started, spread, they symptoms of it, and just general understanding of the disease.

It also shows how over time with the evolution of science our views of diseases and the plague have changed as well. this source provides valid information about the basic of the black death that will help build a foundation within discussions.